Yanbulaq culture
The Yanbulaq culture (Ch: 焉不拉克文化, Yanbulake wenhua, 1100–500 BCE) was an ancient culture based on the tombs of the Yanbulaq Cemetery (Chinese 焉不拉克古墓群, Pinyin Yānbùlākè gǔmùqún or焉不拉克墓地, Yānbùlākè mùdì , English Yanbulaq Cemetery) in Yizhou District, Xinjiang, China. It was a Bronze Age culture, or an early Iron Age culture.
The Yuezhi may have been positionned between the Subeshi culture to their west, the Yanbulaq culture to their east, the aftermaths of the Chemurchek culture to the north, and a wide desertical area to south about a thousand kilometers away from the Central Plains of China.[1] It may also have had contacts with the painted pottery Bronze Age cultures in the Gansu and Qinghai regions.[2]
The cemetery at Yanbulaq contained 29 mummies which dated from 1100 to 500 BCE, 21 of which are asian—the earliest asian mummies found in the Tarim Basin—and eight of which are of the same Caucasian physical type as found at Qäwrighul.[3]
The Yanbulaq culture waned after 500 BCE.[4]
The site has been on the list of monuments of the People's Republic of China (5-189) since 2001 .
References
- ^ Lan-Hai Wei, Ryan; Li, Hui (2013). "The separate origins of the Tocharians and the Yuezhi: Results from recent advances in archaeology and genetics". International Conference on Tocharian Manuscripts and Silk Road CultureAt: University of Vienna, Vienna. 26-28 June 2013.
- ^ Li, Shuicheng (1999). A Discussion of Sino-Western Cultural Contact and Exchange in the Second Millennium BC Based on Recent Archeological Discoveries. Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Pennsylvania.
Yanbulaq Culture , attention is often given to the eastern region of Xinjiang , and it is commonly thought that the Yanbulaq Culture had a close relationship with the painted pottery Bronze Age cultures in the Gansu and Qinghai region
- ^ Mallory & Mair 2000, p. 237.
- ^ Lan-Hai Wei, Ryan. "The separate origins of the Tocharians and the Yuezhi: Results from recent advances in archaeology and genetics". International Conference on Tocharian Manuscripts and Silk Road Culture.
The Yanbulaq culture declined after 500 B.C. and finally disappeared from the northern hills of the Qumul Basin.
Sources
- Zhang Ping (among others): “Xinjiang Hami Yanbulake mudi” (The Yanbulake Cemetery in Hami, Xinkiang). Kaogu xuebao 1989, No. 3, pp. 325–362 + plates 7–14. English summary p. 362. Han Kangxin: Xinjiang). Kaogu Xuebao 1990, No. 3
- Mallory, J. P.; Mair, Victor H. (2000). The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West. London: Thames & Hudson.
External links
- Li Shuicheng: A Discussion of Sino-Western Cultural Contact and Exchange in the Second Millennium BC Based on Recent Archeological Discoveries. Abstract (English)