Primitive Population Migration and Cultural Exchanges
12 min readArchaeological data and Primitive residents in the Western regions Todays Xin jiang region in the northwest of China was called the Western Regions in history. That name first appeared in the history records during the Han Dynasty more than 2000 years ago. at that time, the Western regions referred to areas west of yumen pass and Yang Pass. Later on, the entire northwest of the territories of Chinese dynasties of the Central Plains was generally described as the Western Regions. Despite differences of theoutreach in history books of different dynasties, the central part of the Western Regions has always been todays Central Asian region including Xin jiang of china When did primitive humans in the Western Regions first appear? Archaeological discoveries and research in the 20 century have presented us a general picture about the historical source of the humans in Xin jiang. There have been reports on Palaeolithic sites there, such as Palaeolithic chipped stone implements of 20,000 to 30,000 years ago unearthed in the southwest of the old city of Jiaohe. There are more discoveries of Neolithic sites in Xinjiang. However, Neolithic stone implements were often found side by side with bronze or iron implements. The dates could be as early as the mesolithic age or as late as the bronze age or even early Iron Age. In places surrounding the Western Regions, including the Central Asia and South Siberia of the former Soviet Union. Gansu and dinghai of china as well as some spots in India. their Neolithic sites were all more than 4,000 years old. Those places basically went into the Bronze age afterwards. The Western Regions should not be a dramatic exception given its geographic location, All the above-mentioned information combined, we believe the Western Regions do have Stone Age sites dated 4,000 years ago. Therefore, our story of the pre-historical Western Regions should start from then, As to archaeological conclusions and related descriptions before that time, they still have to be confirmed in future discoveries and research The primitive residents in the Western Regions have long been an issue that tremendously interests the academic circle. Over the past decade, thanks to both archaeological discoveries and ethnic and racial studies of historical humans in the Western regions we now have a rough idea about the source distribution migration integration and development of the primitive residents in that area. Up to now, no site has been found in the Western Regions suggesting the evolution of the anthropoid or apes, on which basis we may deduce that the primitive residents in the Western Regions came fromthe surrounding areas in different historical times Despite the absence of a full-blownpalaeo-anthropological explanation of the ancient racial and ethnic structure in todays Xin jiang due to data inadequacy, it can be asserted for sure that the primitive residents in Xin jiang were composed of two branches, the western race and the eastern race thanks to archaeological and anthropological data in today’s Khotan, Lop Nor, Hami and lli.
Western Humans in the Western Regions
The western humans refer to the ancient Caucasoid race. There are two proofs pointin to their entry into ancient Xinjiang. One is the archeological and anthropological data in Central Asia, which is close to Xin jiang. Fossils of Homo Neanderthal in the Palaeolithic era were excavated from the rock cave at Queshka-Tash in Uzbekistan, Two skulls of pre historic European man with Cro-Magnon features were unearthed in eastern Kazakhstanone of the Neolithic era and the other Bronze-Stone Age In some other places narrow-faced skulls of the Neolithic age were found All those skulls have a lot of things in common with the skulls unearthed from tombs in the neolithic age in the mediterranean areas. Conclusion can be drawn from those data that those primitive Europeans moved further east to the ancient Western regions.
The second proof is the data in Xinjiang. Elements of the two types of primitive European people, the Neanderthal and the cro-Magnon have also been found in the palaeo anthropological data after the Bronze age in Xinjiang. As pointed out by the famous Chinese palaeo-anthropologist Mr Han Kangxin, “At least by the end of the Bronze age, European races with primitive features were already in the region near Lop Nor. It is still not possible to pin down from where and how they came to the heartland of Xinjiang, however, the anthropological features of the residents of the Gumugou (in the area of Lop Nor) Culture show that racially, they were closely linked with residents in South Siberia, Kazakhstan Central asia or even the lower reach of river volga at the bronze age Elements of the European race with east Mediterranean features seemed to have come later, as they were found in the ancient tombs in Shanpula at Lop (in Khotan area), outskirts of Loulan at Lop Nor, and Alagou (south of the eastern part of the Tianshan Mountains)Such features were dominant in the first two places Mr Han gives a sketch on how the primitives around the Tarim Basin in ancient Xinjiang travelled: “People with elements of the Mediterranean race in Central asia traversed the pamirs and then divided into two groups The first group moved further east along the southern edge of the Tarim Basin, arriving in Lop nor, possibly forming an important part of the residents in the state of loulan during the han dynasty either by themselves or together with another primitive group with European racial elements who arrived earlier in that region The other group moved east ward along the northern line of the Tarim Basin until they arrived at the eastern part of the Tianshan mountains In their infiltration process, it is likely that they mixed more with local people than their southern route counterparts As to the primitive population to the north of the Tianshan Mountains, Mr Han states as follows: “In the hundreds of years around the beginning of Gregorian calendar, people livingin the upper reach of River Ili (north of Tianshan Mountains) were the ancient Sak and Usun, who had another type of anthropological features, that is, the short-skulled Pamir-Fergan type, or otherwise known as the Central asia Transoxiana type. Some of them had transitional features between the Transoxiana type and Andronov (European) type. On thewhole, they were obviously similar in physique to other Sak(excluding South Pamir Sak) and Usun people in Central Asia, but quite different from the afore-mentioned European and Mediterranean primitives ” 83 Eastern humans in the Western regions.
