Professor Tim Williams and The Archaeology of the Silk Roads by Anurag Singh Kushwah

 

Ever since I moved to Delhi to pursue my further education, I’ve travelled around a large part of the country to explore several heritage sites and places of cultural importance. Whenever I’m far away from my home or the cultural geography I’m most familiar with, there’s always a sense of adventure and unfamiliarity associated with the new landscape but never fear. Railways have made travelling very safe, easy, and fast which leads to this ease. However, it also makes me think about how life would’ve been before the railways were built and the rule of law was established in India. A large chunk of the travel routes in India were fraught with thugs and ‘phansigars’ during the 19th century and British cavalry and soldiers were deployed on these routes to make them safe for the travellers. Captain Sleeman’s writings have, in a rather exaggerated manner, painted the picture of the dangers travellers and pilgrims faced during this time of history where they could be either killed in their sleep, looted at knifepoint, or befriended by a fellow traveller who turns out to be a ‘thug’! All my sense of adventure and feeling at peace with the unfamiliar runs down the drain when I imagine myself in such a scenario. What good reason, then, made people travel such long distances? Travellers have existed for time immemorial, and dangers have existed for an even longer time! Even the first traveller of the world, human or not, would've found danger on the first day of their travel itself! Well, Indian routes are long, so dangers are to be expected, but the overland route from Europe to East Asia is even longer! How could the desire for exotic goods be so strong that people would risk their lives to travel across the known world to obtain some shiny utensils or clothes? What made people travel such a long distance all across the ‘Silk Route’? Professor Tim Williams had a short answer for this question of mine- they never travelled the whole distance. 

‘Silk Roads’ is popular in the minds of people and the more you think about it, the more questions pop up in your mind. However, Professor Tim Williams had many, if not all, the answers one would want around the topic. In the Speaking Archaeologically’s ‘Talk with an Expert’ series, we had Professor Tim Williams this time, who is a Professor of Silk Roads Archaeology at the University College of London. Professor Williams gave a lecture on ‘The Archaeology of the Silk Roads’ and enriched the minds of the attendees with his erudition and field knowledge on the topic.

Professor Williams delivered a comprehensive lecture on the topic as he started from the beginning about the term ‘Silk Road’ and how it gained prominence among the masses of the world. A number of factors have led to this popularity of the route and the misconceptions and misunderstandings about the route and the region it entails. Driven by orientalist ideas, a large part of the world still sees the Silk Roads as a meeting point between the East and the West but the region comprising the Silk Roads has an identity of its own. Professor Williams calls it the ‘lost heart of the world’ and we know it with many other names such as Central Asia. Professor Williams put great focus on understanding the communities on the road and how they have evolved. He also made it a point for all future researchers to keep in mind the communities living in the region while writing their narratives and how they could affect their lives in different ways.

Professor Williams kept the lecture interesting by linking what he had to say with other recent happenings and books in the world. A great example of this was his use of the poem Cargoes by John Masefield to highlight the kinds of goods which were transported through the route. It wasn’t just silk or other luxuries which travelled through this route. Rather, one of the greatest entities traded on this road was knowledge. Professor Williams mentioned how the Silk Roads were used as a route of dialogue and exchange of ideas. Exchange of knowledge about horses, grain, clothes and metallurgy have happened through a very long course of time on the Silk Roads and Professor Williams tried to show instances of this through the use of Lapis Lazuli in the Indus Valley Civilisation as well.

He also brought in information not just from early researches on the region such as by Soviet Archaeologists like Mikhail Evgenievich Masson but also from the new researchers who were writing their thesis and using newer technologies and methodologies to understand the region.

In conclusion, Professor Tim Williams' lecture on the Archaeology of the Silk Roads was a captivating and enlightening experience. His expertise and engaging presentation style transported the audience to the vibrant crossroads of cultures along these ancient trade routes. By integrating historical accounts, field knowledge, and archaeological evidence, Professor Williams emphasised the interdisciplinary nature of understanding the Silk Roads. This thought-provoking lecture deepened my knowledge and inspired further exploration into the fascinating field of archaeology. I’ve travelled only on Indian routes yet and visited the places I have read about in history books but if I ever get the opportunity, I would surely try to visit the ‘lost heart of the world’ now and try to walk on the path on which some rare travellers covered the whole distance from the ‘West’ to the ‘East’.