The Silk Road on the Sea extends from southern China to present day Brunei, Thailand, Malacca, Ceylon, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Iran. In Europe it extends from Israel, Lebanon, Egypt, and Italy in the Mediterranean Sea to Portugal and Sweden.
Cross-continental Travel
As accomplished waterway shipping and domestication of efficient pack animals both increased the capacity for prehistoric peoples to carry heavier loads over greater distances, cultural exchanges and trade developed rapidly. For example, shipping in predynastic Egypt was already established by the 4th millennium BC along with domestication of the donkey, with the dromedary possibly having been domesticated as well. Domestication of the Bactrian camel and use of the horse for means of transport then followed.
As the domestication of efficient pack animals and the development of shipping technology both increased the capacity for prehistoric peoples to carry heavier loads over greater distances, cultural exchanges and trade developed rapidly.
Just as waterways provide easy means for distant transport, broad stretches of grasslands - all the way from the shores of the Pacific to Africa and deep into the heart of Europe - provide fertile passage for grazing, plus water and fuel for caravans. These waterway and overland routes allowed passage that avoided trespassing on agricultural lands, presenting ideal conditions for caravans, merchants and warriors to travel immense distances without arousing the hostility of more settled peoples.
While goods and religious ideas may have communicated greater distances, ancient trade was probably conducted over only sections of the routes. The Silk Road is unlikely to have been travelled in entirety between Africa, Europe or the Middle East and China by land.
The ancient peoples of the Sahara imported domesticated animals from Asia between 7500 and 4000 BC.
Foreign artifacts dating to the 5th millennium BC in the Badarian culture of Egypt indicate contact with distant Syria.
In predynastic Egypt, by the 4th millennium BC shipping was well established, and the donkey and possibly the dromedary had been domesticated. Domestication of the Bactrian camel and use of the horse for transport then followed.
Also by the beginning of the 4th millennium BC, ancient Egyptians in Maadi were importing pottery[7] as well as construction ideas from Canaan.
By the second half of the 4th millennium BC, the gemstone lapis lazuli was being traded from its only known source in the ancient world - Badakshan, in what is now northeastern Afghanistan - as far as Mesopotamia and Egypt. By the 3rd millennium BC, the lapis lazuli trade was extended to Harappa and Mohenjo-daro in the Indus Valley Civilization of modern day Pakistan and northwestern India. The Indus Valley was also known as Meluhha, the earliest maritime trading partner of the Sumerians and Akkadians in Mesopotamia.
Routes along the Persian Royal Road, constructed in the 5th century BC by Darius I of Persia, may have been in use as early as 3500 BC. Charcoal samples found in the tombs of Nekhen, which were dated to the Naqada I and II periods, have been identified as cedar from Lebanon.
In 1994 excavators discovered an incised ceramic shard with the serekh sign of Narmer, dating to circa 3000 BC. Mineralogical studies reveal the shard to be a fragment of a wine jar exported from the Nile valley to Israel.
The ancient harbor constructed in Lothal, India, may be the oldest sea-faring harbour known.
Egyptian Maritime Trade
The Palermo stone mentions King Sneferu of the 4th Dynasty sending ship to import high-quality cedar from Lebanon. In one scene in the pyramid of Pharaoh Sahure of the Fifth Dynasty, Egyptians are returning with huge cedar trees. Sahure's name is found stamped on a thin piece of gold on a Lebanon chair, and 5th dynasty cartouches were found in Lebanon stone vessels. Other scenes in his temple depict Syrian bears. The Palermo stone also mentions expeditions to Sinai as well as to the diorite quarries northwest of Abu Simbel.
The oldest known expedition to the Land of Punt was organized by Sahure, which apparently yielded a quantity of myrrh, along with malachite and electrum. The 12th-Dynasty Pharaoh Senusret III had a "Suez" canal constructed linking the Nile River with the Red Sea for direct trade with Punt.
