Major Grant Award for Rivers of the Silk Roads Research

A major interdisciplinary research project examining how the rivers of Central Asia’s Silk Roads helped to shape the societies and empires of the region has secured significant funding from the Leverhulme Trust.

‘Rivers of the Silk Roads: how water shaped societies and empires in Central Asia’ will examine the role that rivers in the region played in the development of nomadic and urban societies, and empires. The Silk Road is the name given to the network of ancient trade routes that connected China with the Middle East and Europe from the second century bce to the 15th century ce.

Led by Professor Mark Macklin, Distinguished Professor of River Systems and Global Change and Founding Director of the Lincoln Centre for Water and Planetary Health at the  University of Lincoln, UK, this project will use state-of-the-art dating, hydraulic modelling, and satellite imaging techniques, combined with archaeological investigations of ancient canal systems, to provide the first ever multi-millennial length reconstructions of changing water resources and water hazards along the Silk Roads.

In doing so, Professor Macklin and his team aim to gain new understanding of how water shaped the rise and fall of nomadic and urban empires in Central Asia.

This new information will be of value to archaeologists, historians, environmental scientists and palaeoepidemiologists, as well as present-day water resource managers in Central Asia who need a deep time perspective of the current climate emergency and environmental breakdown in the region.

Professor Macklin will work closely with academics across the globe on the project including Professor Peter Frankopan (University of Cambridge), Dr Willem Toonen (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), Dr Dmitriy Voyakin (International Institute for Central Asian Studies) and Dr Elizabeth Brite (Purdue University).

Speaking about securing the funding and the research itself, Professor Macklin said: “I’m delighted that the Leverhulme Trust has been able to support our project and look forward to working with my team over the next three years to undertake what promises to be an exciting endeavour.

“The importance of the Silk Roads to world history is well documented but by comparison the role that rivers and water played in the development of the societies of the region is barely understood. Our research will help address this, providing greater knowledge of their historical context and, we hope, providing a benefit to those currently engaged in water management in the region.”