Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-42gr6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-20T01:05:45.826Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

CHRONOLOGY OF THE TIANSHANBEILU CEMETERY IN XINJIANG, NORTHWESTERN CHINA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 October 2020

Jianyi Tong Open the ORCID record for Jianyi Tong [Opens in a new window] ,
Jian Ma ,
Wenying Li ,
Xi’en Chang ,
Jianjun Yu ,
Jianxin Wang ,
Yingxia Ma ,
Yiliang Tian ,
Kuerban Reheman  and
Mulati Simayi
...Show all authors
Jianyi Tong
Affiliation:
School of Cultural Heritage, Northwest University, 229 North Taibai Road, Xi’an, Shaanxi Province 710069, China
Jian Ma*
Affiliation:
School of Cultural Heritage, Northwest University, 229 North Taibai Road, Xi’an, Shaanxi Province 710069, China
Wenying Li
Affiliation:
Xinjiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, 4 South Beijing Road, Urumqi, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region 830011, China
Xi’en Chang
Affiliation:
Xinjiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, 4 South Beijing Road, Urumqi, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region 830011, China
Jianjun Yu
Affiliation:
Xinjiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, 4 South Beijing Road, Urumqi, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region 830011, China
Jianxin Wang
Affiliation:
School of Cultural Heritage, Northwest University, 229 North Taibai Road, Xi’an, Shaanxi Province 710069, China
Yingxia Ma
Affiliation:
Hami Museum, 20 West Huiwang Road, Hami, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China
Yiliang Tian
Affiliation:
Cultural Relics Bureau of Hami City, 2 West Hongxing Road, Hami, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region 839121, China
Kuerban Reheman
Affiliation:
Hami Museum, 20 West Huiwang Road, Hami, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China
Mulati Simayi
Affiliation:
Hami Museum, 20 West Huiwang Road, Hami, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China
Liu Ruiliang
Affiliation:
School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, 36 Beaumont Street, Oxford OX12PG, UK
*
*Corresponding author. Email: eurasiansteppes@126.com.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Eurasian steppes experienced frequent cultural transfers, human migration, and diffusion of techniques during the Bronze Age. The Hami Oasis is one of the most dynamic areas and has attracted multiple cultural flows. It is an important area that connects various routes of the Tianshan Corridor with the Hexi Corridor in western China. The Tianshanbeilu cemetery is the largest Bronze Age cemetery in Hami. Thirty-seven new radiocarbon dates allowed us to establish a new and more accurate chronology for Tianshanbeilu. Our results showed that the Tianshanbeilu cemetery was used from approximately 2022–1802 cal BC and remained in use from 1093–707 cal BC. This indicates that Tianshanbeilu is the earliest and longest-used known cemetery in eastern Xinjiang. By incorporating the typology of artifacts and stratigraphic relationships, the development of the Tianshanbeilu cemetery was divided into four phases. The first phase was from 2011–1672 cal BC, the second phase was from 1660–1408 cal BC, the third phase was from 1385–1256 cal BC, and the fourth phase was from 1214–1029 cal BC.

