Silk Roads spin a tale of collective treasures

Amesmerising show at the British Museum follows China’ epic ancient trade routes through fabulous oases, desert palaces and burial mounds

- Jonathan Jones

Not many exhibitions turn the history of the world upside down. The British Museum's mesmerising Silk Roads does, by showing how Asia, Europe and north Africa shared their cultures more than a millennium ago. Far from developing in isolation, let alone in a "clash of civilisations", east and west were once connected by epic trade routes known as the Silk Roads that carried China's precious discovery, silk, across the thenknown world. The British Museum turns it into a fairytale of magic and beauty, as you follow the merchants' routes to fabulous oases, desert palaces, synagogues, mosques and burial mounds.

You reach the first oasis by clay camel, to be precise a two-humped Bactrian camel of painted ceramic, nearly a metre tall. This superb eighthcentury statue comes from a tomb in Henan province, China. Tied to its saddle are bolts of silk that were worth crossing worlds to sell or exchange.

Joining the long-dead rider of this grumpy, resilient beast, you travel westwards to Dunhuang, an oasis city on the eastern edge of the Gobi desert. Today it is in China, but between AD786 and AD848 this Silk Roads stop was ruled by the mighty Tibetan empire. At its temple complex of Mogao, Buddhist art treasures were discovered in 1900 in a hidden cave that transport you to new realms of wonder.