THE AYALA MAZAR–XIAOHE CULTURE: NEW ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES IN THE TAKLAMAKAN DESERT, CHINA

Abstract

This article, accompanied by colour photos, records the author's recent archaeological expedition in the Taklamakan Desert. His advance northwards along the now mostly sand-covered beds of the Keriya River proved to be a march backward through time, from the Iron Age city of Jumbulakum to the early Bronze Age necropolis of Ayala Mazar. The artifacts he found are contemporary with, and similar to Chinese discoveries at Xiaohe. This proves that Xiaohe was not an isolated case and provides evidence for a whole culture based on some sort of fertility cult. The remains also suggest that some, at least, of the peoples concerned had Indo-European affiliations.

Notes

Idriss Abdulressul et al., ‘The Xiaohe Graveyard in Luobupo, Xinjiang, Zhongguo kaoguxue’. (Chinese Archaeology) Vol. 8 (2008): 95.

Chunxiang Li et al., ‘Evidence that a West–East Admixed Population Lived in the Tarim Basin as early as the early Bronze Age’. BMC Biology Vol. 8 (2010): 2.

Until when the waters of the River Keriya reached the River Tarim at the northern edge of the desert remains open to debate.

Wilfied Menghin, Hermann Parzinger, Anatoli Nagler and Manfred Nawroth (Eds), Im Zeichen des goldenen Greifen, Königsgräber der Skythen. München: Prestel, 2007, p. 164ff.

Mikhail Grjaznov, Arzhan: Tsarskii kurgan ranneskifskogo vremeni. Leningrad: Nauka, 1980, p. 56ff; Leonid Marsadolov, ‘The Art Images and Ideas along the Great Steppe Road of Eurasia in the IXth–VIIth Centuries B.C.’. Silk Road Art and Archaeology Vol. 8 (2002): 221–238.

Feng Yue (Ed.), Xinjiang lishi wenming jicui (Collection of the Historical Culture of Xinjiang). Urumqi: Xinjiang meishu sheying chubanshe, 2009, pp. 37, 40, 50.

Mei Jianjun, Copper and Bronze Metallurgy in Late Prehistoric Xinjiang. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2000, pp. 28ff, 36, 119, 123.

The main sources concerning Xiaohe and Gumugou used in this comparison are: Christoph Baumer, ‘Die “Tausend-Särge-Nekropole” von Xiaohe’. Antike Welt Vol. 6 (2006): 39–49; Folke Bergman, Archaeological Research in Sinkiang: Especially the Lop-Nor Region. Stockholm: Thule, 1939; Abdulressul et al., The Xiaohe Graveyard in Luobupo; Victor Mair, ‘The Rediscovery and Complete Excavation of Ördek's Necropolis’. The Journal of Indo-European Studies Vol. 34. Issue 3–4 (2006): 273–318; Wang Binghua , Xinjiang gushi: gudai Xinjiang jumin ji qi wenhua (The Ancient Corpses of Xinjiang: The Peoples of Ancient Xinjiang and their Culture). Urumqi: Xinjiang renmin chubanshe, 2001 (in Chinese and English); Xinjiang wenwu kaogu yanjiusuo (Xinjiang Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Relics), ‘2002 nian Xiaohe mudi kaogu diaocha yu fajue baogao’ (Report on the Archaeological Investigation and Excavation at Xiaohe Cemetery for the Year 2002). Xinjiang wenwu (Xinjiang Cultural Relics) Vol. 2 (2003): 8–64; Xinjiang wenwu kaogu yanjiusuo (Xinjiang Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Relics), ‘2003 nian Luobupo Xiaohe mudi fajue jianbao 2003’ (Short Report on the 2003 Excavation of the Xiaohe Cemetery in Lop Nor). Xinjiang wenwu (Xinjiang Cultural Relics) Vol. 1 (2007): 1–54.

Ellsworth Huntington, The Pulse of Asia. Boston: Houghton, 1907, p. 262f.

Chunxiang Li, Evidence, pp. 1, 6, 9, 10. See also: Christopher Thornton and Theodore Schurr, ‘Genes, Language and Culture: An Example from the Tarim Basin’. Oxford Journal of Archaeology Vol. 23 (2004): 93ff.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christoph Baumer

Christoph Baumer is an independent scholar, explorer and President of the Society for the Exploration of EurAsia, Switzerland. He has travelled more than 50 times to China and Central Asia and made important archaeological discoveries in Xinjiang and Tibet. His travelogue Traces in the Desert was published by I. B. Tauris. This article is based on the lecture he delivered at the Society on 21 July 2010.