The eastern humans refer to the Mongoloid race. At present, data showing the source and distribution of those people in ancient Xinjiang are still very sketchy, but the existing archaeological and anthropological materials do point to a number of preliminary conclusions.
First, the Mongoloid race already moved into ancient Xinjiang before the starting year of the Gregorian calendar. “Shortly before the Christian era, with the ma jor racial movements at that time, features of the Mongoloid ‘ sedimented, to varying degrees, intothe Transoxiana type (active in todays Central Asia and north to the Tianshan Mountains that was taking shape then. “e Second, it is assumed on the basis of archaeological and anthropological data on Yablak Tomb in Hami and Turki Tomb in Lop Nor that”possibly at least before the Chinese han Dynasty, the western and eastern races moved into Xin jiang in the opposite direction, But in comparison. the westbound infiltration by the mongoloid was rather fragmentary, unlike he active eastward-moving western-type humans Third, it is found widely that people with elements of the eastern and western races tended to stay in the same place(including the same tomb or tomb complex), as demonstrated by the ancient tombs in Alagou, Yablak in Hami and later on, Loulan and Zhaosu (in li area). It is still not clear whether those people were of a race-based maste slave relationship or members of the same family From what has been discussed above, we can see that the primitive residents in ancient Xin jiang came from the neighboring regions. People moved from east or west to Xinjiang along grasslandgincluding the grassland hidden deep in mountains), rivers and alluvial plains and oases on the verge of the basins. The Caucasoid from the west spread wider in the Western Regions, and they gradually moved further into the east and arrived in today’s Hami in Eastern Xinjiang by early Iron Age. The Mongoloid from the east mainly lived in the eastern part of the Western Regions, and they also moved westward as time passed by arriving in today s lli River valley by early Iron Age. Archaeological excavations and study show that those primitive residents of Xin jiang coming from different directions met on their route of migration and mixed with each other ethnically.
Ancient exchanges bet ween Civilizations
What has been unearthed also reflects the aboriginal social and cultural customs of the early residents in the Western Regions, which were a combination of local features and their neighbors’ way of life. In the middle of the Western Regions. local flavor was prett strong, while the border areas were subject to bigger influence of either the eastern or western civilizations. It can be deduced that the primitive people went through a period of stable integration and development after moving into the Western regions, on which basis the unique civilization of the Western Regions came into being Human civilizations do not move along at the same pace in different regions. To the east of the Western Regions, the Central Plains along the yellow river were advancing faster in their own civilization Before 2000 BC. the Xia tribe in that area set up the first slave state in the history the Central Plains-the Xia Dynasty. At about the 15 century bC, the Shang dynasty then ruling the Central Plains was at the peak of the slave society. In the 8 century BC, the system enfeoffment was prevalent in both the western and eastern Zhou Dynasties. At the same time the Western regions were in transition to the class society. However, the ancient Transoxiana, which was to the west of the Western Regions, only gradually developed a class society between the loth and 7 centuries BC. It came under the rule of the ancient Persia Kingdom in the 6 century BC. The mountains at the western edge of the tarim Basin and the pamirs restricted the eastward expansion of the ancient Persian Kingdom which made it much easier for the Western regions to interact with the east. including both the land-farming civilization on the central plains and the nomadic civilization on the northern grassland. As a result the Western Regions has a long history of exchanges and communications with areas to its east. As time passed by, their interactions intensified, and more and more people from the east moved to the Western Regions and lived there. Such inter-civilization exchanges then formed a part of the increasingly inclusive ancient Chinese civilization It is universally recognized both at home and abroad that the earliest written record on the Western Regions was in Chinese and that no study on the Western Regions (includingthe Central Asia) before the 6 century BC can be made without referring to the Chineselanguage historical data. A lot of records of the geography, history and legends of the Western Regions can be found in those Chinese historical materials written during or around the Warring-States Period(465-221 BC), such as Book of Mountains and Seas, Chronicles on Bamboo, Biography of Mutianzi, Yi Zhou Book, and Da-Dai-Li-Ji. There are even more lengthy accounts in Records of History and Book of Han All those records share one feature in common that is. the Western