La circulation des matières précieuses et les grandes voies commerciales au Proche-Orient du Néolithique au 2e millénaire avant notre ère

The western part of what would later become the Silk Roads was very early traded for products over long distances. Thus, from the pre-ceramic Neolithic around 9000 BC, obsidian traveled throughout the Middle East for hundreds of kilometers. The search for rare or precious materials such as metals (gold, silver, copper, tin) or semi-precious stones (lapis lazuli, carnelian, chlorite) also led then, during the 5th-3rd millennia BC in particular, to the establishment of trade routes stretching from the Pamirs in the east to the Mediterranean coast in the west. To these raw materials must be added the trade in processed food, such as wine or olive oil or manufactured, such as glass, the distribution of which can be traced to Western Europe.