Located in the northwest of Kuqa City, Xinjiang, the Kizil Gaha Beacon is located on the salt water ditch, the only passage connecting nomadic and agricultural areas.
Unique geographical location, the Kyzyl Gaha beacon tower became an outpost to guard the Guzitun Reclamation Area, which was built during the Han Xuan Emperor period, and then gradually improved, and in the Tang Dynasty, it was basically completed, carrying the important function of guarding the Tunken Area.
As the earliest and best-preserved beacon site on the northern route of the ancient Silk Road, the Kyzyl Gaha beacon tower is of great significance for studying the spread and change of ramming technology on the Silk Road.
Kyzyl Gaha beacon
1. Introduction to the Kyzyl Gaha Beacon
Because of the conflict between nomads and farming areas, the occasional disturbance of nomads in northern Shanbei is a great threat to the Guzitun Reclamation Area.
We know that the Kyzyl Gaha beacon tower is located on the bank of the salt water ditch, and the salt water ditch is the only way for the outside world to enter the Guzi area, so the role of the Kyzyl Gaha beacon is self-evident: to guard the entire Guzitun reclamation area.
Once the nomads in the north of the mountain invaded, the guards near the beacon tower would find out and then alert the reclamation area to prepare for defense and battle. The Kizil Gaha beacon tower is transliterated from Uyghur, but the specific meaning of Kyzyl Gaha has always been divergent.
Some people say it means "red-billed crow", but others say it means "Krakharahan", which means "the girl stays there". Later, some scholars proposed that "Gaha" is the pronunciation of "Chang Rawul", which means "outpost", so the whole name means "red outpost". This last statement later became a relatively accepted explanation.
Kyzyl Gaha beacon
Second, the development of ramming technology
Why is there so much attention paid to the ramming technology of the Silk Roads? Because the Western Regions region through which the Silk Road passed had a special natural environment, many large city sites and military installations in ancient times used ramming technology.
Before discussing the ramming technology of the Kyzyl Gaha beacon, we must first look at the development of continental ramming technology. Human civilization is constantly advancing, and the progress of various technologies, including ramming technology, is a very important sign of it.
Due to the limited productivity and production process of human beings at that time, the tools and materials used in early ramming techniques were natural, such as pebbles of various shapes, which had already appeared during the Yangshao culture period.
The further development of ramming technology was in the Yongsan culture period, when people used pebbles and summarized the cluster ramming method.
Kyzyl Gaha beacon
In the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, the law of cluster ramming became one of the main methods of ramming, and traces of this construction were found in many city site buildings excavated later, such as the ruins of the Erlitou Palace in Yanshi County, Henan, which is a large rammed earth foundation.
In the Spring and Autumn Warring States period, although this was not a unified era, ramming technology developed rapidly. It was precisely because of the hegemony of the princes during this period that the princely states had a large number of defensive needs in the process of fighting.
From the Great Wall of King Wuling of Zhao Wuling at the southern foot of Daqing Mountain to the Great Wall of King Qin Zhao of the Warring States, the major Great Walls have sprung up, and all of them do not need ramming technology in the process of construction, because they are constantly used, so the ramming technology is naturally constantly improving.
King Zhao Wuling
In the Qin and Han dynasties, because of the realization of unification, the development of ramming technology can be described as rapid progress, such as ramming tools not only stone rammers, but also iron rammers. Therefore, many scholars define the Qin and Han period as the establishment stage of continental ramming technology.
The ancient Silk Road was an important passage between the Central Plains and the Western Regions, and the present-day Kuqa region is located in the western part of the Silk Road, and is also an important town for cultural exchanges and trade. In order to strengthen their rule over the frontiers and ensure the smooth flow of the Silk Road, the Han rulers built a large number of defense and supervision facilities.
At the same time, considering the special natural environment of the Western Regions, these facilities will be stable and solid in the future, and the ramming technology adopted is also very rich, not only the adobe masonry methods in the Western Regions, but also the ramming methods in the Central Plains.
Silk Road
Third, the ramming technology and ramming process of the Kyzyl Gaha beacon
What else is unique about the ramming process of the Kyzyl Gaha beacon? It has to be mentioned that people found that the Kyzyl Gaha beacon tower is located in the Tianshan earthquake zone, that is, this beacon should be built with the ability to prevent earthquakes in mind.
If only adobe is used for construction like buildings in other locations, there is no doubt that the Kyzyl Gaha beacon is very likely to suffer natural disasters due to the weak centripetal force of the earthen beacon and the overall lifting force is not uniform enough.
According to historical records, the Akron beacon at the same time as the Kyzyl Gaha beacon, the ramming method of the entire platform body is made of brick staggered stitching, and the collapse and damage of the entire platform are very serious, exposing the remaining 30 layers of adobe layer.
Kyzyl Gaha beacon
The Sugaiti beacon tower, similar to that in Akron, was rammed in the same way, and the final state was similar: the platform collapsed. In contrast, the ramming technology of the relatively well-preserved Kyzyl Gaha beacon shows its advanced and superiority.
