▲ Unearthed wooden Jane
▲The ruins of the Flintstone in Keyak Kuduk, Yuli County, Xinjiang
Unearthed document "Han Pengfu"
New discoveries
Recently
Xinjiang Yuli County Keyak Kuduk
The archaeological excavation work at the Fengliang site has achieved phased results:
A total of more than 1450 pieces (groups) of various cultural relics have been excavated.
thereinto
The 883 instruments are the most striking.
This is not only the archaeological excavation of domestic sites
The largest number of Tang Dynasty documents,
It is also the first time that a physical specimen of Tang Dynasty Hanwen Mujian has been found.
For this archaeological result,
Member of the Faculty of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Director of the Faculty of History,
Wang Wei, chairman of the Chinese Archaeological Society, said in an interview:
"This archaeological achievement in Xinjiang,
It is an important physical teaching material to explain the pluralism and unity of the Chinese nation.
Enhance the credibility of history, revitalize the historical scene,
Tell the story of China well,
Enhance the public's historical consciousness and cultural self-confidence,
Inherit the Chinese cultural gene, carry forward the excellent traditional Chinese culture,
Cast a solid sense of the Chinese national community,
all played a very important role. ”
▲ Ruins of the Koyak Kuduk Beacon
Located in a desert no-man's land 90 kilometers southeast of Yuli County, Xinjiang, the Site of The Queyak Kuduk Beacon is one of the peacock river beacon groups of the national key cultural relics protection unit.
It is understood that the site has accumulated more than 1450 pieces (groups) of various cultural relics, all of which are practical utensils for the daily life and work of Shubian soldiers. Among the cultural relics are wooden cups, bowls, chopsticks, spoons, ceramic jars, pots, bowls, plates, dyeing and weaving clothes, hemp shoes, weapons and equipment bows, arrows, armor, and official letters uploaded and issued, etc., of which 883 documents (paper documents 758, wooden jane 119, Shushu 4, inscription 2) are the most eye-catching, which is not only the largest number of Tang Dynasty documents excavated from domestic sites, but also the first discovery of Tang Dynasty Han Chinese wooden jane physical specimens.
▲ Some of the documents unearthed
▲ Documents On August 4, 4th of the fourth year of the new century, the reason for the defense of the Marquis of Jiayuan fan was to be prepared
▲ Tang remnants of the document for entering the city to report to Sima Pei of Xizhou and other matters
The documents are rich in content, involving military, political, economic, cultural, legal, transportation, social life, religious beliefs, etc., many of which are discovered for the first time and have high historical research value.
For example, the literary work "Youxian Grotto" is the earliest and only physical specimen in China, and documents such as Han Pengfu, Xiao Jing, and Thousand Character Text have enriched the relevant versions. Letters, exhortations, loans, Buddhist scriptures, Lu Mingshu and other documents are living materials for restoring the social life of the Tang Dynasty. The number of military documents is the largest, including the current situation and war reports conveyed by the superiors, the military intelligence orders issued, the daily inspection records reported by the grass-roots units, the replacement and promotion of soldiers, the scrapping and application for the scrapping of weapons and equipment, the revenue and expenditure accounts of military grain, the treatment of warhorses, and so on. The wooden and simple objects recording the inspection system of "counting and handing over cards", "peaceful fire" and "all youyi" were unearthed for the first time in China, making up for the lack of detailed military records in the Tang Dynasty.
▲ The book of filial piety
▲ Fragments of Buddhist scriptures
The above types of documents are all-encompassing, extremely rich in content, large self-canonical system, major historical events and the activities of historical figures, from small trivia of private life are involved, it can be said that an archive that comprehensively reflects the border defense life and border governance of the Tang Dynasty has been excavated.
▲ Documents And letters
From 2019 to 2021, with the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the Xinjiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology conducted an active archaeological excavation of the Site of Keyak Kuduk Beacon, with an excavation area of 2,300 square meters and achieved major gains, and its results have been selected as the 2019 "Archaeological China" Silk Road Major Project Achievements and the "2020 Chinese Archaeological New Discoveries". This is the first active archaeological excavation of the Tang Dynasty Beacon Site in China.
This excavation systematically revealed the whole picture of the site, clarified the former site of the "Sand Pile Beacon" of the Tang Dynasty, and provided a wealth of first-hand physical materials for the study of military construction in Border Cyprus.
"Beacon is a historical witness of the ancient Chinese dynasty to open up the Silk Road and protect the Silk Road, and is an important support for the effective management system of the country." The archaeological achievements of the Khyak Kuduk Beacon Site are remarkable, the academic value is very prominent, as the materialization carrier of the 'great tradition', it was a national project of the central government at that time. Its realpolitik significance is enormous, and it is undoubtedly another major archaeological discovery in the archaeology of the national frontier in recent years. The beacon is a grass-roots military management institution along the 'Loulan Road' of the Tang Dynasty, and its archaeological findings are undoubtedly a good historical witness with 'credibility' and 'long axis'. It is of the same great significance as the Kyzyl Beacon, which is listed as a World Cultural Heritage Site. Liu Qingzhu, a member of the Faculty of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and a distinguished professor at Zhengzhou University, said in an interview.
