Tianshanbeilu_culture

Tianshanbeilu culture

Tianshanbeilu culture

Ancient Chinese bronze age culture

The Tianshanbeilu culture (天山北路文化, 2022–1802 cal BCE), also named Linya,[1] Yalinban or Yamansukuang,[2] is an ancient Bronze Age culture centered around the Tianshanbeilu cemetery in the region of Hami. The Tianshanbeilu culture played an important role in connecting the Hexi Corridor with the Tianshan Corridor.[3] The cemetery remained in use until 1093–707 cal BCE.[3] Tianshanbeilu is the largest Bronze Age site in eastern Xinjiang.[4]

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The people of Tianshanbeilu essentially relied on sedentary agriculture.[3] They had a very rich material culture, with quantities of pottery, bronze artifacts and jewelry.[3][5]

Genetically, the population was mixed, with about 79% of the population derived from Eastern Eurasian lineage, while 21% of the population had a western lineage. It has been suggested that the initial population came from the Hexi Corridor, and thereafter mixed with populations from the West.[6]

The Tianshanbelu culture is considered as a cultural intermediary between the Hexi Corridor and the northwestern Eurasian steppes, as it shares commons cultural characteristics with both areas. Since the Bronze Age, technological and cultural interactions between the people of the Hexi Corridor took place there, between the people of the Hexi Corridor, western Tianshan Mountains and Altai Mountains.[7] It is thought that the Qijia culture of China may have borrowed its bronze metallurgy from Tianshanbeilu and other cultures of the Altai area.[8] The area of eastern Xinjiang appears as a zone of cultural and technological exchange between Eurasia and Western Asia and central China, most probably from the late 4th millennium to the mid-3rd millennium (3000-2500 BCE). Transmissions occurred with cereal crops, domesticated animals, and also painted ceramics from China.[9]

Faience beads were excavated at Tianshanbeilu and dated to 1700-1400 BCE.[10] It is thought that their technology was transferred to China, where faience beads appear in Western Zhou tombs, circa 1040-910 BCE, in the Shanxi-Shaanxi region.[10] Faience beads of Chinese manufacture were then exported back from China to the Xinjiang region during the 1st millennium BCE, as shown by finds in the nearby Wupu cemetery.[10]

References

  1. [1]
    Betts, Alison; Vicziany, Marika; Jia, Peter Weiming; Castro, Angelo Andrea Di (19 December 2019). The Cultures of Ancient Xinjiang, Western China: Crossroads of the Silk Roads. Archaeopress Publishing Ltd. p. 49. ISBN 978-1-78969-407-9.
  2. [2]
    Liu & Chen 2012, p. 337.
  3. [3]
    Tong et al. 2021.
  4. [4]
    Liu et al. 2020.
  5. [5]
    Liu & Chen 2012, p. 348, With drawings and depictions of artifacts.
  6. [6]
    Tong et al. 2021, A physical anthropological analysis suggested that Tianshanbeilu had a genetically mixed population (Wei Reference Wei2017), which had also been confirmed by ancient DNA. Within the Tianshanbeilu cemetery, 79.2% of the population was attributed to an eastern maternal lineage from Eurasia, while 20.8% of the population was attributed to a western lineage, which was also supported by the Y-DNA. Researchers have also suggested that the earliest Tianshanbeilu population migrated from the Hexi Corridor to the Hami Oasis and later mixed with the population from the west (Gao et al. Reference Gao, Zhang, Wei, Li, Zhao, Cui and Zhou2015)..
  7. [7]
    Tong et al. 2021, Considering that the cultural characteristics of the grave goods in the Tianshanbeilu cemetery are similar to those of the cultures from the Hexi Corridor (next to Hami Oasis) and northwestern Eurasian steppes (Shui Reference Shui1993; Li Reference Li2009; Shao Reference Shao2018; Liu Reference Liu2019), archaeologists realized that the Hami Oasis had become an important area for frequent technical and cultural interactions among the people of the Hexi Corridor, western Tianshan Mountains and Altai Mountains since the Bronze Age (Li Reference Li1999, Reference Li2005; Alexey et al. Reference Alexey, Chuluunbat and Sergey2015; Shao Reference Shao2018)..
  8. [8]
    Wan 2011, "The metal-using Afanasievo culture is probably the origin of bronze metallurgy in Northwest China." (...) "Therefore it is conspicuous that one of the earliest bronze cultures in China, the Qijia culture, might well have borrowed its bronze metallurgy from the Steppe, via Siba, Tianshanbeilu, and cultures in the Altai region.".
  9. [9]
    Betts, A.; Jia, P.; Abuduresule, I. (1 March 2019). "A new hypothesis for early Bronze Age cultural diversity in Xinjiang, China". Archaeological Research in Asia. 17: 204–213. doi:10.1016/j.ara.2018.04.001. ISSN 2352-2267. S2CID 134074047. The first connections between the cultural influences of central China and those of Eurasia and Western Asia took place at some time from perhaps the late 4th millennium, but more likely the early to mid-3rd millennium BCE, and can be seen in the cross-transmission of cereals and domesticated animals, as well as the westward filtering of Chinese painted ceramic traditions.
  10. [10]
    Wen, Rui; Hu, Xueqing; Cao, Shiyuan; Wang, Yongqiang (6 April 2023). "The dissemination of Chinese potash-rich faience: investigation of faience beads from the Wupu cemetery, Xinjiang". Heritage Science. 11 (1): 69. doi:10.1186/s40494-023-00901-y. ISSN 2050-7445. Tubular faience beads are found in tombs from around the Western Zhou period, including the Sanmenxia Guo State site in Henan and the Yuguo cemetery in Shaanxi [17, 18]. Shortland suggests that tubular faience was first produced in the Northern Caucasus [19]. Prior to this study, tubular faience beads from 1700BC–1500/1400BC were excavated in the Tianshanbeilu and the Saensayi Cemetery in Xinjiang Province, while those from the Central Plains did not occur until 1040BC–950/910BC in the Shanxi-Shaanxi region [14]. Among them, both contemporaneous tubular beads and oval beads are present in Shanxi Peng State Cemetery (Fig. 7), Shanxi Dahekou site, Shanxi Tianma-Qucun site (Fig. 8), Qinghai Shangsunjiazhai site (Fig. 9) and other sites, similar to the combination of beaded ornaments of Wupu Cemetery. The similarity in faience form and the combination of beads indicate the connection between the Central Plains and Xinjiang.

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