Trading Silk for Horses: The Surprisingly Simple Origins of the Silk Road
Trade linked China and the Roman world along the Silk Road, fostering not only commerce but a robust exchange of wisdom and beliefs.
By Carles Buenacasa Pérez
PUBLISHED December 1, 2017
Soft, strong, and shimmering—silk was first cultivated in China, perhaps as early as the mid-third millennium B.C. The art of turning the cocoons of the silkworm moth (Bombyx mori) was, according to legend, discovered by the wife of the Yellow Emperor, a mythical forebear of the tribe that later founded China’s first dynasty, the Xia, in circa 2070 B.C. While she was drinking tea in the shade of a mulberry bush, a cocoon fell into her cup. Instead of throwing it away, she examined it and discovered that pulling on a strand could completely unravel it.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/archaeology-and-history/magazine/2018/01-02/silk-road-history/
