Ancient and medieval merchants never spoke of a 'Silk Road'. The term was coined in 1877 by the German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen. And it wasn't a single road but a network of trails and way stations carrying silk, spices, horses, religions, technologies… and epidemics.
Around 2300 BCE, Enheduanna, daughter of King Sargon of Akkad, became high priestess of the Moon god at Ur. She composed hymns to the goddess Inanna and put her name to them. She is the oldest person identified as the author of a literary work, about 1,500 years before Homer.
Squeeze Earth's 4.5 billion years into a single 24-hour day. Homo sapiens shows up around 11:59:54 p.m., roughly six seconds before midnight. All of written history, from Sumerian tablets to today, fits into the final tenth of a second. A cosmic blink.