Overview: Exploration and Discovery 2000 b.c. to a.d. 699

Background

Lost far back in time are the names of the earliest explorers who roamed in search of game and edible plants across land they had not yet learned to cultivate. Many generations later, man drifted across great landmasses, populating Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas—some settling in agreeable climates, others becoming nomads forever on the move. No written records remain of these earliest journeys. Man made limited exploration of his world—sometimes from curiosity, but mainly from a constant need to search for food. The earliest explorers in the modern sense of the word, those who left us a written record of their travels, were limited to the peoples and lands of the small "world" around the Mediterranean. These exploits, often fueled by a civilization's desire for military conquest, are the earliest examples of true exploration.

The world's earliest recorded civilizations were those of Egypt and Sumer, followed by Babylon, Assyria, the Minoans on the island of Crete, and the Greeks. The earliest recorded examples of exploration were those by Egyptians who had led expeditions up the Nile River, and the Assyrians who explored the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers. Around 1492 b.c., Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut sent a number of ships on a trading expedition to the land of Punt. The journey involved crossing 150 miles (241 km) of desert from the Nile to the shores of the Red Sea, then rowing and sailing some 1,500 miles (2,413 km) towards the Arabian Sea. Illustrations of the expedition were sculpted on the walls of the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut in an unparalleled record of such an undertaking.

Early Sea Expeditions

Although the Egyptians left some of the earliest records of their journeys, the first real explorers were the Phoenicians—renowned for their pursuit of trade and colonization in the Mediterranean region and for their crafts such as Tyrian cloth and glassblowing—who ventured from the coast in search of new routes for trade and expansion of their culture. The Phoenicians had a significant effect on human culture, encouraging trade between groups, thus exposing various civilizations and cultures in the Mediterranean basin to each other and spreading science, philosophy, and other ideas through the ancient world. Many historians even believe that Pharaoh Necho II's Phoenician fleet may have circumnavigated the continent of Africa, thanks to a story about a large three-year Phoenician expedition around 600 b.c. recounted by Greek historian Herodotus in his work History.

The cross-cultural trade and exploration of the Phoenicians is best evidenced by the voyage over a century later by the mariner Hanno of Carthage. With the purpose of reinforcing Phoenician colonies and founding new ones, Hanno's expedition sailed through the Straits of Gibraltar, known then as the Pillars of Hercules, and along the north and west coasts of Africa to establish settlements to guard new and expanding trade routes. Hanno's detailed diary of the voyage, an inscribed stele known as the Periplus, is said to be the longest known text by a Phoenician writer. The success of his journey would not be repeated until the golden age of Portuguese exploration some 2,000 years later.

With the exception of Hanno, very few of the adventures of Phoenician explorers were recorded. It would not be until around 330 or 325 b.c. that another adventurer would leave behind an account of his explorations—this time to the north. Voyaging to the north in search of new lands beyond what the Greeks called the "Habitable World" was Pytheas of Massalia, a Greek adventurer, astronomer, and scholar. He followed the Atlantic coast around Spain and on to Brittany, setting course for Britain in search of tin and other items of interest to the Greeks, who were great trade rivals of the Phoenicians. Pytheas was the first to probe the cold arctic regions—possibly as far north as Norway or Iceland—and the first to bring back an account of the frozen sea.

Land Expeditions

Following the example set by sea explorers, important land exploration in antiquity was mostly conducted in a quest for military superiority and control, by soldiers leading their armies in wars waged in the Mediterranean arena, especially by the Greeks and the Persians. Military men such as Athenian officer Xenophon used their knowledge of the geography of the region to guide huge armies into battle before returning to their native lands. The best early example of military exploration is that of Alexander the Great, whose exploration in expanding an empire was so vast that it would be over a thousand years before another civilization, the Vikings, would even come close to its scale of conquest and discovery.

Beginning in 334 b.c., Alexander's Greek forces crossed into Asia Minor, defeated the Persians, then marched into Syria, Phoenicia, and Egypt before leaving the Mediterranean for the heart of the Persian Empire. They seized Babylon, then continued marching northeast to the shores of the Caspian Sea, through Afghanistan, over the Khyber Pass, and across the Indus River into India by 326 b.c. In India, Alexander set an example for mass exploration rarely equaled in history by splitting his returning expedition, sending his best ships under the command of the Greek admiral Nearchus to learn more about the "nature of the sea" by returning home via the Persian Gulf and ordering a separate party to travel overland through southern Persia. Alexander himself led a land party along the Makran coast, where the desert took its toll on his men, before returning triumphant to Babylon in 323 b.c. Over ten years, Alexander's armies had traveled over 20,000 miles (32,180 km), a feat not equaled in antiquity.

A few centuries after Alexander's Greek forces swept across Asia Minor to India, the Roman Empire reached its peak—shortly after Julius Caesar's conquest of Gaul in the Gallic War (58-50 b.c.). Following the Punic Wars (264-201 b.c.), the Roman Empire had rapidly expanded its borders, eventually amassing untold riches and dominating lands to the north as far as Britain (Albion) and to the south as far as the Atlas Mountains in northern Africa—but with a greater interest in colonization, not exploration. The Romans did, however, make possible trade, communication, and travel as never before experienced by the peoples of the known world. It was also the Roman era that spawned the greatest geographer of antiquity, Strabo of Asia Minor, whose monumental work Geographica would not be surpassed as a guide to the Western world until late in the Middle Ages.

Asian Exploration

In addition to the conquest and colonization of the empires of antiquity, Asian cultures quested for new opportunities for religious education and conversion—evidenced by the adventures of Chinese monks who journeyed long distances to the West to visit the birthplace of Buddha and to study Buddhist scriptures. Others, such as Fa-Hsien in the early fifth century and Hsüan-tsang in the seventh century, journeyed for many years throughout China and India and influenced widespread acceptance of the Buddhist faith in their homeland of China—and for new routes to commerce, especially for the luxury commodity of silk. The Chinese began venturing westward with this delicate resource—much desired by the wealthy Roman Empire—along the Silk Road, a set of overland routes connecting China to Antioch, Damascus, and other cities of the eastern Mediterranean. The Silk Road venture was initially organized by Han Dynasty emperor Wu-ti, who sent imperial bodyguard Chang Ch'ien and 100 men as emissaries to the West. Ch'ien and his party spent a decade as prisoners of the Hsiung-Nu, better known in the West as the Huns, but eventually escaped to discover Persia, Arabia, and even Rome, gaining a wealth of political, diplomatic, and economic knowledge for the Chinese, who, in turn, eventually established the Silk Road, linking their culture to the West.

Looking Ahead

In the Middle Ages, as the civilizations of the world developed and expanded, man's curiosity about his world developed into a desire to explore and conquer new lands and peoples. Merchants, monks, and mariners (and combinations of all three) ventured forth on expeditions. The nomadic military powers of the Vikings and the Mongols as well as the eight expansive military expeditions of the Crusades were prime examples of the fundamental need to discover and conquer. By the end of the Middle Ages, the political map of the world had been dramatically altered, and the impetus was in place for nation building in Europe and colonization in (as well as exploration to) the far-flung regions of the world.

ANN T. MARSDEN