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photograph in Ting's volume of a fifteenth century grave in Tanzania which features Ming Dynasty blue and white dishes set into the tomb's pillar. I would like to know more about the surviving archaeological evidence of this trade and its influence on the art and craft of the countries involved en route.
My other reservations relate to editing details. The sheer vastness of Tucker's canvas means that he frequently backtracks. I suspect he didn't write each chapter in the order in which they appear in the book. Although some cross-references are supplied, more are needed. Some clumsy editing has removed entire paragraphs from the text into Figure captions without amending the flow of remaining paragraphs. There are innumerable errors of the typo variety that a proofreader should have picked up. Although there are many maps, these leave much to be desired. There are no scales or north points: blue is used for frontiers as well as rivers; place names on the maps are not always in the text and vice versa; names of archaeological sites feature as prominently as modern settlements. There are no scale objects on the photographs.
I need to make a cautionary note, too. Comparing some of Tucker's historical details with similar details provided by Ebrey, I found some differences. For example, how had the silk that reached Rome got there? As a result of Wudi's mission to the Yuezhi, as Tucker suggests? Or via silk acquired by the Xiongnu as gifts from the Chinese government in exchange for receiving their tribute, as Ebrey suggests?
Reservations aside, my final point is that this is a book to fascinate not only those interested in the past, but also those keen to understand the present. Every region through which the Silk Road passed is today socially and politically unstable, primarily because of the very clash of cultures and associated value systems that the Road made possible and that underlay the flourishing creative output of places along it. Frontiers imposed or negotiated in the interests of defining twentieth century nation-states rarely enclose regions that are ethically or culturally distinctive, or reflect loyalties that are limited to the area they define. Hence, these boundaries are often in dispute, and issues that nation states need to address (such as water usage and conservation) are not confined within them. In addition, Central Asia remains militarily highly strategic even in the era of long range ballistic missiles, while its resources - oil and, increasingly, water - remain as coveted as the silk,