Evidence of wheat, copper and millet gives clues to the first connections between West and East were made in the Bronze Age and archaeologists are finding clues of the specific routes that were taken. A current best guess is for a steppe connection at the beginning of the third millennium BC (3000 BCE) and a ‘silk road’ connection at the end of the 3rd millennium (2000 BCE). However, a much earlier connection (the sixth millennium BC) is still arguable
Silk Road Research 