From Samarkand to Sutton Hoo: Exploring the impact of the Silk Roads on early medieval Britain and Ireland

As Willibald watched the customs officials rifle through his baggage, his native Wessex must have felt worlds away. The early medieval monk was no stranger to travel – he had just completed his fourth pilgrimage to Jerusalem – but while passing through Tyre, in modern Lebanon, in the 720s, he and his companions had been arrested and chained while authorities associated with the ruling Umayyad caliphate searched their belongings for contraband. The penalty for smuggling was death, and Willibald was carrying something that he desperately hoped would not be discovered. In his possession he had an innocuous-looking gourd – but this outwardly innocent fruit had been hollowed out and filled