Land Of Silk Research Paper

The Land of Silk In China there is a highly prized item that is produced. That item is silk. In this brief essay, you will learn how silk was produced and how it is moved across the continent in ancient times. Knowing both how the silk was made and how it was sold can tell us a lot. It can tell us the ancient techniques of making silk, how China traded, and who they traded with. There are many different types of moths that can produce silk strands. The strands of silk came from their larva which is known as silkworms. The Chinese however used one specific type of moths. It was the Bombyx mori . They chose this specific moth because they are blind and they were flightless. Their characteristics made it easy to confine them to an area. It

Because of their urge to climb, the worms were placed on a spinning trellis which had plenty of sticks to climb. Once they were done climbing they would begin to cocoon. The silk worms eat for roughly four to five weeks before they start to cocoon. After about two to five days from the first time when the worms start to cocoon, the Chinese had to someone kill the worm inside without damaging the silk. One early method that they used was to salt the cocoons and then put them in air tight jars. Another way they killed the worm was by exposing the cocoons to the hot sunshine. The later method of killing the worms was to steam the cocoons and then let the cocoons dry out before they untangle the

Silk was eventually sold all over Asia and Europe. It ended up in Egypt and in Rome as well. The Romans did not buy silk straight from China, they went through merchants. Merchants sold to one another across Asia therefore most merchants did not go all the way to Rome from China to sell silk. By the time the silk got to Rome, none of the merchants or the Romans knew how silk was made. Many Romans believed that it was grown on Chinese trees, they had no idea that it came from worms. These merchants were mostly along the silk road. The silk road was a trading route that expanded all across the continent from China to Europe. This allowed silk to be available in most of the world at that time. Without the silk road, it is most likely that silk wouldn’t have traveled to Europe. The Chinese would sell silk to anyone who could afford it. The Romans would buy silk for a lot of gold. People would take other luxurious things as payment for silk. These types of trade led to having silk in Rome and pottery from Rome in