As merchants packed their bags and set foot on the Silk Road – planning to travel great distances across much of Asia and Europe – they had only one thing on their mind: to trade their products. They didn't think about the mixing of their cultures along the way, or the advantages that trade routes had for communication between their ancient civilizations. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay This exposure to various languages, religions, and ways of life helps the Silk Road be regarded by modern historians as one of (if not the) most important trade route systems in history. During the period of Silk Road trade, civilizations along it expanded and strengthened as this cross-breeding of cultures occurred. Indeed, not only different cultures, but many types of borders were overcome in that period. From the timeless stories of the Bible, to the sweet melodies of the Troubadours, the world in ancient and medieval times was changing rapidly, as both people and their ideas crossed many physical, social, and literary boundaries. In the biblical story of the prophet Ezekiel, the Babylonians destroy the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. This temple served as God's "home" as he crossed the boundaries between the divine realm and the human realm. It's where God would go on Earth, and only where He would go. But when the House of God was destroyed and the Israelites captured by the Babylonians, God crossed an important boundary. He is in exile with his people and crosses the line between being strictly in the temple and existing everywhere, going wherever his people go. As in the "fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin", the word of the Lord came to the priest Ezekiel, son of Buzi, near the canal of Chebar, in the land of the Chaldees. And there the hand of the Lord came upon him” as mentioned in the story of Ezekiel. At about the same time that Ezekiel was living and working in Greece, Homer was composing what would later be known as one of the greatest literary works in history. : The Odyssey. What makes this epic so interesting is that Homer set it in a time period he didn't live in. This can be demonstrated through various evidence from the text. For example, through the types of weapons used by warriors. Homer lived and wrote the Odyssey in the 8th century BC, during the Iron Age. However, the characters in the epic use bronze weapons, showing that the Odyssey transcends the boundaries of time and takes place before Homer, in the Bronze Age. How characters treat their fallen friends can also help establish a date for when the story will take place. In the Bronze Age people would simply bury the dead. However, starting from the Iron Age, the process of cremation (burning bodies) begins to become more popular. It's interesting though because Odysseus lived in the Bronze Age, but in book 12 he is shown to have cremated his friend Elpenor (after falling from a roof to his death at the beginning of the story): "Quickly we cut the wood and at the highest promontory far away we hold a funeral for him, and he wept profusely, crying out in pain We burned his body and his equipment, we built a mound, we dragged a pillar over it and fixed his oar on it – each ritual step in turn.” This cremation action also helps to show a crossing of boundaries between time periods. The burning of Elpenor's body is most likely the earliest extant example of cremation, showing the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. Homer. Another important example of border.