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‘Lost’ tribe linked East and West
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The major discovery of 60 tombs and sacrificial pits in Gansu Province sheds light on the mystery of an ancient nomadic tribe along the Silk Road.
A 2,000-year-old wooden cart embellished with gold, silver and copper foil patterns is helping archeologists understand the Xirong tribal culture along the Silk Road.
Big horn sheep and tigers are among the patterns.
“It’s amazing that the metal accessories are still shiny after 2,000 years,” says Yang Xiaolin, a researcher with the National Museum of China.
The cart, one of 44, was a funerary item buried with many other objects in a cluster of tombs. The area, where excavation began in 2006, is known as the Majiayuan Graves in Muhe Township, Zhangjiachuan Hui Autonomous County in northwest China’s Gansu Province.
It is being restored in Lanzhou, the provincial capital, in a laboratory in the Gansu Province Cultural Relics Research Institute.
The cart is typical of vehicle structure dating back to the Warring States Period (475-221 BC).
Since 2006, archeologists have discovered 60 tombs and sacrificial pits containing 44 carts — intended to convey the departed in the next world. The discovery makes the site one of China’s most important excavations.
The richly decorated carts indicate that the owners of the graves were nobility among the Xirong tribe, according to Wang Hui, chief of the provincial research institution.
“The graves have helped us learn the history of the Xirong that had been lost for nearly 1,000 years,” Wang says. “They also provide new information to better understand the culture in southeastern Gansu, as well as the cultural connections between the Xirong and the Qin.”
Xirong is the collective name of various ancient nomadic tribal people who primarily inhabited the western region that is now Gansu and the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.
Before the discovery of the graves, archeologists knew little about the Xirong and had to rely on historic records. The graves have yielded vital evidence to unravel the mysteries of the tribe.
Since 2010, restoration of some of objects from the graves, has been carried out by the Gansu institute in cooperation with archeological departments at Cambridge University, Peking University and the Shaanxi Provincial Archaeological Institution.
Northern prairie culture
Experts determined that the technology and shape of the cart, as well as other items in the graves, had actually originated in the West, indicating that cultural integration had already occurred there 2,000 years ago.
The metal embellishments, such as patterns of tigers and bighorn sheep, are emblematic of the northern prairie culture. The materials for the carts are determined to have come from what is now known as the Altai region in Russia, deep in Central Asia.
The tradition of burying cups, bowls and other vessels of gold and silver in the graves also came from the West, according to Wang.
The buried objects contain cultural elements from the northern prairie, the West, the Xirong, and the Qin, a power during the Warring States Period that later established the Qin Dynasty in 221 BC.
Archeologists also discovered gem-mounted items in the graves, suggesting a technique that spread from the southern prairie region of what is Russia today.
Unearthed grains, such as barley and wheat, also indicate that the Xirong had connections with nomads from the West and the north.
Based on these discoveries, it is believed that the Xirong tribe was a major intermediary between Eastern and Western cultures. During the Warring States Period, Xirong people exchanged not only goods with the outside world, but also integrated some foreign customs into their lives.
The tomb cluster was a stop on a 10-day Silk Road journey that started on July 15. The campaign aims to raise public awareness of the importance of preserving cultural heritage on the Silk Road.
The route stretched 7,000 kilometers from China to the Mediterranean. Merchants in camel trains carried silk and porcelain to Europe and spices to the East 2,000 years ago.
Supported by UNESCO, the “Cherish Dunhuang” campaign took professional journalists, researchers and citizen journalists on an exploration of major natural and cultural heritage sites along the Silk Road. These include the Maijishan Grottos (Wheat Stack Hill), Jiayuguan Pass and the Mogao Caves at Dunhuang, Gansu Province.
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