Yuansha ancient city

Yuansha ancient city

Yuansha ancient city was once the earliest ancient city in Xinjiang. Located in daheyan Township, Yutian County, southwest Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Yuansha ancient city, also known as youmulakumu ancient city, is located in the hinterland of Taklimakan Desert, almost completely covered by sand dunes. The ancient city is irregular quadrilateral. The perimeter of the city wall is 995 meters, the height and the top width are about 3-4 meters, and the structure of wooden bone and mud wall.

Yuansha ancient city, also known as youmulakumu ancient city, is located in the hinterland of Taklimakan Desert, almost completely covered by sand dunes. There is a parapet slope on the outside, a door in the middle of the south wall and a door in the north of the east wall, and the vestiges of the doorway, door post and door panel are still there. There are six architectural relics exposed on the surface of the city, including pottery, stone, metal, materials, etc. The city was built in the Han Dynasty, and its social economy was dominated by animal husbandry. On March 10, 1999, Xinhua News Agency reported that an ancient city 2000 years ago was discovered in the hinterland of Taklimakan Desert, which was named yuansha ancient city. In 2001, yuansha ancient city was listed in the list of the fifth batch of national key cultural relics protection units, ranking No. 130.

geographical position

Yuansha ancient city, located in the hinterland of Taklimakan Desert, the second largest mobile desert in the world, is more than 200 kilometers away from Yutian County in the south. Its coordinates are 81 ~ 31 degrees east longitude and 38 ~ 52 degrees north latitude. This point is right in the middle of the desert.

Yuansha ancient city is an irregular quadrilateral shaped like a big peach. The perimeter of the ancient city is about 995 meters, the remnant height of the city wall is generally 3 meters to 4 meters, and the highest is 11 meters. In the south wall and the east wall, we can see the city gate and gateway relics.

archaeological excavation

There are architectural remains in the city. Two rows of vertical Populus euphratica sticks were used as the wall framework, and layers of red willow branches were used as the wall framework. There are some right angle "Adobe" at the corner of the wall. After careful investigation, French archaeologists believe that this is not a Adobe made by man-made and clay mold, but the mud in the river is cut into pieces and directly laid on the wall.

Structural layout

This has never been found in archaeological excavations in the past. The top of the ancient city wall is about 34 meters wide and the remaining height is about 34 meters. Two rows of Populus euphratica sticks with layers of Salix branches are used as the wall framework, and Populus euphratica branches, reed sludge and livestock manure are used outside the wall to form slope protection. There are some right angle "Adobe" at the corner of the wall.

After careful investigation, French archaeologists believe that this is not a real adobe, because it is not made by hand and clay mold, but by cutting the silt in the river into blocks and directly laying it on the residual wall. The city wall is 473 meters long. The perimeter of the city is about one kilometer. It is irregular and round. It looks like a peach. The longest distance between the north and the south is 330 meters, and the widest distance between the East and the west is 270 meters.

Features of tombs

In the autumn of 2001, Chinese and French archaeologists began to excavate six tombs around the ancient city of yuansha. Most of the 20 tombs were exposed to the ground, and their burial utensils and human bones were rotten and crisp. Only three of them were completely preserved. Two of them were single, one male and one female, and two of them were buried together, one was 55-60 years old The other is about 18 years old. "Both types of burial are very rare." Said Edith. In addition to the four mummies, most of the others were skeletons.

On the forehead of the female mummy, there is a ring-shaped copper ornament, which is an inverted triangle in the middle of the forehead and ends down at the center of the eyebrow, with a unique and exquisite shape. A hole eye was found on another skull. Preliminary analysis shows that it was pierced by a sharp weapon such as an arrow.

Well preserved

"From several well preserved tombs, the buried round sand people wore coarse or fine wool fabrics, which were covered with fur coats. On the chest of the clothes, wolf skins were sewn as decorations. Some of them also had hats and belts. The female mummies wore red agate around their necks, leather gloves on their hands, and shellfish ornaments (shells) were also found," edilis said They have been able to skillfully use wool spinning technology. They use wool and camel hair to make clothes, skirts and skirt decorations. The patterns of wool weaving are mostly geometric, and the patterns are plain and twill. Sometimes, the two patterns are used at the same time, showing people's aesthetic taste at that time. The colors of wool fabrics are gorgeous red, yellow, blue, purple, black, white and black It's brown. Most of the pigments come from plants and minerals, and even insects. " French scholar Gao henna said.

