-
"The picture of trade in the Indian Ocean becomes clearer, with many more written records and artifacts" (indianoceanhistory.org)
-
"Historians think that long-distance trade from Egypt and Mesopotamia may have declined around 1000 BCE" (indianoceanhistory.org)
-
-
"Sugar cane is a type of grass, like corn (or maize), rice, wheat and other grains...From its origins in Southeast Asia, by 1000 BCE, sugar cane had reached India, where it was cultivated on a larger scale. In addition to growing sugar cane in irrigated fields, it was hybridized, or cross-pollinated, with other varieties of cane...By the end of the Classical Era, sugar was known in Persia as a wonderful luxury for cooking and sweetening." (Indianoceanhistory.org)
-
"A major story of the Classical Era is the spread of religions. Between 600 and 300 BCE, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism spread across the Bay of Bengal to Southeast Asia" (indianoceanhistory.org)
-
"Scylax of Caryanda made a voyage into the Indian Ocean from 510-515 BCE. He went exploring in the service of King Darius of Persia (528-468 BCE), who had heard of the riches of India and wanted to discover the mouth of the Indus River... He was famous for this voyage, and brought news of these regions that encouraged trade expeditions. Scylax later wrote a handbook for mariners, and was mentioned by Herodotus the Greek historian." (indianoceanhistory.org)
-
"Greek and Roman sailors and traders entered the Indian Ocean after 500 BCE, sent there by the Persian ruler Darius I" (indianoceanhistory.org)
-
"As early as the fourth century BCE, traders from India reached the rest of Southeast Asia by crossing the Isthmus of Kra, rather than making the longer and more difficult journey around the entire Malay Peninsula." (indianoceanhistory.org)
-
"Alexander the Great sent Nearchus from the Indus to the Arabian Gulf in 326 BCE and other Greeks sailed to India and around the Arabian Peninsula to Oman" (indianoceanhistory.org)
-
"The Jetvana Stupa, a Buddhist monument, was built during the third century CE...This large stupa...is one of several religious monuments constructed since the arrival of Buddhism to Sri Lanka during the third century BCE. The spread of Indian religious and cultural influences like Buddhism to Southeast Asia was often accompanied by an increase in trade." (indianoceanhistory.org)
-
"...discovered at Berenike, an Egyptian port city located on the Red Sea that was a major center of international trade... It was founded in 275 BCE by the Egyptian king Ptolemy II as a harbor for importing African elephants... The city traded extensively with India, exchanging goods like cloth, pottery, beads, wood, and bamboo. During the Roman Empire, spices, myrrh, frankincense, pearls, and textiles were all shipped through Berenike to Alexandria and Rome." (indianoceanhistory.org)
-
"During the third and second centuries BCE, Indian and Arab ships are known to have sailed directly from Southern Arabia to the Malabar (western) coast of India and back." (indianoceanhistory.org)
-
"In the Eastern Ocean, Austronesian mariners sailed towards the West. They reached India and, mysteriously, they settled on the East African island of Madagascar" (indianoceanhistory.org)
-
"In 138 BCE, Zhang Qian was sent by the emperor Wudi to make contact with the Yuezhi, an ancient culture that ruled parts of India and Bactria in Central Asia. According to the Han Shu, the territories of both the Yuezhi and the Han were being threatened by invasions of the Xiongnu, a group of nomadic tribes also known as the Huns. In order to strengthen his empire against these attacks, Wudi wanted to form an alliance with the Yuezhi." (indianoceanhistory.org)
-
"By the first century CE, trade goods were regularly transported across the Indian Ocean, overland through the Isthmus of Kra, and up to China. Merchants continued to use this trade route - particularly when bandits and political disputes made land travel dangerous - throughout the second and third centuries CE." (Indianoceanhistory.org)
-
"Periplus also describes the people who lived in these various seaports, styles of boats used by sailors, and the items imported and exported. Trade goods like copper, wood, pearls, cloth and gold were regularly exchanged, as was frankincense, a highly prized good native to the Arabian Peninsula. The clear and thorough writings in Periplus paint an accurate picture of Indian Ocean trading systems in the first century CE."
-
"Strabo was a Greek traveler and the author of the famous work "Geography"...He was a scholar who traveled to read the scholarship of others, and from places like the library at Alexandria, Egypt, he was able to collect and compare many sources in order to get a picture of the best state of knowledge about the known world... It gives us today a picture of what the peoples of the Mediterranean thought about the world beyond their region." (indianoceanhistory.org)
-
"Muziris was an ancient port city in today's Indian state of Kerala. It was a famous trading market for Roman-Indian trade in southern India....The port of Muziris was mentioned in Periplus from the first century CE." (indianoceanhistory.org)
-
-
"Ubar is a site that historians believe may be a city mentioned in the scriptures, or holy book of Islam, the Qur'an. It was described there as a wealthy city with towers... Ubar's wealth came from its position on the incense trade routes... This incense was prized...for its wonderful smell... Ubar is believed to have thrived as a center for incense transport and sale from around 2800 BCE to 300 CE." (indianoceanhistory.org)