▲The whole picture of the ruins of The Kākkuduk Beacon
▲ The ruins of the Kākkuduk Beacon overlook the west
In the Tang Dynasty, the central government greatly strengthened the management of the western regions, and successively set up two major capital protectorates, Anxi and Beiting, to rule the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains. The construction of many military facilities represented by the Keyak Kuduk Beacon formed a complete town defense system for the four towns of Anxi, ensuring the effective jurisdiction and governance of the central government of the Tang Dynasty over the western region.
The archaeological excavations have revealed for the first time the whole picture of the Tang Dynasty Sandui Beacon Site, providing us with first-hand information for understanding the life of Shubian in the Tang Dynasty, understanding the political management system of the Prefecture of Qiangfu, and studying the ancient military system, especially the operation of the Biansai Beacon Institution. Newly discovered military institutions such as Cover Ear Guard, Yanqi Guard, Yulin Town, Tonghai Town, Maze Town, Linhe Beacon, Mapu Feng, Hengling Beacon, Yiquan Valley Shop, Pig Spring Valley Shop, SuLeipu and other military institutions, as well as defense routes such as Loulan Road, Maze Thief Road, and Yanqi Road, are not recorded in any records, filling the gap in the historical literature about the defense system of Yanqi Town, one of the four towns in Anxi in the Tang Dynasty. The discovery of routes such as Loulan Road and Maze Thief Road also provides new information on the ancient traffic and changes of the Silk Road in the Loulan area.
In the ruins, paper documents and wooden janes written in Yanqi documents have also been unearthed, indicating that not only Han soldiers from the Central Plains, but also local soldiers and soldiers will participate in the defense of Beacon Fighting, reflecting the historical fact that in the course of exchanges, exchanges and blending, various ethnic groups have formed a deep identification with Chinese culture, jointly participated in the development and construction of the western region, and defended the homeland of the motherland.
All kinds of relics unearthed from the Beacon Site are untouched, have accurate excavation locations, layers and ages, which are extremely valuable research materials, and will greatly promote the development of archaeology, history, philology, military history, local history of the Western Regions, history of calligraphy and art, etc., and play an extremely important role in inheriting Chinese cultural genes, carrying forward Chinese excellent traditional culture, and casting a solid sense of the Chinese national community.
Rong Xinjiang, professor of the Department of History of Peking University and president of the Turpan Society of Dunhuang, China, said: "Judging from the Tang Dynasty documents unearthed throughout Dunhuang Turpan and even in the western region, the documents unearthed at this site called 'Sand Pile Beacon' at that time were a relatively complete group of Beacon Documents, which were different from the secondary use documents unearthed by dunhuang Turpan documents from monasteries and tombs, and they were practical application documents. They make us aware of the role and daily operation of the Tang Dynasty beacons, and greatly complement the details of the Tang Dynasty's military defense system. Moreover, these documents are concentrated in the Tang Dynasty's most powerful Kaiyuan Tianbao period, located in the middle of the Western Regions, the Beacon Line, the middle of the line of communication, so it shows the connection between Shadui Beacon and the surrounding Fengpu, Zhenshu, Dufufu, and the Kingdom of the Western Regions, including the east to Xizhou, Beiting, west to Anxi (Guizi), Yu Khotan, the emergence of some important figures such as Ambassador Tang (Tang Jiahui, who served as the envoy of the four towns in the sixth year of the New Century), which also shows the importance of this transportation route and strongly proves the Tang Dynasty's solid control over the Western Regions. As well as the continuous maintenance of the road administration construction of the Silk Road. ”
▲ Silk piece with ink book
Expert opinion
The archaeological excavations at the site of The Kārkkuduk Beacon are of great significance
Huo Wei (Distinguished Professor of Sichuan University, Yangtze River Scholar, and One of the Conveners of the Archaeology Department of the Discipline Review Group of the State Council):
The site of The Keyak Kuduk Beacon excavated by archaeologists in Xinjiang is an important historical witness of the Tang Dynasty through the Western Regions and is of great academic significance. The Tang Dynasty's operation of the Western Regions not only strengthened the ties and exchanges between the people of all ethnic groups in the Central Plains and the Western Regions, consolidated the tang Dynasty's border defenses, but also provided an important guarantee for the "Silk Road" that had been dug through the Han Dynasty and maintained the inland transportation between the East and the West.
