Chinese discovery of Levantine beads in Xinjiang reveals early signs of trade before the Silk Road.
BEIJING: Chinese archaeologists have found new evidence that trade between East and West started long before the official Silk Road routes were created. This discovery, announced by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), suggests that pre-Silk Road trade was already taking place centuries earlier than previously believed.
At four archaeological sites in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, experts uncovered colourful glass beads known as “dragonfly-eye” beads. Similar beads had earlier been found in central China’s Hubei Province. These glass items are believed to have originated in the Levant, a region along the eastern Mediterranean coast.
The matching features of the beads point to early contact between the Levant and regions of ancient China. According to China Central Television (CCTV), these exchanges took place even before the Han Dynasty’s official Silk Road and the expeditions of Zhang Qian, China’s well-known envoy to the Western Regions.
The dragonfly-eye beads are made by pressing or layering different coloured glass into a base bead, giving them a look similar to insect eyes. This technique traces back to Ancient Egypt around the 16th century BC.
In China, similar items have also been found in tombs from the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods (770 BC–221 BC), particularly in Hubei, Hunan, and Henan Provinces. More glass beads have now also been discovered at other ancient sites in Xinjiang, many made of soda-lime glass, supporting the idea of an early trade network.
The finding is important because it shows that pre-Silk Road trade played a key role in cultural and material exchanges between distant civilisations well before official trade routes were set up.
