Michael Frachetti
Caravan Archaeologies Workshop/Taller de Caravanas Arqueológicas
Ancient caravan routes are often envisioned as as ancient roads, and our understanding of their geography is typically linked to economic models of ease of travel. However, in many regions, like high mountains, other factors may be more influential in shaping the social networks that laid the groundwork for routes of connectivity and travel. In this paper I present a model for Silk Road trade routes that links the ecology of seasonal mobile pastoralists across Asia with the emerging chronology and territorial expansion of Inner Asian trade and regional participation.