Clean out the clay pot. Photo by Zulipikar Umarjan
Urumqi, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Recently, the yingxia township government of Korla City, Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture (bazhou) in Xinjiang, excavated pottery, copper, stone and other ancient artifacts while carrying out mechanical operations on a construction reserve land in Yingxia Village, and immediately stopped work and informed the local cultural relics management department, and protected the site in a timely manner.
After the Bazhou Culture and Tourism Bureau learned of the information, it immediately reported it to the Xinjiang Department of Culture and Tourism (Xinjiang Cultural Relics Bureau). From February 28 to March 2, at the behest of the Xinjiang Department of Culture and Tourism (Xinjiang Cultural Relics Bureau), the Xinjiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology sent archaeologists to Korla City, where staff from the Bazhou Academy of Culture and Culture and the Korla Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism conducted on-site investigations of the site and briefly cleaned up the ruins that had been destroyed and exposed.
In addition to pottery, relics such as gravel, spinning wheels and copper mirrors have been found. Photo by Zulipikar Umarjan
The site is located in the southwest of Korla City, about 2 kilometers away from the city, about 4 kilometers away from the Peacock River in the north, and about 3.4 kilometers east of the ruins of the ancient city of Yuzigan.
When the archaeologists cleaned up the ruins that had been destroyed and exposed at the site, they found traces of the decay of wooden pillars and reeds, and human bones, pottery, iron and other relics were located in the space composed of wooden pillars and reeds, which was initially judged to be a tomb with a trellis structure, which was an ancient cemetery.
A number of cultural relics from the Warring States period were found in Korla City, Bazhou, Xinjiang. Photo by Zulipikar Umarjan
A total of 32 artifacts (groups) were found at the sites of the damaged exposure. Mainly pottery, can be seen single-ear with flow jars, single-ear jars, amphora jars and mono-ear pots, mainly plain noodles, with a small number of additional patterns. One of them is a single-eared flowing jar, and the upper part of the utensil is decorated with an inverted triangular painted ornament. In addition to pottery, relics such as gravel, spinning wheels and copper mirrors have been found. During the clean-up process, archaeologists found that a fragment of carbonized wooden tank mouth was preserved along the periphery of the relatively humid Yanqi Basin, which was not easy.
This batch of relics is a relatively well-preserved batch of relics found in the Korla region in recent years. The tomb shape system and excavated relics are similar to the Shanghu Township Cemetery in Korla City and the Qunbak Cemetery in Luntai County, and all belong to the category of the Chawuhugoukou culture in the prehistoric period of the northern edge of the Tarim Basin, which is roughly in the middle and late Warring States period.
Aerial view of the burial distribution area. Photo courtesy of Xinjiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology
It is understood that the discovery of the yingxia village cemetery in Yingxia Village, Yingxia Township, Korla City, is of great significance for further understanding the connotation of the Chawuhugoukou culture, and for in-depth exploration and improvement of the distribution and evolution of the prehistoric archaeological and cultural pattern in the northern edge of the Tarim Basin. It provides important physical information for the restoration of the historical and cultural features of the Korla region during the period from the Warring States to the Han Dynasty, and provides certain clues for exploring and understanding the city-states around the Yanqi Basin, such as "Wei Plough" and "Dangerous Whiskers" contained in the "Biography of the Western Regions of Han". (End)