Secrets of the Silk Road: Curator's Travel Blog February 27, 2010

Tuesday, 02 March 2010

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Adjusting to the time difference of 16 hours has been a challenge today. The shopping and eating in Beijing have been great but now I am excited to head off to the Xinjiang province and the city of Urumqi, the Guiness Book of World Record holder for largest city farthest from any main body of water. Most I am looking forward to finally seeing the objects for the Secrets of the Silk Road exhibition up close.

My main job while in Urumqi (Pronounced Uh-roo-uhm-qi) will be to carefully document and make detailed written condition reports of each object before supervising their packing and crating. I will be working with a great team from the Xinjiang museums to make sure this happens. I look forward to seeing first hand the construction and decoration of these beautiful Silk Road objects excavated from several archaeological sites in the Tarim Basin, a vast and arid desert sprinkled with oases that over time eventually developed into small statelets. These early Silk Road towns benefited by the aid they provided to travelers that sought shelter, provisions, and markets to sell/barter their goods. Not only did inhabitants witness the exchange of the ancient world’s finest commodities, but they were also greatly influenced by contact with foreigners from many places, their languages and cultures - a true melting pot.

Some of the items I am looking forward to seeing are the sunglasses. During life they functioned to keep out the sun and the desert's fine dust. They were also important to the afterlife and were included in burials, placed over the eyes of the deceased. Some of the textiles in this exhibition are absolutely remarkable, even the simple wool blanket that once wrapped someone is extraordinary considering it dates to c.1800-1500 BC and the magnificent textile from the height of Silk Road trade with obvious Mediterranean features is one of the most important textiles in the world for its clear establishment of Western goods in the East, not to mention its sheer beauty. When it comes to this exhibition there are no shortage of things to write about, including some incredible surprises that will be revealed in the very near future. I look forward to keeping you updated as we work to bring this exhibition to you. Julie Lee
Beijing 2/27/10

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