The latest discovery sheds new light on what scholars are now referring to as the “pre-Silk Road” — a series of informal trade routes and cultural connections that predate the organized Silk Road established during the Han era
A groundbreaking archaeological discovery in northwest China has revealed concrete evidence of material exchanges between the East and West that predate the formal establishment of the Silk Road by several centuries. According to findings released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) on Tuesday, the unearthing of ancient glass beads in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region confirms that long-distance trade networks existed in ancient China well before the Han Dynasty (202 BC–220 AD).
The beads, identified as “dragonfly-eye” glass beads due to their striking resemblance to the compound eyes of dragonflies, were excavated from four different archaeological sites across Xinjiang. Remarkably, they bear an uncanny resemblance to similar beads found in central China’s Hubei Province — more than 2,500 kilometers to the east. Experts believe both sets of beads originated from the Levant region, situated along the eastern Mediterranean coast, indicating a much earlier onset of transcontinental trade than previously believed.
“These discoveries are highly significant,” said a spokesperson for CASS. “They not only show that East-West exchanges occurred far earlier than the Han Dynasty but also challenge long-standing assumptions about when and how such cultural interactions began.”
The Levantine-style beads, with a history tracing back to Ancient Egypt around the 16th century BC, were traditionally produced using a technique that embedded multiple colors of glass into a base to create vivid, eye-like patterns. This intricate craftsmanship was widely practiced in the Mediterranean and later diffused across Asia.
The latest discovery sheds new light on what scholars are now referring to as the “pre-Silk Road” — a series of informal trade routes and cultural connections that predate the organized Silk Road established during the Han era. According to a report by China Central Television (CCTV), the newly unearthed artifacts suggest that early civilizations across Eurasia had already developed complex trade relations involving luxury items such as glass beads, centuries before historical records acknowledged them.
Further supporting this hypothesis are similar findings from tombs of the State of Chu during China’s Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods (770 BC–221 BC). Beads matching the dragonfly-eye design have been uncovered in central provinces including Hubei, Hunan, and Henan. Additionally, numerous sites in Xinjiang have yielded soda-lime glass beads — a type of glass also linked to early Mediterranean production.
“The consistency in chemical composition and design among these beads strongly supports the idea of a sustained, long-distance exchange network,” said an archaeologist involved in the Xinjiang excavation. “This changes the way we understand early globalization and cross-cultural interaction.”
The discovery marks a significant step forward in understanding the evolution of ancient trade routes and the interconnectedness of early civilizations. It not only redefines timelines but also highlights the technological and artistic influences exchanged between cultures across vast distances.
As further analysis continues, historians and archaeologists hope that these findings will help reconstruct a more accurate and detailed map of early global interactions, centuries before the Silk Road became a household name in world history.