Facts have proved that the difference in ramming process directly affects the strength of the beacon platform. It is found that the ramming nest of the Kyzyl Gaha beacon uses the traditional ramming method, the diameter is generally 6~10 cm, and the shape of these tamper nests is semi-circular, and the distribution of ramming nests is also very regular.
The traditional ramming method can increase the density of soil by ramming the soil, and as the density of the soil increases, the firmness of the beacon will naturally increase.
According to the archaeological team's investigation of the Kizil Gaha beacon, according to the architectural characteristics of the Han Dynasty beacon tower, the ramming process of the Kyzyl Gaha beacon tower can be summarized into two simple steps: foundation construction and layer by layer ramming.
Kyzyl Gaha beacon
The first is to build the foundation. Because the Kyzyl Gaha beacon could not be excavated, there is no accurate data on the depth of the foundation of the beacon tower.
However, we can infer that the foundation of the Kyzyl Gaha beacon should be deeper than that of other areas, because the Kyzyl Gaha beacon is located on the bank of the salt water river, and the soil on the river bank is usually relatively soft, and there must be a deep enough foundation to ensure the stability of the beacon.
After laying the foundation, it is time to ram the beacon layer by layer. When ramming, according to the ramming technology of the Qin and Han periods, the outer frame of the beacon tower must first be made, and then the soil should be rammed in the fixed frame to ensure that there is no floating soil.
Kyzyl Gaha beacon
In order to further improve the robustness of the beacon, during the ramming process, each layer of the Kyzyl Gaha beacon was also added with branches, reeds and other materials, which can support the platform body and give a uniform tensile force to the platform.
Although under the conditions of that time, the craftsmen had exerted their greatest wisdom to ensure the stability of the beacon, modern research shows that the Kyzyl Gaha beacon is still at least 2 meters shorter than before!
It was in 2010, in front of the Kyzyl Gaha beacon, a person in charge of the local tourism office said: "The Kyzyl Gaha beacon is at least 2 meters shorter than before." There are many factors regarding the reasons for shortening.
Kyzyl Gaha beacon
Because the Kizil Gaha beacon tower is built of earth, wind and rain are the first threat to the beacon, and the washing of rain will inevitably take away the earth built in different positions of the beacon.
Another danger is caused by the location of the beacon tower, the salt water ditch on the west side has gradually widened under the flood water, and it is still approaching the position of the beacon tower.
As an important witness of the progress of human civilization and a contributor to the prosperous history of the Silk Road, the protection of the Kyzyl Gaha beacon is an important task for local cultural relics practitioners. In the following time, the relevant departments carried out relevant testing projects and flood prevention work, and effectively protected the platform on the west side of the Kyzyl Gaha beacon tower.
Kyzyl Gaha beacon
Fourth, ramming technology and the Silk Road
The early Silk Road mainly served the trade of the aristocratic class, and since then, with the improvement of various defense facilities on the Silk Road and the continuous prosperity of trade, more and more commercial and cultural exchanges have traveled between the Central Plains and Asia and Europe. At the same time, the objects involved in trade gradually expanded from the upper aristocracy to the common people.
With the expansion of trade objects and trade content, in order to maintain the prosperity of this trade route, the Western Han court recruited a large number of craftsmen and soldiers from the Central Plains region to enter the Western Regions for construction, and these were the people who mastered the advanced construction techniques of the Central Plains.
It can be seen that many facilities on the Silk Road basically adopt the traditional ramming method in the Central Plains during the ramming process, and according to the different natural environments of different places in the Western Regions, the ramming process will be more or less supplemented and improved, and finally the exquisite ramming process on the Silk Road will be formed.
As the most complete preserved beacon along the Silk Road, the exquisite ramming technology embodied in the Kyzyl Gaha beacon is a valuable product of the Silk Road civilization. The large number of beacon towers and other facilities built in the Western Regions reflect the prosperity of the spread and use of ramming technology in the Western Regions at that time.
Silk Road
summary
The Kizil Gaha Beacon is a witness of the historical vicissitudes of the Silk Road and the historical development of the Western Regions. In 2001, the Kyzyl Gaha Beacon was selected as a national key cultural relic protection unit.
In 2005, a large-scale documentary about the Silk Road attracted much attention in the early stages of filming, and the unique location and historical significance of the Kyzyl Gaha beacon were listed as a major site protection project in the Xinjiang section of the Silk Road.
Resources:
[1] FENG Kai,XUE Cheng,WANG Chaoxiang,LIU Lu. Research on ramming technology of beacon tower in the Western Regions of the Han Dynasty:A case study of the beacon tower in the Kyzyl Gaha[J].Wenbo,2018(05):83-88+93.)
[2] Yan Xiaojuan. Kyzyl Gaha became "short"[N]. Xinjiang Daily (Han), 2010-05-20(012).
[3] Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Cultural Relics Bureau: "Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Great Wall Resources Investigation Report" (Volume I), pp. 45~48, Cultural Relics Publishing House, 2014.