Secrets of the Silk Road

Take a magic-carpet ride along the length of the most storied of ancient trade routes, the Silk Road, with Colin Thubron, one of the world's greatest living travel writers. Mr. Thubron describes his journey of some 7000 miles-by local bus, truck, car, donkey cart, camel, and foot-out of the heart of China into the mountains of Central Asia, across northern Afghanistan and the plains of Iran into Kurdish Turkey, which led to his bestselling book, Shadow of the Silk Road. Colin Thubron is Britain's most distinguished travel writer, an award-winning author whose books cover Asia and Russia. His first books were about the Middle East-Damascus, Lebanon, and Cyprus. In 1982 he traveled in the Soviet Union, pursued by the KGB. From these early experiences developed his great travel books on the landmass that makes up Russia and Asia: Among the Russians (1983); Behind the Wall: A Journey through China (1987), which won the Hawthornden Prize and the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award; The Lost Heart of Asia (1994); In Siberia (1999), Shadow of the Silk Road (2006); and most recently, To a Mountain in Tibet (2011). Mr. Thubron has also written several novels, including Emperor (1978), set in A.D. 312; A Cruel Madness (1984), winner of the PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award; Falling (1989); Turning Back the Sun (1991), a haunting tale of love and exile; Distance (1996); and To the Last City (2002), which tells the story of a group of travellers in Peru. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature since 1969 and currently its president, Colin Thubron is a regular contributor and reviewer for The Times, the Times Literary Supplement, and The Spectator. In 2007, he was appointed a CBE by Queen Elizabeth.

Victor Mair is a Professor of Chinese Language and Literature at the University of Pennsylvania as well as the curatorial consultant and catalog editor for the "Secrets of the Silk Road" exhibit. The symposium "Reconfiguring the Silk Road: New Research on East-West Exchange in Antiquity" was held in March 2011 at the Penn Museum in conjunction with the major exhibit from China, "Secrets of the Silk Road." The symposium was the first major event in over 15 years to focus on the history of the Silk Road and the origins of the mysterious Tarim Basin mummies. Since the last milestone conference was held on the topic at the Penn Museum in 1996, new archaeological discoveries and scholarly advances had been made, creating the need to critically reshape the very idea of the "Silk Road."

David W. Anthony, Professor of Anthropology and Anthropology Curator of the Yager Museum of Art and Culture at Hartwick College, Oneonta, New York, presents "Horseback Riding and Bronze Age Pastoralism in the Eurasian Steppes" at the Penn Museum's symposium "Reconfiguring the Silk Road: New Research on East-West Exchange in Antiquity."

Colin Renfrew, Disney Professor Emeritus of Archaeology and former Director of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, UK presents "Before Silk: Unsolved Mysteries of the Silk Road." The symposium "Reconfiguring the Silk Road: New Research on East-West Exchange in Antiquity" was held in March 2011 at the Penn Museum in conjunction with the major exhibit from China, "Secrets of the Silk Road." The symposium was the first major event in over 15 years to focus on the history of the Silk Road and the origins of the mysterious Tarim Basin mummies. Since the last milestone conference was held on the topic at the Penn Museum in 1996, new archaeological discoveries and scholarly advances had been made, creating the need to critically reshape the very idea of the "Silk Road."

Michael D. Frachetti is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis. The symposium "Reconfiguring the Silk Road: New Research on East-West Exchange in Antiquity" was held in March 2011 at the Penn Museum in conjunction with the major exhibit from China, "Secrets of the Silk Road." The symposium was the first major event in over 15 years to focus on the history of the Silk Road and the origins of the mysterious Tarim Basin mummies. Since the last milestone conference was held on the topic at the Penn Museum in 1996, new archaeological discoveries and scholarly advances had been made, creating the need to critically reshape the very idea of the "Silk Road."

