Hanoi museum to host Silk Road on East Sea exhibition

A three-month exhibition titled Con duong to lua tren bien Dong, or Silk Road on East Sea, will be held at the Vietnam National Museum of History in Hanoi.
Dr. Nguyen Van Doan, head of the museum’s exhibition department, said the exhibition would showcase Vietnam’s role in and dominion over the East Sea as part of the route.
The Silk Road was a network of interlinking trade routes on land, but also by sea, on the Afro-Eurasian landmass connecting most of Asia with Europe between the 2nd century BCE and 15th century CE.
The exhibition, to open in early May, will be categorized into four periods: prehistory, recorded history from the 1st to 10th centuries, 11th to 15th centuries, and the 18th century.
Artifacts found at Ha Long Bay will be in the prehistory section, while the rest will feature artifacts from in many parts of the country.
The Silk Road also engendered business between locals living along rivers in Ke Cho, Pho Hien, and Hoi An and traders from Japan and the Netherlands.
The exhibition will feature artifacts from shipwrecks in the 17th and 18th centuries as well as other documents and maps created by evangelists and traders.
Doan said there was a bustling Silk Road in the East Sea in the past, especially in the 14th and 15th centuries, and the exhibition is “the most lively example of the country’s role in the Silk Road on the sea.”
“Vietnam was not only a transit point but also a departure and destination point for many ships.”
Last July the museum, in cooperation with the Museum of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in China’s Guangxi Province, held an exhibition titled “Treasure of Silk Road” which displayed ceramics salvaged from shipwrecks in Vietnamese waters.
In 2006 it showcased artifacts found off the coast of the southern province of Ba Ria – Vung Tau.
But the upcoming exhibition will be the biggest about the Silk Road on the East Sea.