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 Connecting the Silk Road. Trade, People &#38; Social Networks (c. 400-1300 AD)17-18 May 2014&#160;&#160;Leiden University (Leiden Global Interactions - Project ‘Guiding Travelers’) and the Hermitage Amsterdam organize in close collaboration with the State Hermitage Museum Saint Petersburg the conference “Connecting the Silk Road. Trade, People &#38; Social Networks (c. 400-1300 AD)" on May 17 and 18, 2014.The occasion for this symposium is the exhibition “Expedition Silk Road. Treasures from the Hermitage”, in the Hermitage Amsterdam on view from March 1 until September 5, 2014.Exhibition Silk roadSaturday, May 179:30am - 6:30pmUniversity of LeidenLipsius Building, Hall xx,Cleveringaplaats 1, Leiden(map)Sunday, May 18 9:30am - 3:30pmHermitage AmsterdamAuditoriumAmstel 51, Amsterdam(map, info)Please register here.&#160;Conference Description Connecting the Silk Road. Trade, People &#38; Social Networks (c. 400-1300 AD) For thousands of years, land and sea routes served to exchange goods and ideas over thousands of kilometers from the Pacific East to the Atlantic West. Contacts between east and west are often assumed to have developed first in the Roman period, and then again in the post-Marco Polo era. Exchange however continued, evolving along clusters of networks and changing routes and roads, which were commonly known as ‘the Silk Road’. Networks were created with commercial, social, religious, diplomatic incentives and connected geographical regions over any distance.In this conference, we aim to highlight the complexity and sophistication of interactions through and between such networks by exploring their diversity, connective infrastructure and organization across natural or human-imposed boundaries. In addition, we hope to discuss development over routes and roads under influence of political, religious, economic and social changes.&#160;Poster Presentations *Deadline for submissions: 5 May 2014*We cordially invite scholars to give a poster-presentation to present their research. Posters should present research concerning any relevant topic relating to either “Silk Road” topics or networks which connected geographical regions between AD 400 and 1300.For more information, see: Poster PresentationsRegistrationRegistration is open from 23 April to 16 May 2014. Entrance is free, but registration is required. Please register here.A fee will be charged for beverages (coffee/tea/lunch and drinks) in Leiden on Saturday. More information will follow.CreditsConference Organizers:Gabrielle van den Berg (Leiden University)Vincent Boele (Hermitage Amsterdam)Birgit Boelens (Hermitage Amsterdam)Maria Riep (Leiden University)Joanita Vroom (Leiden University)Conference funding provided by:Leiden Global Interactions (LGI)KLMLeiden Institute for Area Studies (LIAS)Asian Traditions and Modernities (AMT)Juynboll StichtingConnecting the Silk Road - Conference TextConecting the Silk Road - Poster PresentationsConnecting the Silk Road - Program