Diffusion along the Silk Road

One of the things that archaeologists firmly believe in, is that culture and civilizations grew and developed on their own (more or less in isolation) and that they did NOT pass on their ideas and inventions to other cultures.

I have been interested in the Silk Road ever since I first watched a TV Miniseries about Marco Polo's Journey to China, that aired on TV back in 1982. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neM6EcIJvPc

The link above is for Episode One, Part One, on Youtube. You can find the rest from there.

One of my favourite pages about Marco Polo is this one on Squidoo. 

Anyway, I am getting off track.

The Silk Road meant that ideas, inventions and cultures spread along the Silk Road, from China and the Middle East to Europe and back again. These ideas and inventions eventually spread, which means that diffusion is the way that the human race works.

I dont know why archaeology insists that cultures develop in isolation.

I don't believe the evidence supports that theory.

There is a clear history of cultures being spread around, by boats. Possibly even as far as the New World (North and South America), possibly even as long ago as 2000 years.

Yes I believe in DIFFUSION!!!!

Of course you are all going to tell me I am wrong. But I did not say definitely - I said MAYBE.

 The Phoenicians were the greatest navigators of their time and they were around over 2000 years ago. And who is to say that some adventurous and hardy Phoenician sailor did NOT travel the length of the Mediterranean to the Pillars of Hercules (now called the Straits of Gibraltar) and then, instead of turning right to go north to Britannia or left to go south to Africa, he went straight ahead instead - just to see what was out there.

Because we humans are a very curious race.

I am also very curious and I LOVE asking Questions.