古埃及和美索不达米亚人很早就开始在工艺品中大量使用青金石。当时这种名贵宝石的唯一产地在中亚阿富汗一带。由那里出发的青金石贸易,极大地促成了两河文明和古埃及文明的文化交流。此后,受青金石影响的审美观念又在波斯文明中延续了下来。有学者因此提出,早在“丝绸之路”建立以前,东西方世界之间已然存在一条由帕米尔 Ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians have long started to use lapis lazuli heavily in handicrafts. At that time, the only place of origin of such precious stones was in Central Asia, Afghanistan. The lapis lazuli trade from there has greatly contributed to the cultural exchange between the two rivers and the ancient Egyptian civilization. Since then, aesthetic ideas influenced by lapis lazuli continued in Persian civilization. Some scholars have therefore proposed that as long ago as the establishment of the “Silk Road,” there has already existed between the East and the West by the Pamir