UKRI-Norway – Sand and Sea: Links between the Silk Road and Indian Ocean in Antiquity

Indian Ocean and Silk Road histories have frequently been studied through the prism of empires and crossroads. In the former, emphasis has been placed on the role of major powers in sustaining corridors of communication and stimulating demand for goods between East and West. In the latter, communities in the Indus Valley, Central Asia, and the Tarim Basin have been repeatedly cast as “middlemen,” situated between supposedly more advanced civilisations. These entrenched narratives, rooted in colonial historiography, continue to shape academic discourse and public understanding. In some contexts, they also underpin ideologically charged representations of the so-called Silk Road, which are used to legitimise contemporary political claims. This project offers a timely and necessary intervention. It challenges dominant frameworks by investigating patterns of consumption and local agency in the Indus Valley, Central Asia, and the Tarim Basin during the early to mid-1st millennium CE. Rather than focusing on imperial centres, we apply conceptual tools from globalisation, glocalisation, and microhistory to foreground the role of smaller-scale actors. These include local traders, pastoralists, and consumers who contributed to long-distance exchange but are often absent from overarching narratives. The project also addresses a structural gap in the field. Indian Ocean and Silk Road studies are often pursued in isolation, divided along maritime and land-based lines. We aim to bridge this divide by creating a collaborative and comparative platform that draws these domains into conversation. Our objectives are fourfold: To undertake a synthetic survey of archaeological, textual, and scientific data from key sites across the three regions. To carry out comparative case studies at two sites, one in the Indus Valley and one in the Tarim Basin, to test the utility of microhistorical and glocal approaches. To organise a series of scholarly events—a seminar, a hybrid workshop, and an in-person colloquium—to facilitate collaboration and knowledge exchange. To assemble a core team of collaborators with a view to developing a multi-partner interdisciplinary proposal for a future UKRI or ERC application. This work builds on a growing movement in global history to decentre traditional powers and explore alternative narratives of contact and mobility. By engaging directly with new material evidence, including archaeometric data such as botanical remains and mineral residues, we aim to assess the nature, scale, and direction of early connectivity. The combination of conceptual innovation and material analysis enables us to ask new questions about how ancient exchange functioned in practice. The project will produce a peer-reviewed article, an edited volume, and an international research network. It will establish a new agenda that brings Indian Ocean and Silk Road studies into meaningful dialogue, while also supporting equitable global partnerships and providing a foundation for larger-scale funding. To ensure inclusion, we have allocated additional funding (travel and subsistence) for participation by scholars from the Global South and provide mentoring and networking opportunities for early-career researchers at our project events. Through active engagement with museums and heritage organisations, we aim to promote historically grounded and critically informed public narratives that reflect the complexity of ancient global connections.