A complete view of the ruins of Tsuten-dong. Photo by Yu Jianjun
Urumqi, January 20 (Xinhua) -- The "2021 Xinjiang Cultural Relics and Archaeological Achievements Report Meeting" was held here from January 19 to 20. At the meeting, new archaeological discoveries in Xinjiang in 2021 were released, and many of them filled the gaps in related fields.
Daniel Zhang Dong, member of the party group and deputy director of the Xinjiang Department of Culture and Tourism (Cultural Relics Bureau), said that in 2021, Xinjiang will complete 15 active archaeological excavations around the implementation of the major project of "Archaeological China", and at the same time complete 18 archaeological projects in cooperation with capital construction, with a total of more than 400 tombs excavated, 4,400 square meters of clean-up sites, and more than 1,000 pieces (groups) of cultural relics unearthed, with fruitful results.
Stone people with Okunev cultural characteristics. Photo by Yu Jianjun
Among them, the site of Tongtian cave located in Jimunai County, Altay Region, has been carrying out archaeological work for 6 years. Yu Jianjun, a researcher at the Xinjiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, said: "In 2021, we found a new stone figure on the east side of the site, and also found related tombs near it, which is the second stone man with Okunev cultural characteristics found, which enriched the connotation of prehistoric culture in the Altay region." ”
He said that the project pushes the history of human activities in Xinjiang to 45,000 years ago, and the barley and wheat found in the site are the earliest archaeological discoveries seen in China, and the site also discovers the earliest black crops in Xinjiang, extending the research horizons such as early crop spread and cultural exchanges to a wider area in the north.
The archaeology of the ancient city of Zhuoerkut in Luntai County, as one of the major topics of "Archaeology and Research on the Military and Political Construction System of the Western Protectorate of the Two Han Dynasties", has also made new discoveries. Chen Ling, a professor at Peking University's School of Archaeology and Literature, said in a video link: "We found the phenomenon of martyrdom and martyrdom under the western wall of the Gaotai city site, which was the first discovery of the ancient city site in Xinjiang and provided an important clue for judging the nature of the site. ”
In terms of "Archaeological Research on The Remains of Multiple Religions in Xinjiang", the excavation of the newly launched Ruins of the Jingjiao Monastery in Western Turpan in 2021 has yielded fruitful results. "The comprehensive disclosure of the main part of the top of the post has been basically completed, which is the only existing Jingjiao monastery on the surface of the mainland and relatively complete, from which a large number of paper fragments of different languages and scripts have been excavated, of which the number of ancient Syriac documents is large, which is the largest in China." Liu Wensuo, a professor at Sun Yat-sen University, said via video link.
Fragments of murals unearthed from the ruins of the Jingjiao monastery in western Turpan. Photo courtesy of Xinjiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology
In addition, in 2021, Xinjiang will also gain a lot of results in cooperation with infrastructure construction. For example, the ancient tomb archaeology involved in the Narensu Water Diversion Project in Tori County, Tacheng District, has a variety of tomb types, large time and space spans, and rich cultural connotations, filling the gap in archaeological work in the region and providing important materials for discussing the changes of prehistoric people and culture in the western edge of the Junggar Basin.
It is reported that the results report meeting was hosted by the Xinjiang Department of Culture and Tourism (Cultural Relics Bureau) and the Academy of Culture and Museum (Guizi Academy), and hosted by the Xinjiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism on the Interpretation and Inheritance Technology of Cultural Heritage governance in the Western Regions. A total of 38 scholars participated in the meeting through online and offline means to report and exchange on new archaeological discoveries, new achievements in multidisciplinary research, and new achievements in cultural relics protection technology in Xinjiang in 2021. (End)
Source: China News Network