Dr. Elizabeth Wayland Barber is a Professor Emerita of Archaeology and Linguistics at Occidental College in Los Angeles. She is a curatorial consultant to the exhibition, Secrets of the Silk Road. The symposium "Reconfiguring the Silk Road: New Research on East-West Exchange in Antiquity" was held in March 2011 at the Penn Museum in conjunction with the major exhibit from China, "Secrets of the Silk Road." The symposium was the first major event in over 15 years to focus on the history of the Silk Road and the origins of the mysterious Tarim Basin mummies. Since the last milestone conference was held on the topic at the Penn Museum in 1996, new archaeological discoveries and scholarly advances had been made, creating the need to critically reshape the very idea of the "Silk Road."

Dr. J.P. Mallory is a Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology at Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The symposium "Reconfiguring the Silk Road: New Research on East-West Exchange in Antiquity" was held in March 2011 at the Penn Museum in conjunction with the major exhibit from China, "Secrets of the Silk Road." The symposium was the first major event in over 15 years to focus on the history of the Silk Road and the origins of the mysterious Tarim Basin mummies. Since the last milestone conference was held on the topic at the Penn Museum in 1996, new archaeological discoveries and scholarly advances had been made, creating the need to critically reshape the very idea of the "Silk Road."

Peter Brown is a Professor of History and the Director of the Program in Hellennic Studies at Princeton University. The symposium "Reconfiguring the Silk Road: New Research on East-West Exchange in Antiquity" was held in March 2011 at the Penn Museum in conjunction with the major exhibit from China, "Secrets of the Silk Road." The symposium was the first major event in over 15 years to focus on the history of the Silk Road and the origins of the mysterious Tarim Basin mummies. Since the last milestone conference was held on the topic at the Penn Museum in 1996, new archaeological discoveries and scholarly advances had been made, creating the need to critically reshape the very idea of the "Silk Road."

Wang Binghua is the Director Emeritus of the Xinjiang Institute of Archaeology in the Xinjiang Uigher Autonomous Region in China. The symposium "Reconfiguring the Silk Road: New Research on East-West Exchange in Antiquity" was held in March 2011 at the Penn Museum in conjunction with the major exhibit from China, "Secrets of the Silk Road." The symposium was the first major event in over 15 years to focus on the history of the Silk Road and the origins of the mysterious Tarim Basin mummies. Since the last milestone conference was held on the topic at the Penn Museum in 1996, new archaeological discoveries and scholarly advances had been made, creating the need to critically reshape the very idea of the "Silk Road."

Dr. Joseph Manning is the William K. and Marilyn Milton Simpson Professor of Classics and History at Yale University. The symposium "Reconfiguring the Silk Road: New Research on East-West Exchange in Antiquity" was held in March 2011 at the Penn Museum in conjunction with the major exhibit from China, "Secrets of the Silk Road." The symposium was the first major event in over 15 years to focus on the history of the Silk Road and the origins of the mysterious Tarim Basin mummies. Since the last milestone conference was held on the topic at the Penn Museum in 1996, new archaeological discoveries and scholarly advances had been made, creating the need to critically reshape the very idea of the "Silk Road."

Walk through the Tang dynasty tomb of Emperor Gaozong and his empress, the infamous Wu Zetian, with the Penn Museum's Senior Registrar, Dr. Xiuqin Zhou.

With the Penn Museum's Chief of Staff Jim Mathieu and Senior Registrar Xiuqin Zhou, experience the sights and sounds of a present-day bazaar in the city of Urumqi, capital of China's Xinjiang region.

Contributing Curator Victor Mair introduces the landmark exhibition Secrets of the Silk Road at the Penn Museum February 5 - June 5, 2011. Find out more at http://www.penn.museum/silkroad

How are museum exhibits constructed? Take a behind the scenes tour of the installation of the Secrets of the Silk Road exhibition.

Get a brief glimpse into the development of the interactive features for the "Secrets of the Silk Road" exhibition with the Penn Museum's Exhibits Department.

The Penn Museum's Keeper of the Asian Collections, Stephen Lang, discusses the Buddhist monk Xuan Zang and the Silk Road.

An introduction to the Penn Museum's famous Tang dynasty horse sculptures with the University of Pennsylvania's East Asian Languages and Cultures graduate student, Sarah Laursen.

Contributing Curator Victor Mair introduces the landmark exhibition Secrets of the Silk Road at the Penn Museum February 5 - June 5, 2011. Find out more at http://www.penn.museum/silkroad