Archeology and solid scholarship show that India lay at the heart of ancient world, argued historian William Dalrymple, underscoring that the myth of the Silk road has made India seem more peripheral than it actually was. "Here is a map of Roman coin hordes discovered by archeologists. None are found east of the Pamirs of the Oxus. Not a single Roman coin horde has ever been found in China. But there is a notable concentration of roman gold all around the coasts of India. India is dotted with Roman coin hordes. India and Rome were the principal trading partner of each other in the early millennia BC," he said.