▲ Fragments of armor
Since the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty has successively set up a series of military establishments of different levels in the western regions, such as the capital protectorate and the army, town, shu, shou and capture, and beacon, and deployed troops to garrison. The Ruins of The Beacon kiln of Keyak Kuduk, which is one of the most basic level of the beacon site, for the first time completely exposed the full picture of the Tang Dynasty frontier beacon site, unearthed a large number of Daily life tools and production tools of the Shubian soldiers, especially also found a large number of Tang Dynasty paper documents and wooden janes, which is the largest number of Tang Dynasty Chinese documents excavated from the domestic Beacon site, which involves a wealth of content, including both Shubian records of Shubian soldiers, personal letters, as well as literary works and traditional classic copies of Xizi. It vividly reproduces many details of the border defense of the Tang Dynasty.
According to preliminary research, the lower age limit of this Beacon site may be the Middle Tang Dynasty, and its geographical location is related to the competition between the Tang Dynasty and Tubo in the Western Regions in the seventh to eighth centuries, which also adds new historical materials to the study of the relationship between Tang and Bo and the development process of the Tang Dynasty through the Western Regions, which can be called another major discovery in China's frontier archaeology and Silk Road archaeology in recent years, which is of far-reaching significance.
▲ Arrow shaft with Zhu Wen
Shen Ruiwen (Dean and Professor, School of Archaeology, Peking University):
The site of The Queyak Kuduk Beacon is a military early warning facility under the Yanqi Town of the Four Towns of Anxi in the Tang Dynasty, then known as "Sand Pile Beacon", which is the seat of a game of governance and an organic component of the town defense system of the four towns of Anxi. Archaeological excavations at the site have filled in a number of gaps and have important academic value and significance. The comprehensive disclosure of the site for the first time provides a rich and relatively complete first-hand physical material for the study of the town defense system of the Tang Dynasty; for the first time, it comprehensively shows the site selection and construction methods of the Tang Dynasty Beacon, the layout and management system of the administrative office, and the real life and ideological world of the Shubian soldiers, which concentrates on the military characteristics of the site and gives us a specific and new understanding.
A large number of precious relics have been unearthed, many of which have been discovered for the first time in China. With the help of these relics, the daily life of the Beacon Soldiers in Yanqi Town can be constructed to the greatest extent, including the diet structure, such as the variety of food crops due to reclamation, which is not very special, but the hunting of wild animals is the main source of meat.
▲ Seeds of food crops
▲ Horticultural plant seeds
The excavation of Han Wen Mu Jian physical objects in the Tang Dynasty is the first discovery in China, the content involves the system of handing over cards, peace and fire, etc. for the first time in China; the excavated documents have created the largest number in China, more than 99% of which are in Chinese, the content is extremely rich, and many contents are also discovered for the first time, filling in a number of historical gaps, and have precious historical value. The instruments are mostly military documents, reflecting the military nature of the site. The literary works "Han Pengfu", "You Xian Grotto", the traditional classic "Filial Piety Sutra" and the Buddhist scriptures, from the content point of view, correspond to the needs of different emotions such as the soldier's concern for his family, the need for the present emotion, loyalty and allegiance to the homeland, and belonging after death, and it is likely that the autonomous institute will discipline the ideological and emotional needs of the soldiers.
▲ Some animal bones unearthed
Luo Feng (Professor, Doctoral Supervisor, School of Cultural Heritage, Northwest University):
Since the Beginning of the Han Dynasty, the mainland has established a complete border defense early warning system, and the Tang Dynasty inherited and improved this beacon transmission system when it passed through the Western Regions to ensure that border military information was quickly transmitted to the command center. Now we are pleased to see archaeologists carrying out archaeological excavations at the site of the Keyak Kuduk Beacon in Xinjiang, which is the first time that the mainland has comprehensively exposed the site of Yifeng. In the past, we only knew from the literature that the warning of beacons was to release smoke during the day, raise fire at night, and send messages for a thousand days. As for how the officers and men of the border areas carried out their daily work and life, and how they spent the long and boring and monotonous days and nights, it was almost impossible to know. At present, the site known as "Sand Pile Feng" by the Tang people has been fully excavated, and in the nearly one hundred years from the early Tang Dynasty to the Middle Tang Dynasty, a wealth of relics and relics have been left behind, with more than 1,400 pieces of various cultural relics.
Careful excavation and multidisciplinary research have generally clarified the layout, function, personnel allocation, and job responsibilities of Beacon. There are houses around the beacon, there are stairs to the pond, surrounded by wooden fences, and they dump garbage down the high platform to form a pile, almost in the same state as when it was abandoned. Through the excavation of the information obtained, the work situation of each officer and soldier from morning to night, the handover system, the exchange of official documents and private messages, the daily reading and diet structure, and even the fixed details of life such as dumping garbage and going to the toilet can be restored and reproduced. This is a major discovery of the tang dynasty border defense sites on the mainland, which is of great significance to the study of the central government's grass-roots defense governance in the western region at that time.
▲Pond
▲ Beast clip
Source | Wenbo Shanxi