In the coffin, the man wore braids and wigs, with brown hair and deep nose. According to French archaeologists, its C 14 is 2100 years ago, and its ethnic characteristics belong to the Caucasian type of Europa. According to yidilis' judgment, there are four types of tombs near yuansha ancient city: tree coffin (coffin from Populus euphratica), vertical hole earth pit grave, vertical hole earth pit tree coffin grave and wooden coffin grave. (wooden coffin: large coffin with inner coffin)

Cultural relic analysis

The tree coffin burial in the vertical hole earth pit is to place the whole tree hall hollowed out of Populus euphratica in the North-South rectangular earth pit; the wood coffin burial is to insert the Populus euphratica stick vertically in the sand to form a square shape, and use the tree fork at the top to also cross the Populus euphratica stick, so as to form a rectangular cover, and then plug the reed at the top and the cracks of the four walls, and bury people in it. Chinese and French archaeologists believe that: from the analysis of the cultural relics unearthed from these tombs, although it seems that yuansha is in the center of the Taklimakan Desert, it was the intersection of eastern and Western cultures long before the opening of the silk road. "The red agate should have come from the west, while the shell decoration comes from the East," said Gao henna, a French scholar.

Life of yuansha people

Sebastian, a French expert in animal archaeology, found that a large number of animal bones were scattered in the city. Among them, sheep and camel bones were the most, followed by horses, cattle, donkeys and dogs, and a small number of pigs, rabbits, fish and birds. She believed that animal husbandry, fishing and hunting played an important role in yuansha people's economic life.

According to the age analysis of sheep skulls, most of these sheep are young individuals of 1-2 years. "In a stockyard near the ancient city of yuansha, the height of the dunghill is 50 cm. There are also thick sheep bones and feces in the city, and the fabrics found here are mainly animal hair and skin, which is enough to show the development of animal husbandry here," said Sebastian.

At the same time, Chinese and French archaeologists found crisscross, orderly arranged and reticulated canals around the ancient city of yuansha, "canals are the sites of irrigation system. Most of these canals are north-south, mainly concentrated in the west of the city, which indicates that there is a developed irrigation agriculture here. Cattle are the main farming tools. The crops that have been found are wheat and millet, and there are a large number of crops in the city Large and small saddle shaped stone grinding plates and a large number of grain storage silos French archaeologist Henry Paul Frankfurt said.

After textual research, experts believe that these ancient channels are one of the earliest remains of ancient channels in Xinjiang.

Residential areas are mainly concentrated in the north of yuansha ancient city. "Almost all the daily necessities for production come from the Populus euphratica. It's especially true for building walls, making gates, building houses and burials. It's also true for daily necessities, such as wooden barrels, bowls, combs, heating and cooking, even though there is no dead Populus euphratica here now," he said.

Pottery was also found in yuansha ancient city. The pottery pieces in the northwest of yuansha ancient city are mainly red pottery with sand, mainly with engraved patterns. In addition, half moon shaped stone sickle and other Neolithic relics were found here, while the pottery in the northeast of yuansha ancient city is mainly gray brown pottery, which is later than that in the northwest.

Because the local Uighurs call this place "youmulakumu", which means "round sand". According to this, the archaeological team called the newly discovered ancient city "yuansha ancient city".

Genetic study of ancient DNA

According to the ancient DNA Laboratory of Jilin University (the key research base of Humanities and social sciences of the Ministry of education, Compared with the modern population, the yuansha ancient population has a closer genetic relationship with the Tajik population in the Pamir Plateau of southern Central Asia and the Uzbek population in the West; at the same time, it has a closer genetic relationship with the brahuis and patans in the Indus River Basin. The yuansha ancient people mainly reflected the migration of the early Eurasian people from west to East.

The mystery of the disappearance of round sand

How did such a large-scale city disappear in the quicksand, no more smoke rising, no more noise? Was it the war that robbed the city? Although archaeologists found some bronze arrowheads in the city, they did not find any more traces of killing and cutting related to the war.

Xuanzang, an eminent monk of Tang Dynasty, tells the story of a city of horaloka, which was lost in the desert. The residents of the city caused God's anger due to their lack of respect for God, and God sent down a storm for seven days and nights to destroy the city. From then on, no matter who tried to get close to the city, it would be "fierce storm, smoke and clouds, road lost".

The scale

Whether yuansha ancient city is the legendary city of horaloka or not, archaeologists speculate that the disappearance of yuansha ancient city may be related to the "storm" - the deterioration of the environment. Yuansha ancient city is located in the middle of an ancient river

Chinese PinYin : Yuan Sha Gu Cheng