ABSTRACT
Traders from the Indian subcontinent, seeking the source of silk, had begun traveling through Southeast Asian waters on their way to China at least by the first century CE. The earliest silk roads were overland routes that ran from northwest China through Central Asia and Iran to the eastern Mediterranean. The earliest maritime silk roads were overland routes that ran from northwest China through Central Asia and Iran to the eastern Mediterranean. The same century also witnessed the emergence of Funan, the first kingdom of size and distinction anywhere in Southeast Asia, at least insofar as the historical record can document. Malay sailors developed the first all-sea route from Sri Lanka to the South China Sea. Chinese silk would remain an important item in long-distance trade, but the centuries in which the demand for this product had been the driving force behind new trade routes, both overland and overseas, had come to an end.
