Silkroad V: Persia and Mesopotamia – of Royal roads and Royal harbours

The succession of Persian empires, which frequently included Mesopotamia are key to understanding the power of the Silkroads and Maritime Silk routes.  As both a producer and huge market for material travelling on the trade network from all direction this is the turntable around which much of the trade network revolves. The size and power of its empire ensured that it was hard to bypass and but also that the various empires in the regions had the resources to facilitate both trade ad transport of goods through and into its territory.
This series of lectures will focus on six periods during which this trade flourished.

27 April  Elam, Ur, Dilmun and the need for Lapislazuli and tin

4 May  What it means to be the one controlling the gemstones that everybody wants – trade in the Iron Age and the Achaemenids

11 May   The Seleukids and the rise of landroad to the Mediterranean

18 May: Half-term

25 May   The Parthians and the Sassanids

1 June    The Abbasids and Khorasmia and the coming of the Mongols

8 June    The Gateway to the East – The Ilkhanate, Persia and the Silkroad from the 15-18th century.