The Silk Road, a term that first appeared at the end of the nineteenth century, refers to that network of caravan tracks traversing Central and West Asia, used to carry trade goods between the East and West from approximately the second century B.C. to the fifteenth century A.D. These tracks were neither a single road nor was silk the only commodity that was carried across them. The termini of the “Road” were said to be Rome in the West and Chang’ an in the East.

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