Classical Period: Indian Ocean Trading

Bananas

8000 BCE

8000 BCE or 5000 BCE on the island of New Guinea. Bananas were cultivated in other places in Southeast Asia as well, then traveled to India, and may have reached Africa by around 1000 BCE. Evidence from word origins in Madagascar might point to

Ubar

Period: 2800 BCE to 5000 BCE

Ubar's wealth came from its position on the incense trade routes, not far from what was then a large area where frankincense trees produced their fragrant, dried sap. This incense was prized in India, in the Mediterranean region, and in east Africa for its wonderful smell. It was in high demand for use in temples, as medicine, and in perfumes. Ubar is believed to have thrived as a center for incense transport and sale from around 2800 BCE to 300 CE

Sugar Cane

1000 BCE

Sugar cane is a type of grass, like corn (or maize), rice, wheat and other grains. Like all plants, it manufactures sugar from sunlight and water. Sugar cane, as its name says, is very high in sugar content. People first grew it for its pleasant taste and extracted the juice of the stem by chewing it.

Phoenicians

600 BCE

Constantly seeking new markets for selling goods, the Phoenicians traveled further than any previous Mediterranean society and developed some of the most advanced ships and navigation techniques of their time. Phoenician Merchants are believed to have circumnavigated the African continent as early as 600 BCE, and to have sailed as far as Britain in search of tin

Trading

Period: 600 BCE to 600 BCE

Time span of trading in the Indian Ocean from 600 BCE to 600 BC

Scylax

510 BCE

Scylax of Caryanda made a voyage into the Indian Ocean from 510-515 BCE. He went exploring in the service of King Darius of Persia (528-468 BCE), who had heard of the riches of India and wanted to discover the mouth of the Indus River. The image shows Darius in a carved relief. He traveled overland in the company of some Greeks, and entered the Indus River several hundred miles from its mouth, in today's Pakistan.

Bay of Bengal

Period: 500 BCE to 500 BCE

The Bay of Bengal is a large body of water in the Indian Ocean that lies between the east coast of India and the west coast of Southeast Asia. If the Indian Ocean has an "M" shape, the Bay of Bengal is the second angle of the letter,

Alexander the Great

336 BCE

This marble sculpture, created by a Roman Imperial artist around the first-second century CE, shows the famous conqueror Alexander the Great. Born in Macedonia in 356 BCE, he was declared king of that ancient Greek state in 336 BCE.

Nearchus

Period: 326 BCE to 325 BCE

Nearchus was an explorer and officer in the navy of Alexander the Great who was ordered to build a naval fleet to take part of the army back to Babylonia--over 15,000 men,

Ashoka

271 BCE

Ashoka, one of the most famous Indian emperors, who ruled about 271-232 BCE, converted to Buddhism and worked to spread the religion. Beginning around 254 BCE, he had several proclamations on Buddhist teachings carved into rocks, caves, and tall stone pillars

Silk

207 BCE

Silk cloth, first developed in China, comes from a thread naturally spun by silk worms as they make their cocoons.

Cloves

206 BCE

Cloves are dried flower buds taken from the tropical evergreen clove tree, which can grow up to 30 feet tall and is native to the Maluku Islands in Indonesia. Sweet-smelling with a distinctive flavor, cloves were used for both cooking and medicinal purposes. A highly desired luxury item, cloves were traded regularly along routes stretching from Europe to China. Early written records from the Han dynasty in China (206 BCE-220 CE)

Pottery

200 BCE

Rouletted ware is a type of ceramic found in many archaeological sites in India, Southeast Asia and even Indonesia, dated between about 200 BCE and 200 CE.

Zhang Qian

138 BCE

In 138 BCE, Zhang Qian was sent by the emperor Wudi to make contact with the Yuezhi, an ancient culture that ruled parts of India and Bactria in Central Asia from about 128 BCE-450 CE.

Taklamakan Desert

100 BCE

Instead of crossing the perilous Taklamakan, merchant caravans traveling to and from China branched over the northern and southern parts of the Desert. These routes were anchored around a series of oasis towns, which provided water and supplies to the caravans.

Pearls

100 BCE

This fragment of a necklace, which combines pearls, gold and an emerald, is an example of popular jewelry styles in the Roman Empire around 100-200 CE. Pearls, which are produced by oysters and must be fished out of the sea, were a favorite of wealthy Romans. An ideal trade good because they took up very little room on ships or caravans, pearls were commonly used for jewelry and decoration, or sometimes ground up into powder for medicine.

Jar Burials

Period: 100 BCE to 1000 BCE

Jar burials are found at sites across Southeast Asia from the Bay of Bengal stretching in an arc as far as Japan. This image shows the contents of an intact burial jar unearthed at Ban Non Wat in Thailand. Instead of placing the dead in graves dug in the ground, the bodies were placed in very large, decorated ceramic jars in the shape of globes.

Dongson Drum

Period: 40 BCE to 43 BCE

and Indonesia. Their exact function is unknown, although the great care and artistry involved in creating them has led historians to believe that they may have served a ritual rather than practical purpose.

Silk Road

27 BCE

The "Silk Road," which connected the Mediterranean, the Middle East, India, Central Asia, and China, began to flourish with the rise of the Roman Empire (27 BCE) and the Han Dynasty (206 BCE). The dominance of these wealthy empires provided peace and stability, encouraging merchants to travel abroad and seek luxury goods like silk.

Camels

100

By the first or second century BCE, the one-humped camel and the date palm had spread from southern Arabia to Somalia in east Africa, and from there into Ethiopia and Egypt. Camel herding and date cultivation then spread westward along the Sahel edge of the Sahara desert toward Lake Chad. By sometime between the second and fifth centuries CE, the camel had been carried by Saharan Berber-speaking nomads into much of North Africa.