Keywords

Bronze Agechronologyradiocarbon datingTianshanbeilu cemeteryXinjiang
Type
Research Article
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 63 , Issue 1 , February 2021 , pp. 343 - 356
Check for updates
Copyright
© 2020 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Alexey, K, Chuluunbat, M, Sergey, G. 2015. Earliest Europeans in the heart of Asia. Volume 2: the Chemurchek cultural phenomenon: excavations in central part of Mongolian Altai and in headstream of Khovd river; sites and finds in Xinjiang and in outlying regions. Saint Petersburg: Polytekhnika-Print.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2017. Methods for summarizing radiocarbon datasets. Radiocarbon 59:1809–1833. doi: 10.1017/RDC.2017.108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buck, CE, Litton, CD, Kenworthy, JB, Smith, AFM. 1991. Combining archaeological and radiocarbon information: a Bayesian approach to calibration. Antiquity 65:808–821.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Calibration of Carbon 14 Dating Results. n.d. Available at: https://www.radiocarbon.com/calendar-calibration-carbon-dating.htm.Google Scholar
Center of Science and Techniques in Archaeology, IA CASS. 1996. Report of carbon-14 dates (23). Kaogu 7:66–70.Google Scholar
Chang, XE. 1990. Ancient tombs of the Yamansu mine and forest farm office in Hami. In: Society of Chinese Archaeology, editor. Chinese Archaeology Periodicals 1989: 274. Beijing: Cultural Relics Press.Google Scholar
Chen, GK. 2017. Metallurgical community of Xichengyi-Qijia cultures: early metal-making specialists in the Hexi Corridor and related issues. Archaeology and Cultural Relics 5:37–44.Google Scholar
Dodson, JR, Li, XQ, Zhou, XY, Zhao, KL, Sun, N, Atahan, P. 2013. Origin and spread of wheat in China. Quaternary Science Reviews 72:108–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gao, SZ, Zhang, Y, Wei, D, Li, HJ, Zhao, YB, Cui, YQ, Zhou, H. 2015. Ancient DNA reveals a migration of the ancient Di-qiang populations into Xinjiang as early as the early Bronze Age. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 157:71–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Han, JY. 2007. Cultures in Xinjiang from the Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age. Beijing: Cultural Relics Press.Google Scholar
Li, SC. 1999. Study on the collision and exchange of eastern and western cultures in the second millennium BC based on archaeological discoveries. Xinjiang Cultural Relics 1:53–65.Google Scholar
Li, SC. 2005. Regional characteristics and interaction of early metallurgy in northwestern China and that in the central plains. Acta Archaeological Sinica 3:239–278.Google Scholar
Li, SC. 2009. A study of phase one of Tianshanbeilu cemetery in Hami. In: Archaeology & School of Archaeology and Museology, Peking University & National Museum of China, editor. Festschrift in memory of Mr. Yu Weichao. p. 219–228. Beijing: Cultural Relics Press.Google Scholar
Lin, YX, Thilo, R, Wang, H, Ren, XY, Ma, J. 2019. The beginning of faience in China: a review and new evidence. Journal of Archaeological Science 105:97–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, X. 2019. The Interaction between China and Eurasian steppes in Seima-Turbino Period [unpublished PhD dissertation]. Peiking University.Google Scholar
Lv, EG, Chang, XE, Wang, BH. 2001. On the archaeological cultures of the Bronze age in Xin Jiang. In Su, B, editor. Su Bingqi and contemporary Chinese archaeology. p. 172–193. Beijing: Science Press.Google Scholar
Qian, W. 2006. The prehistoric copper and bronze of Hami region in Xinjiang and their Contexts of neghboring cultures. Beijing: Intellectual Property Publishing House.Google Scholar
Reimer, PJ, Bard, E, Bayliss, A, Beck, JW, Blackwell, PG, Bronk, RC, Buck, CE, Cheng, H, Edwards, RL, Friedrich, M, et al. 2013. IntCal13 and Marine13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0-50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55:1869–1887. doi: 10.2458/azu_js_rc.55.16947.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shao, HQ. 2018. The development of the prehistoric cultures in Xinjiang and the interaction with neighbor cultures. Beijing: Science Press.Google Scholar
Shui, T. 1993. A comparative study of bronze cultures in Xinjiang with a discussion of the process of early cultural exchange between the east and the west. Studies in Sinology 1:447–490.Google Scholar
Wang, TT, Wei, D, Chang, XE, Yu, ZY, Zhang, XY, Wang, CS, Hu, YW, Fuller, BT. 2017. Tianshanbeilu and the isotopic millet road: reviewing the late Neolithic/Bronze Age radiation of human millet consumption from north China to Europe. National Science Review:1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wei, D. 2017. Research on the change and interflow mode of ancient crowd during Bronze-Iron Age in Xinjiang Hami region. Beijing: Science Press.Google Scholar
Zhao, KL, Li, XQ, Zhou, XY, Dodson, J, Ming, J. 2013. Impact of agriculture on an oasis landscape during the late Holocene: palynological evidence from the Xintala site in Xinjiang, NW China. Quaternary International 311:81–86 CrossRefGoogle Scholar