Trans-Eurasia Exchange and Silk Road Civilization Development

The Silk Road (Chinese: 丝绸之路), first popularized by the German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen in 1877, refers to a network of trade routes that stretched from central China to the Pamir, through central Asia and Arabia to India and Rome. The oasis routes have been active for 4000 years though precursors of the Silk Road date back nearly 5000 years and extended to the northern steppes of Central Eurasia. Meanwhile, the Silk Road played a key role in facilitating exchanges in religions, arts, culture, science and technology between East and West. Early trans-Eurasia exchanges and the historical Silk Road reshaped the development of civilizations in Eurasia.

The Silk Road was an exceptional landmark of continental-scale exchanges throughout human history, spanning thousands of years across the vast landscapes of the Gobi Desert, oases, mountains, basins, forests, and steppes in Eurasia. The mechanisms of early human migrations in the paleolithic periods, agriculture origin and early farming diffusion, and civilization development along the Silk Road have attracted high interest from both natural and social scientists. In 2019, the Association for Trans-Eurasia Exchange and Silk Road Civilization Development (ATES) was established to fill the gaps of ongoing Silk Road Study.

The vision of ATES aims to deepen understanding of the interactions between environmental changes, long-term trans-Eurasia exchanges and Silk Road civilizations, by promoting interdisciplinary research of natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities across Eurasia. The main scientific issues of ATES include: 1) Routes and driving forces of ancient human migrations across Eurasia in the Paleolithic; 2) Agriculture origin and prehistoric trans-Eurasian diffusion of early farming and herding; 3) Mechanisms of establishment, shift and demise of routes and key towns along the ancient Silk Road; 4) Pattern and trajectory of knowledge production and dissemination of scientific and technical knowledge and their impact on the multiethnic societies along the Silk Road; 5) Effects of environmental changes on the development of the Silk Road civilization related to trans-Eurasia exchanges in terms of economy, technology and culture.

As of right now, ATES has involved over 200 scientists from more than 50 research institutes across more than 20 countries. There are six working groups established with distinct objectives in ATES. Through the ATES platform, we hope to develop cooperative research and education centers/laboratories with institutes and scientists from all over the world, as well as co-host activities such as young scientist training, collaborative research, conferences, workshops and exhibitions. Currently, ATES-branded activities include the ATES Silk Road Civilization Forum, the ATES Open Science Conference, the ATES Workshop, and the ATES Lecture, among others.