How can the influence of a civilization be determined? It isn’t always through its artwork, but more through its artifacts, the commonplace objects that fall in and out of people’s hands in day-to-day use.

The Silk Road referred to the trade routes through Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Objects from the Utah Museum of Fine Arts’ permanent collection reflect the religions, technologies and goods that were exchanged along the routes, making the gradual cultural shifts in Western society, Hinduism and the empires of the East tangible.

Families and school groups can delight in a treasure hunt through the exhibition and other galleries, gain insights through an audio tour and even play chess with sets crafted not long after the game itself was born. The Silk Road was active from the second to first millennium BCE, but it’s a thoroughfare that can be traced forward in its influence in many ways to the modern world.

Influences of the Silk Road @ Utah Museum of Fine Arts, 410 Campus Center Drive, 801-581-7332, through April 25, 2010. UMFA.Utah.edu