The Silk Road is perhaps the most famous trade route in the pre-modern world, yet its dominance sometimes obscures other routes through which China traded with the outside world. Lately China, whose archaeological tradition has typically focused on terrestrial sites, has turned its interest to the sea. Maritime archaeology has been an essential part of the study of trading civilizations in the Mediterranean and Atlantic Worlds, and so new discoveries in China promise to be valuable additions to our knowledge of its past. This article from National Public Radio describes some recent discoveries, as well as some of China's problems with preserving its past.
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