LONDON - A new exhibition exploring the vast network of the Silk Road trade routes opens at the British Museum in London this week.

Showcasing a range of artefacts including Chinese ceramics, Byzantine jewellery and the earliest known group of chess pieces, Silk Roads focuses specifically on the period AD500 to 1,000, amid the rise of different empires and religions.

"This exhibition is presenting a rather different vision of the Silk Road than some people might be expecting... Rather than a single trade route between east and west, we are showing the Silk Roads plural... as a series of overlapping networks that link communities across Asia, Africa and Europe," exhibition co-curator Sue Brunning told Reuters.

"We're showing that it was not just silk and spices... but also people, objects and ideas moving sometimes great distances, not just by land, but also by sea and river and exchanges taking place in all contexts."

Highlights include loans from Central Asia such as a large mural found in the reception hall of an aristocratic house in Samarkand, Uzbekistan and a gilded silver cup from the Galloway Hoard, on loan from the National Museums Scotland.

READ MORE: Silk Road exhibition in Xi'an displays ancient Sino-Central Asian ties

Silk Roads opens on Thursday and runs until February.