How do you think the economic trajectory of the Ancient World would change?
Imagine a 9,000 year history of silk utilization and sericultural practice a desert trek away from the Mediterranean world.
Well, I'm proposing a post-Neolithic Subpluvial sericulture centered in the Bandiagara Plateau cliffs (the red crescents below) in Mali
There are 5 reasons
1. The Anaphe Silk worm family are found in the region and OTL is harvested and processed by the Dogon amongst others
2. The oldest pottery found in Sub-Saharan Africa is found at the Plateau at about 9,500 years old. So silk can be processed.
3. Through the pottery found and analysed there is evidence of sheep herding and milking peoples who moved into the region (which much later and elsewhere on the continent facilitated
apiculture amongst hunter-gatherers in eastern and southern Africa)
4. It's isolated enough and near impenetrable enough (especially as dessication of the Sahara advances) that until about the rise of the camel caravans (about 300 ad) it'll only be an opulent luxury to upper caste Garamantians, noble Egyptians and Mycenaens traded by merchant caste groups and not flood the markets immediately.
Over all though it would seem a lot easier than going across Central Asia with many middle men befreb finally reaching China.
Beyond silk various spices like lesser known peppers, Calabash Nutmeg, cardamon relatives exist and had a market in North Africa and Europe in the middle ages.
Thoughts?