Supporting Question 1- What was the "Silk Road"?
- Found in PDF/DOC-Marco Polo, description of Polo’s travels, The Travels of Marco Polo (excerpts), 2004: Public domain. Polo, M., & Rugoff, M. (2004). The Travels of Marco Polo. New York, N.Y: Penguin.
- Found in PDF/DOC-American Museum of Natural History, exhibition description, “Traveling the Silk Road” (excerpts), 2009
- Dmitry Voyakin, description of the Silk Road, “The Great Silk Road,” Silk Road: Dialogue, Diversity & Development, United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, (excerpt), no date https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/knowledge-bank/economy-and-trade/great-silk-road.
Supporting Question 2- Why was silk so important?
- Found in PDF/DOC- Suleiman, description of Suleiman’s 851 C.E. travel through India and China, translated into English by Jerry H. Bentley, Voyage du marchand arabe Sulayman en Inde et en Chine (excerpts), 1922 Bentley, J. H., & Ziegler, H. F. (2006). Traditions & Encounters: A Global Perspective on the Past. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
- Richard Kurin, description of the role, value, and uses of silk, “Silk Road: Connecting People and Cultures” (excerpts), Smithsonian Institute, 2002.
Supporting Question 3- What, besides silk and other goods, was shared on the Silk Road?
- Found in PDF/Doc Friar John of Monte Corvino, historical letter, Letter to the West (excerpts), 1305 Public domain. Henry Yule, ed. and trans., Cathay and the Way Thither, 2nd ed., (rev. by H. Cordier), 4 vols. (London; Hakluyt Society, 1913-1916), pp. 45-51. Reprinted in: Alfred J. Andrea and James H. Overfield, The Human Record: Sources of Global History, 3rd ed., Vol. I: To 1700 (Boston; Houghton Mifflin, 1998) pp. 420-422.
- John Major, description of impact, “Silk Road: Spreading Ideas and Innovations” (excerpt), Asia Society, 2015 http://www.asiasociety.org/countries/trade-exchange/silk-road-spreading-ideas-and-innovations.
- Valerie Hansen, description of the legacy of the Silk Road, “The Legacy of the Silk Road” (excerpt). of the Macmillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale University.
Supporting Question 4- What else could this trade network be called?
- Found in the PDF/DOC Warwick Ball, historian’s essay on the Silk Road, “Following the Mythical Road”(excerpts), Geographical (Campion Interactive Publishing), 1998
- Found in the PDF/DOC Alfred Andrea, historian’s essay on the Silk Road, “The Silk Road in World History: A Review Essay” (excerpts), Asian Review of World Histories, 2014