Regions were described as part of the Chinese civilization. For example, in records of geography, the landscape, mountains and rivers, mineral resources and other products of the Western Regions were always put side by side with the relevant items on the Central Plains. As recorded in book of mountains and seas the Kunlun mountains and the altun mountains which are located in the mid-south and southeast of the Western Regions respectively.were called as the Southern mountains together with the milian mountains west of the Yellow River in today’s Gansu Province and the Qinling Mountains in today’s Shaanxi Province. The Qinling were also called the End of the Southern Mountains, since they are the concluding part of the Southern Mountains. In the same book, it was also written that the Yellow River on the Central Plains had its origin from the Western Regions. According to the book, the Congling River(today’s Kashgar and Yarkand Rivers) and Yutian River(todays Khotan River) converged into one (also known today as the Tarim River), which flowed nto Youze(today’s Lop Nur) and then went underground and ran through the Southern Mountains(today’s Jishi Mountains in Qinghai), forming the source of the Yellow River Although that assumption was mistaken and was gradually abandoned during the Tang Dynasty, it did reflect that ancient people in China thought the Western Regions and the Central plains as a whole There are numerous records and legends about the interactions and friendly exchanges between the ancient Western Regions and the Central Plains. For example, it was recorded in Chronicles on Bamboo that in the 26 year of Dawu of Zhongzong’s reign in the Shan Dynasty(about 1612 BC), Xirong sent people eastward and the king of shang reciprocated y sending Wang Meng to Xirong. The best known story is the visit by the king of Zhou Dynasty, Muwang, to the Western Regions. The story has it that Muwang led a big entourage eastward and received welcome in the Western Regions by the local leader,a lady called Xiwangmu Muwang gave the lady a lot of gifts such as silk, bronze ware and shell coins, while Xiwangmu hosted a banquet in Muwang’s honor at Yaochi. The two leaders were so happy that they improvised poems at the banquet. In the 17 year of Muwang’s reign(about 985 BC), Xiwangmu came to the Central Plains to see Muwang and was accommodated in the Zhao Palace. Today on the murals of Cave No 423 of Mogaoku in Dunhuang and those in the fore chamber of Tomb No 5 during the Wuliang period unearthed in 1978 at Xijiazha, Jiuquan of Gansu, people can still see the vivid story of the meeting between Muwang of the Zhou Dynasty and Xiwangmu from the Western Regions Although such stories may well be just legendary, they do lend us additional support toargue for the time-honored and harmonious relations between the Western regions and the Central plains.
Among everything that has been discovered two types of cultural relics are most convincing evidence for the material exchanges between the Western regions and the Central Plains. The first type is the jade the Western Regions sent to the Central Plains. For long, the Western Regions have been famous for their jade stones. all the kings and lords of the Central Plains”took pride in possessing Yuzhi Jade”. Yuzhi was another name for Rouzhi people in the northwest, who lived in places from east Tianshan Mountains to Dunhuang, the corridor linking the Western Regions and the Central Plains, hence jade produced in the Western Regions called Yuzhi Jade by the Central Plains. In addition, there was Kunlun Jade, which was produced in the Kunlun Mountains. In 1976. the tomb of fuhao he wife of the king of Shang Dynasty Wuding, was unearthed at Yinxu, Anyang of Henan.From that over-3, 200 years old tomb, 756 pieces of jade wares were excavated, most of which were made of Kunlun Jade. The Yumen Pass at Dunhuang is literally translated as thePass of Jade Gate, which apparently suggests it was a must-go pass for the transportation of jade from the Western Regions .
The second type is the silk fabrics produced on the Central Plains that were transported to the Western regions or further west The earliest silk fabrics unearthed in the Western Regions up to now were found in the tombs during the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, about the 2 century BC. Given the difficulty of preserving silk and the evidence of silk being transported to persia via the western regions as early as in the latter half the sth century BC, it must be way before the late 5 century BC that silk was transported into the Western regions .
In addition archaeological data of the former soviet union show that bronze mirrors of the Warring states period in the history of the central plains were found in the tombs of the Hujie People living in the Altay area of the Western Regions in the sth century BC and that the mirrors were basically identical with those unearthed from the guoguo tomb at Shangfengling in Shaan County of Henan (a province on the Central Plains) both in terms of shape and size. In another development, the lacquer wares popular in ancient Western Regions were also undoubtedly transported from the central plains.
