Nice. Love archaeological stories.
However, there is a disconnect in the calculation in the article. It says the site dates from long before the silk road, which, it says, was built about 2000 years ago. Then it says the site dates from the Han Dynasty, which was at about that same time. Hmmmm...
people who lived on the west bank of the Heihe River 4,100 to 3,600 years ago ...
(202 BC - AD 220).
Which would be 2,200 years ago.
There are two different finds — one of them dates to the Han Dynasty, during which time maritime trade between the Roman Empire and the Chinese Empire became pretty regular, and the second find is from 2500 BC. The source here is Xinhua, so it’s an ESL success story.