Grade 6 Spring — The Classical World and Late Antiquity to ~500 CE: Late Rome and Byzantium, Han China, Mauryan and Gupta India, Sasanian Persia, Aksum and Early Ghana, Classical Maya and Teotihuacan — Whose 'Fall'? Whose Golden Age? Whose Living Descendants?

Analyze the three classical-era trade networks — Silk Road (overland Eurasia c. 130 BCE onward), Indian Ocean maritime trade (East Africa - Arabia - South Asia - Southeast Asia - China via monsoon winds), and trans-Saharan caravan trade (Mediterranean North Africa - sub-Saharan West Africa via camel after ~300 CE) — as the FIRST documented world-system per Andre Gunder Frank / Janet Abu-Lughod / Philippe Beaujard scholarship

Analyze the three classical-era trade networks: (1) Silk Road overland — from Chang'an (Han China) through Central Asian oasis cities (Samarkand, Bukhara, Merv) to Ctesiphon (Sasanian capital) and onward to Antioch + Constantinople; goods (silk westward, glass + horses + religions Buddhism eastward + later Christianity eastward); (2) Indian Ocean maritime — monsoon-driven trade between East African coast (Aksumite Adulis), South Arabia, South India (Periplus of the Erythraean Sea c. 50 CE primary source documents Roman trade with Muziris in South India, Roman gold-coin hoards found in South India), Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia (Funan), Han China via Strait of Malacca; (3) trans-Saharan — camel-domestication c. 300 CE per Bulliet enabled Sahara-crossing; salt + gold trade between Mediterranean North Africa and sub-Saharan West Africa (early Ghana / Wagadou); the THREE networks together constitute the FIRST documented Afro-Eurasian world-system per Frank 1998 / Abu-Lughod 1989 / Beaujard 2019.

Exercise pool (3)