Abstract: Korea and the Silk Road

Lecturer: Sarah Milledge Nelson

The Korean peninsula was almost the Asian end of the “Silk Road”, nevertheless exotic objects from the Mediterranean world are found in Korean burials beginning in the first century B.C.  In studying how these objects came to be deposited in Korean burials, it becomes clear that objects arrived in Korea by at least three different routes.  The Steppe Route north of the Altai Mountains, the Silk Road through Xinjinag, and a Sea Route are discussed, along with the objects that arrived in Korea from as far away as the Mediterranean world.