Early urban occupation in the Tarim Basin: recent fieldwork results from the fortified site of Kuiyukexiehai'er (Koyuk Shahri)

Dang, Zhihao; Li, Chunchang; Zhang, Xiangpeng; Xu, Youcheng; Li, Yue; Tian, Duo; Zhang, Chengrui

doi:10.15184/aqy.2022.18

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Climate deterioration has often spurred people to congregate around available (albeit increasingly diminishing) resources [102,103]. A growing number of studies have shown historical examples of such phenomena in Northwest China [104,105]. The steady water supply and good drainage in the Shirenzigou area make it an optimal summer pasture, allowing large herds to be grazed there.…”

Section: Centripetal Compound Buildings In the Eastern Tianshan Mount...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Living Together, Living Apart: Residential Structures in Late Bronze Age Shirenzigou, Xinjiang

Ren,

Chen,

et al. 2024

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The spatial organization within ancient settlements offers valuable insights into the evolution of social complexity. This paper examines spatially and chronologically contextualized architectural structures and artifacts uncovered at the Late Bronze Age Shirenzigou site to explore the relationship between the use of space and underlying social dynamics in the Eastern Tianshan Mountains of Xinjiang (China). Central to our findings is a distinctive centripetal compound structure, consisting of a larger non-domestic building surrounded by smaller dwellings. This arrangement, along with the variety and distribution of the artifacts, reveals a complex interplay between private and communal spaces at the site, reflecting a growing complexity within the social fabric of the community. The formation of conglomerates of houses around a central communal structure which occurs across the Tianshan Mountains appears to be a strategic adaptation in response to environmental challenges and socio-political transformations across this region at the end of the second millennium BCE.

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Section: Centripetal Compound Buildings In the Eastern Tianshan Mount...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Living Together, Living Apart: Residential Structures in Late Bronze Age Shirenzigou, Xinjiang

Ren,

Chen,

et al. 2024

Land

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“…Issues surrounding the ancient kingdoms along the Silk Road remain a focus of historical studies [1,25,26]. Some of the most recent research on archaeological sites in Aketala-Wupaer [27,28], North Loulan [29], Kuiyukexiehai'er [30], Keyakekuduke [31,32], Haermodun [33], and Miran [34] has provided new perspectives for the study of agricultural development, settlement evolution, and East-West communications along the Silk Road. Despite the intense focus on human-environment interactions in the northern part of the Tarim Basin, less attention has been paid to the south.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Radiocarbon-Refined Archaeological Chronology and the History of Human Activity in the Southern Tarim Basin

Ma,

Hu,

Qiu

2024

Land

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Famous for Taklimakan, the world’s second largest sandy desert, the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang has long attracted researchers from various fields to investigate its paleoenvironment and antiquity. The southern part of this basin is an ideal region in which to investigate the interactions between humans and the environment due to its fragile habitat and prosperous ancient civilizations. However, the lack of direct radiocarbon dating data has caused the chronologies of some of the archaeological sites to be debatable, which hinders our ability to reconstruct historical patterns of human activity and further understand, in a coherent manner, their interaction with the environment. This study reports 25 new radiocarbon dates acquired from ten undated archaeological sites in the southern Taklimakan Desert in order to refine their chronologies. Based on this, a radiocarbon dataset was established to reveal the trajectory of human activity with the support of Bayesian chronological modeling. The results indicate a two-millennium continuous flourishing of the local society since the beginning of the first millennium BCE, as well as a peak of human activity during the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE). The distinct trajectory of human activity in the southern Tarim Basin revealed by this study provides a solid foundation for further assessments of human–environment interaction in the Tarim Basin and along the Silk Road.

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Early urban occupation in the Tarim Basin: recent fieldwork results from the fortified site of Kuiyukexiehai'er (Koyuk Shahri)

Cited by 2 publications

References 7 publications

Living Together, Living Apart: Residential Structures in Late Bronze Age Shirenzigou, Xinjiang

Living Together, Living Apart: Residential Structures in Late Bronze Age Shirenzigou, Xinjiang

Radiocarbon-Refined Archaeological Chronology and the History of Human Activity in the Southern Tarim Basin

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