https://padlet.com/willthomas/rtgvtspaokn9 Students will use this Padlet to capture their observations from the article. en-us 2016-11-15 16:34:35 UTC 2017-01-26 19:01:25 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/icons/Dartstarget.png https://padlet.com/willthomas/rtgvtspaokn9/wish/149708657 Page 33 gave an background on the Silk Road; 
Analysis:
The Silk Road was normally defined as a system of trades linking the major religions of farming civilization in Afro-Eurasia, and as originating in the classical era. This paper focuses on the many trans- ecological trades that occurred along the Silk Roads, which linked the farming worlds to the shepherd world of the Inner Eurasian grasslands and the woodland cultures to the north. It argues that these trans-ecological trades have been as important to the history of the Silk Roads as the more familiar trans-civilizational exchanges. A clear understanding of these trans- ecological exchanges suggests that the Silk Roads should be seen as a complex network of exchanges that linked different ecological zones of the Afro-Eurasian landmass into a single system. It also suggests that the silk road were much older than it was usually stated. 
Page 34 consists of giving definitions.
Analysis:
An german phrase Die Seidenstrassen first used in the late 19th century by a german geographer was used to describe trade routes linking China, India, and the Mediterranean world, through Central Asia. The plural form is important because the Silk Roads consisted of a constantly shifting network of pathways for many different types of exchanges. ]]> 2017-01-26 18:29:14 UTC https://padlet.com/willthomas/rtgvtspaokn9/wish/149708657 https://padlet.com/willthomas/rtgvtspaokn9/wish/149708802 Pages 35 -37
The listed pages explained how and why the empires were greatly intersted in the Silk Road, and how it was crucial to the spread of language,culture religion etc.The empires took great interst in the Silk Road due to the fact that it was basically a ticket to wealth.Not only was the Silk Road a ticket to wealth ,but it was also a way for an empire to spread their religion,culture and political beliefs.The Silk Roads also opened doors to migrants the wished to live in the Han dynasty or the Roman empire.Although the Silk Roads were very busy with merchants and traders,the indian ocean was just as busy with ships that could hold more and travel at faster sppeds due to the winds produced by monsoons which is what lead to the demize of the Silk Roads.]]> 2017-01-26 18:29:34 UTC https://padlet.com/willthomas/rtgvtspaokn9/wish/149708802 https://padlet.com/willthomas/rtgvtspaokn9/wish/149709017 Page 42 and 43:
The selected pages talks about how analogies make the Silk Roads seem very likely that Oxus cities bought livestock produce from, and sold grain to, neighboring pastoralists. Although, these weren't trans ecological trades. The "Silk Roads" were already functioning as a system of vigorous and widespread exchanges within and sometimes beyond the Inner Eurasian Steppes. Also, these early systems of exchange depended largely on the role of pastoralists communities. The network of exchange, and of the primary role played within by the pastoralists. In addition to this we have seen that the standard chronology dates the birth of the Silk Roads in the Classical Era. It also dates the opening of state-sponsored trade between China and Central Asia at the end of the 2nd century B.C.E. There is some evidence about the systems of exchange within the Steppes early in the first millennium B.C.E. Eventually by the 8th century Assyria was subjected to the periodic invasions of invaders establishing local elites which created the Median and Persian Empires. They also exchanged horses and/or livestock to get luxury goods such as silk and ceramics produced in cities of Great Agrarian civilizations. For example the emergence of powerful political and military systems in the Steppes accelerated process of exchange using local interpreters. They reached as far as Altai, where the presence of Sabur fur clothing and even gold in the wealthier Pazyryk tomb suggest existence of flourishing trade. This is why there called "Fur routes" and also because they link to Siberia and China.]]> 2017-01-26 18:30:05 UTC https://padlet.com/willthomas/rtgvtspaokn9/wish/149709017 monforts34 https://padlet.com/willthomas/rtgvtspaokn9/wish/149709170 The conclusion reinforces the claim of Frank and Gills that the entire Afro-Eurasian world belonged to a single world-system. Afro-Eurasian shared as a result of exchanges along the steppe roads, many elements of the secondary products resolution and the technologies associated with it, including the use of livestock power in agriculture, for transportation, and in war, and the use of hides and wool. Immunities were exchanged along the silk roads. As Jared Diamond has suggested, Afro-Eurasian communities, partly because of similar uses of live stock, acquired many diseases from their livestock and exchanges ensured that to some extent they shared immunities to these diseases. Accurate geography and cultural knowledge did not travel well along the silk road. There were many things that were not exchanged along the silk roads. There were limits to the unity of Afro-Eurasia, and traditional historiography has rightly emphasized the distinctive features of each region of Afro-Eurasia

