The Silk Roads: an ICOMOS Thematic Study by Tim Williams on behalf of ICOMOS 2014 The Silk Roads An ICOMOS Thematic Study by Tim Williams on behalf of ICOMOS 2014 International Council of Monuments and Sites 11 rue du Séminaire de Conflans 94220 Charenton-le-Pont FRANCE ISBN 978-2-918086-12-3 © ICOMOS All rights reserved Contents STATES PARTIES COVERED BY THIS STUDY ......................................................................... X ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................................... XI 1 CONTEXT FOR THIS THEMATIC STUDY ........................................................................ 1 1.1 The purpose of the study ......................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Background to this study ......................................................................................................... 2 1.2.1 Global Strategy ................................................................................................................................ 2 1.2.2 Cultural routes ................................................................................................................................. 2 1.2.3 Serial transnational World Heritage nominations of the Silk Roads .................................................. 3 1.2.4 Ittingen expert meeting 2010 ........................................................................................................... 3 2 THE SILK ROADS: BACKGROUND, DEFINITIONS AND SCOPE ........................................ 6 2.1 The Silk Roads .......................................................................................................................... 6 2.2 Silk Roads’ misconceptions: neither silk nor roads .................................................................. 7 2.3 The nature of exchange: high, medium and low value goods .................................................. 9 2.4 Geographical scope ................................................................................................................ 11 2.5 Chronological scope ............................................................................................................... 14 2.6 Geography, climate & vegetation .......................................................................................... 15 2.6.1 Ecological zones ............................................................................................................................. 15 2.6.2 Topography .................................................................................................................................... 16 2.6.3 Hydrology ...................................................................................................................................... 16 3 ISSUES ...................................................................................................................... 19 3.1 Scale of the overall study ....................................................................................................... 19 3.2 Scale of existing mapping ....................................................................................................... 19 3.3 Sites included - and omitted .................................................................................................. 19 3.4 The quality of information on sites and their dating .............................................................. 20 3.5 Site locations .......................................................................................................................... 20 3.6 Place names: ancient & modern ............................................................................................ 21 4 PREPARATION OF A GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEM ................................... 22 4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 22 4.2 Data sources .......................................................................................................................... 22 4.2.1 Published works on the Silk Roads ................................................................................................. 22 4.2.2 Historical accounts ......................................................................................................................... 22 4.2.3 State Party Tentative Lists .............................................................................................................. 23 4.2.4 Published map data ....................................................................................................................... 24 4.2.5 Digital data sources ........................................................................................................................ 24 4.2.6 Climate data ................................................................................................................................... 25 4.2.7 Ecological and hydrographic data ................................................................................................... 25 4.2.8 Topographic & physical geography ................................................................................................. 26 5 CONCEPTUAL APPROACH TO MAPPING: NODES, ROUTE SEGMENTS & CORRIDORS . 27 5.1 Mapping the routes ............................................................................................................... 27 5.2 Definitions: nodes, route segments & corridors .................................................................... 27 5.2.1 Node .............................................................................................................................................. 27 5.2.2 Segment ......................................................................................................................................... 29 5.2.3 Corridor ......................................................................................................................................... 29 5.2.4 Adapting the corridor buffer .......................................................................................................... 30 5.2.5 Conclusions .................................................................................................................................... 30 5.3 Digitising routes ..................................................................................................................... 30 6 ANALYSIS ................................................................................................................. 31 Page | iv 6.1 Routes & corridors ................................................................................................................. 31 6.2 WHS and TL distribution ........................................................................................................ 32 6.2.1 Existing WHS .................................................................................................................................. 32 6.2.2 Tentative list sites .......................................................................................................................... 33 6.3 Silk Roads site categories ....................................................................................................... 34 6.3.1 Definitions ..................................................................................................................................... 34 6.3.2 Number of sites and their distribution ........................................................................................... 34 6.3.3 Category 1 Infrastructure ............................................................................................................... 36 6.3.4 Category 2 Production ................................................................................................................... 47 6.3.5 Category 3 Outcomes ..................................................................................................................... 48 6.3.6 Conclusions: Silk Roads Categories ................................................................................................. 52 6.4 Empire systems ...................................................................................................................... 53 6.5 Nomads .................................................................................................................................. 54 6.6 Buried archaeological sites .................................................................................................... 54 7 THE WAY FORWARD ................................................................................................. 56 7.1 A single property? .................................................................................................................. 56 7.2 Nomination strategy .............................................................................................................. 56 7.2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 56 7.2.2 Themes, individual sites or corridors? ............................................................................................ 57 7.2.3 Selecting specific corridors ............................................................................................................