Shanghai Daily 2006-05-31
A
once-prosperous city, unseen for 2,200 years and buried beneath the
shifting sands of the Taklimakan Desert, has been discovered in
Northwest China by a team of archeologists.
Chinese and French
archeologists claim to have discovered the ruins of an ancient city
which disappeared in the desert in Northwest China more than 2,200
years ago.
The ancient city, shaped like a peach, is located
in the center of the Taklimakan Desert, the second-largest shifting
desert in the world, covering a total area of 337,600 square
kilometers, in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
The perimeter
of the city walls is 995 meters long, with the height ranging from
three to 11 meters. Archeologists have found traces of city gates and
passages at the southern and eastern walls.
The city walls
were built from branches of poplar trees and branches of Chinese
tamarisk (a kind of willow). A protective slope was created outside the
city walls and filled with branches, reeds, silt and the dung of
domesticated animals.
The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Regional
Archeological Research Institute and the Centre National de la
Recherche Scientifique of France jointly launched an archeological
program in 1993. They aimed to explore the Keriya River Valley area, a
river that originates in the glaciers on the northern slopes of the
Kunlun Mountains and flows more than 860 kilometers before disappearing
in the sand in the Taklimakan Desert.
"Our biggest success was
the discovery of the ancient city in 1994," says Idris Abdurrasul, a
research fellow with the Xinjiang archeological research institute.
Chinese
and French archeologists made five excavations at the site of the
ancient city from 1993 to the end of 2005. Both sides began studying
their findings at the beginning of this year and have made progress in
their research, according to Abdurrasul.
Carbon dating by French archeologists shows that the city wall dates back some 2,200 years.
"We
think the city had disappeared before the Western Han Dynasty (206
BC-25 AD) as we did not discover any relics of the Western Han Dynasty
or from the historical periods after the period," says Abdurrasul,
adding this was the oldest city ever discovered in Xinjiang.
In
the late 19th century, ruins of a Tang Dynasty (618 AD-907) town were
found in an area about 200 kilometers south of this ancient city, and
the ruins of a town from the period between the Han Dynasty and the Jin
Dynasty (265 AD-420) were discovered in an area 43 kilometers south of
this ancient city.
The Uyghurs of Keriya (Chinese: Yutian) County, 300 kilometers
south of the ancient city, call the area where the ancient city was
found, Yomulakkum, meaning "round sand," leading the archeologists to
name the ancient city "The Old City of Round Sand." But unlike the
other ancient cities discovered in the area, the Round Sand City can
not be found in any historical documents.
Archeologists
discovered more than 20 tombs in the area around the city, only three
of which remained intact. In one of the tombs, the bodies of two males,
sporting pigtails and wigs, were found facing each other. In two
others, a man and a woman were found in each.
French
archeologists says the corpses dated back 2,100 years, and the four
people belonged to the Caucasoid group of the Caucasian race. However,
they could not explain where the people were from.
Generally speaking, the Caucasoid group mainly lived in Europe, West Asia and Northern Africa.
The
people wore woolen fabric and leather clothes. They also had ornaments
on their clothes, which were made of wolf hide and some of them had
ornaments on hats and waistbands. One woman was wearing a red agate
ornament around her neck and leather gloves and ornaments made of
shells.
The findings show that these people were skilled with
textiles, and they used wool from sheep and camels to make clothes,
says Corinne Debaine Francfort, a French scholar who participated in
the excavation.
The people could dye wool into bright red,
yellow, blue, purple, black, white and coffee by using dyestuff from
plants, minerals and even from insects, says Francfort.
The
Round Sand City could have been a place where goods from the West and
East were traded, according to Francfort, saying "Agate ornaments could
have come from the West and shell ornaments from the East."
Archeologists
also found skeletons of many animals which, according to them, show
that animal husbandry, fishery and hunting were very important parts of
the lives of the people.
Irrigation ditches were also found in
the areas around the city ruins, which show Round Sand people had
developed irrigated farming, says French archeologist Henri Paul
Francfort, adding that traces of wheat and millet were also discovered,
with many different-sized saddle-shaped millstones and numerous caches
for storing grain inside the city.
The residential areas were located in the northern part of the Round Sand City.
"Almost
all the things in the city were made from poplar trees, including the
city walls, city gates, houses and tombs, and also the daily
necessities such as wooden barrels, bowls and combs," says Abdurrasul.
"They also used poplar tree branches to cook meals and produce heating
during winter. However, not a single poplar tree can be found in the
area today."
Archeologists did not find any trace of written materials, symbols or anything that could tell the history of the ancient city.
Based
on analysis of satellite pictures and on-the-spot investigations,
archeologists found that the Round Sand area used to be covered by many
rivers and thick forest, a home to 98 kinds of wild vertebrate, says Ma
Ming, a research fellow with the Xinjiang Ecological and Geological
Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
As for
the reason behind the city's disappearance, Abdurensule explains that
the Keriya River had retreated gradually due to the expansion of the
desert and the local environment had deteriorated due to the excessive
felling of trees. The people had to move to other places to survive.
The
result is that the city was not recorded and today's people can't know
its religion, language and origin, Abdurrasul says. The final report
on the discovery of the Round Sand City is expected to come out next
year.
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