Camocio’s mapping naturally maintains a strong Portuguese bias, with all of the advantages and limitations thereof. While his specific sources will likely never be known, Camocio was evidently able to gain access to some especially fine Portuguese sources. While Lisbon maintained a policy of cartographic secrecy and banned the dissemination of their maps, Venetian publishers were able to gain access to important Portuguese manuscripts that were either captured from vessels or stolen and sold on the Italian market. During the period, the Portuguese were the only European power to have meaningful contact with India. The depiction of India is a truly fascinating overview of the European conception of the subcontinent from the mid 16th-century. While only a fragment of the full map, the 3 sheets are highly detailed and of a large scale, and are thus highly important records of 16th-century European knowledge of South and Central Asia. A discussion of the map source appears at the bottom of this description. We believe that the 3 sheets are drawn from a 12-sheet map of Asia by Camocio, which quite possibly was never completed. A uniquely important depiction of India and the Silk Road, three sheets from a 12-sheet Lafreri School wall map of Asia, by the great master Giovanni Francesco Camocio.Show students the regional map, with routes, highlighting that there wasn’t just one single route or road, but rather a series of routes that fed into the main route.Allow time for students to share routes with another pair and/or as a whole class. Provide 5 minutes for students to discuss and mark the route they would take from Xi’an to Antioch, marking it with a pencil. Working in pairs, students should locate Xi’an and Antioch.Mark the Tian Shan Mountains, Himalayas, Caucasus, Zagros, and Alborz mountains, and the Dasht-e-Lut and Dasht-e-Kavir, and Gobi deserts. Ask students to study a topographic map to identify the physical features they notice. Provide each student with a map of the Silk Road.Brainstorm the pros and cons of traveling by land or sea.

Show Powerpoint: Trade and Exchange in the Ancient World to prompt a discussion about topography. This may be done individually, in pairs, or as a class.Īsk students to imagine the pros and cons of traveling by land and sea. To draw a connection between then and now, ask students to brainstorm products that get imported and exported into America. Refer to the list of items that commonly traveled the Silk Road. Show the slide, “What do these things have in common?” (in Powerpoint: Trade and Exchange in the Ancient World) Discuss. Where did you go and why? How long did it take? What form of transportation did you use to get there? How would have your travel been different if you went by camel or by foot?Ģ. Think of the longest trip you have taken, either by time or distance.Where did you go and why? What problems did you face? If you had not faced those difficulties, how much shorter would your travel time have been? Think about a trip that you have taken that involved difficult terrain or weather conditions.Silk Road Map BCE–100 CE, Silk Road Trade Mapĭo a Quick Write (5-7 minutes), by selecting one of the two prompts. Powerpoint: Trade and Exchange in the Ancient World

Slik road maps