ABSTRACT
Glass exchange was an important part of maritime trade as early as the Late Bronze Age, and glass found in South and Southeast Asia and beyond to Korea and Japan provides some of the best evidence for early long-distance movement of both material goods and skilled craftworkers. By the 1st century CE, pre-existing regional trade networks rapidly incorporated Roman products, including glass. These earlier maritime links provided the infrastructure, not only in terms of maritime technologies but also in the imagination of what long-distance trade could be, for what would become the Maritime Silk Roads.
