TITLE: INSIDE VIEW, Science Behind the Scenes. On screen ID: Mark Norell Chairman, Division of Paleontology American Museum of Natural History

Transcription

1 TITLE: INSIDE VIEW, Science Behind the Scenes On screen ID: Mark Norell Chairman, Division of Paleontology American Museum of Natural History The Silk Road was a network of trade routes that went from east to west, north and south throughout Eurasia and Arabia. It existed far back into antiquity and really lasted up until the 12 th or 13 th century. The Silk Road really wasn't a single road. It wasn't like a superhighway as we think of today. It was more an interconnected system of trade routes it was more of a network. In fact, it was more like little truck stops along the way. Someone would go from one populated area to another populated area, unload their goods. Those would be bartered and exchanged and they'd make the rest of the journey by someone else taking them. I don't think anybody in those times would have ever said, This came on the Silk Road, because it wasn't looked as something as that, you know, This is the Silk Road. It just came in from the oasis towns of Central Asia. No single person traveled the entire extent of the Silk Road. However, trade goods did. And, more importantly, ideas associated with those trade goods did. Certainly we can trace the spread of religion, we can trace the spread of lots of social trends, to the goods that are associated with them that moved along the Silk Road. 1

2 On screen ID: Denise Patry Leidy Curator, Department of Asian Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art Very few individuals actually traveled the whole Silk Road. What traveled were the things. This is an example of a Tang Dynasty phoenix-headed ewer from China. A ewer usually has kind of a pear-shaped bottle, and then a base and usually a handle. Many of them have one edge of the mouth that s a little more pierced together, which would have made it easier for pouring. And what happens in China is that this shape which we find in Roman glass, and then we find in luxury metalwork from Sassanian Persia and also from the Sogdians shows up in Chinese art as a ceramic. And one of the things they do is they take the lip, or the mouth, and they turn it into a phoenix shape, so they make it a phoenix-headed ewer. Which is one culture looking at another culture s art and then adapting it to their own tastes and their own needs. Underlying these great historical moments that we see on the Silk Road are objects. And they helped people see each other differently and think about each other differently know that different places had different technologies, different religious systems, even different ways of making something like a ewer. 2

3 On screen ID: William Honeychurch Department of Anthropology Yale University In the Silk Road exhibit, we feature major cities like Xi an, Turfan, Samarkand, Baghdad. But the networks of exchange, of course, extended way beyond those urban areas. The nomads of Mongolia were very connected with places that we d consider the centers of civilization. And not only that, but they were also probably very much involved in connecting different centers in the ancient world, since they, with horse transport, were able to move across large distances quite rapidly. One thing that s very important when people are spread out across a large area is creating alliances so that they can work together and don t have conflict. One way that that can be done is through gift exchange of valuable or luxurious items, especially between leaders. The Silk Road is human beings doing what human beings do very well, which is interconnecting with each other over distance. Today, through globalization, we not only have products coming from everywhere, but the raw materials for those products probably came from totally different places. So I'm about to step over here and buy a T-shirt. I'm going to take it on a trip to South Africa where I'm meeting my Mongolian archeological colleague Dr. Armartuvshin, and I'm going to present him that T-shirt as a gift. American institutional T-shirts or hats are such high status in Mongolia, so it s really it really is just like the ancient prestige exchange that we saw 2,000 years ago. 3

4 CREDITS: (first credit page) INSIDE VIEW SCIENCE BEHIND THE SCENES Produced by the EXHIBITION DEPARTMENT of the AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 4

5 s (SECOND credit page) Music SILK ROAD PROJECT Footage Courtesy of AMNH Special Collections Photos and Illustrations Courtesy of ALEXANDER ANTONITES ART RESOURCE, NY ATLOGIS GEOINFORMATICS BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE, PARIS, FRANCE BRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART Special Thanks AMNH MUSEUM SHOP THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT of PARKS & RECREATION THE NYC MAYOR S OFFICE OF FILM, THEATRE AND BROADCASTING THE PEOPLE OF CHINATOWN, NEW YORK CITY (copyright page) 2009 American Museum of Natural History 5

6 (THIRD Credit page is a credit roll and is for the Festival version only) Curators WILLIAM HONEYCHURCH Yale University (SMALLER 8 point return between Curator's names) DENISE PATRY LEIDY The Metropolitan Museum of Art (SMALLER 8 point return between Curator's names) MARK NORELL American Museum of Natural History Senior Vice President for Exhibition DAVID HARVEY Senior Director of Exhibition Operations MELISSA POSEN Associate Director of Exhibit Media HÉLÈNE ALONSO Producer, Director, Editor, Animator SARAH GALLOWAY Camera BEN TUDHOPE Media Researcher, Production Assistance, Rights Wrangler KAREN SANTIAGO Media Systems Designer BEN WILSON Administrative Assistant for Production GISELLA QUIROS Editorial Support LAURI HALDERMAN SASHA NEMECEK 6

7 JOHN WHITNEY Graphic Support DAN OWNBEY CATHARINE WEESE Production Intern KEVIN WEBB 7