]]> 2017-01-26 18:30:29 UTC https://padlet.com/willthomas/rtgvtspaokn9/wish/149709170 https://padlet.com/willthomas/rtgvtspaokn9/wish/149709224 Page 50
Frank Hodgson describes how modern life is possible thanks to the Silk Roads. It allowed the people of that era to live a urban lifestyle and become rich, thus letting them focus more on cultural achievements. David Christian, writer of Silk Roads or Steepe Roads, agrees, but states that pastorialists, who both made and benefitted from the Silk Road, were also very important. This is due to how they played a vital role in both the economy and making sure that the silk road thrived.]]> 2017-01-26 18:30:36 UTC https://padlet.com/willthomas/rtgvtspaokn9/wish/149709224 https://padlet.com/willthomas/rtgvtspaokn9/wish/149710311 Page 44 & 45
Xiongnu is ancient nomadic based people that formed a confederation north of the agriculture based empire of the Han Dynasty. Well page forty four and forty five speaks on how Xiongnu formed a steppe empire much stronger than the various polities of Scythians, how Wudi's envoy Zhang Qian found that chinese goods were already known .. finding some type of bamboo when reaching Central Asia, how after the conquest of Wudi a branch of  new silk roads were created, how the steppes were equally important in the era of the Tang Dynasty, & also the expansion North.]]> 2017-01-26 18:33:23 UTC https://padlet.com/willthomas/rtgvtspaokn9/wish/149710311 https://padlet.com/willthomas/rtgvtspaokn9/wish/149711805 Pages 38 & 39

Any list of goods that were traded along the Silk Roads will show the existence of large amounts of steppeland or woodland products. The urban georgraphy of the Silk Roads also points to the importance of the transecological routes. Page  38 and 39 speaks on how the evidence for the importance and extent of trans-ecological exchanges is ample for all periods of Silk Roads history. The two pages also focuses on how the cities of Guranji in Khorezm, Tashkent on the river Syr-Darya, Kalgon north of Beijing, Kerch in the Crimea, and Sarai on the Volga were cities who flourished although they didn't firmly astride the main inter-civilization trade routes. Instead, they were built in or at the edges of the steppes and depended on good relations with pastorialist communities throug whise lands passed the caravans that generated much of their commercial wealth for their survival. It was stated that the emergence of mobile pastoralist lifeways should probably be regarded as the real reason for the orgin of the trans- Eurasian network of exchange that the Silk Roads came to symbolize. The two pages also told how the archeological evidence from the steppelands of Inner Eurasia shows that widespread systems of exchange were very old in this region. It was stated that the reason for this is that the Inner Eurasions steppelands were occupied since the fourth millennium B.C.E, and most definitely by 3000 B.C.E. The land was occupied by the communities practicing extensive and mobile forms of horse pastoralism. This made certain that their contacts and influence would expand over large area]]> 2017-01-26 18:36:30 UTC https://padlet.com/willthomas/rtgvtspaokn9/wish/149711805 https://padlet.com/willthomas/rtgvtspaokn9/wish/149711936 Pages 40 & 41 
The earliest evidence for horse riding comes from the Sredny Stog communities of east Ukraine and south Russia, though it is possible that horsse were domesticated further east. The use of horses for transportation allowed more intensive exploration of livestock for their draft power, their furs, their milks as well as their milk.
Evidence of increased mobility often containing slaughtered livestock, appears in the stepps of south Russis and west Kazakhstan from at least the middle of the fourth millennium B.C.E.. The mobilization of Inner Eurasian pastoralists ensured that contacts and exchanges of ideas, technologies, goods amd customs would be extensive and vigorous throughout the Inner Eurasian stepplands. From their earlist apperance, pastoralists exchanged their produce with neighboring sedentary communities. The hints of pastoralist raids into agarian regions date from the fourth millennium. Within these huge areas, communities of pastoralist showed remarkable technological, cultral and even linguistic homogenity. Significant trans- Eurasian exchandes of goods, cultres and the ideas precede the convential date of the orgins of the Silk rodby at least two millennia. Languages were exchanged within and beyond the stepps. Trade goods were probably exchanged most vigorously across the ecological border separating pastoralist and farmers. Within the stepps the spread of techniques was particularly important they included techniques of pastorlism itsself, livestock management, the use of horses and camels for transportation and so on. Chernykn has shown that in the Bronze Age there were vigorous exchanges of goods between metal prodi]]> 2017-01-26 18:36:50 UTC https://padlet.com/willthomas/rtgvtspaokn9/wish/149711936 https://padlet.com/willthomas/rtgvtspaokn9/wish/149712497 Page 46-47
It basically talked about how the Silk Roads expanded. When the routes of the Silk Roads declined from the 16th century, the trans-ecological routes didn't. They flourished and lead to new routes north of the steppes. This shift was caused by disruption of traditional routes. This shift was associated with the spread of agriculture, the appearance of large populations.]]> 2017-01-26 18:38:07 UTC https://padlet.com/willthomas/rtgvtspaokn9/wish/149712497