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Tarim Mummies
The Tarim mummies are a series of mummies discovered in the Tarim Basin in present-day Xinjiang, China, which date from 1800 BC to the first centuries BC, with a new group of individuals recently dated to between c. 2100 and 1700 BC.School of Life Sciences, Jilin University, China, (2021)"The genomic origins of the Bronze Age Tarim Basin mummies" in ENA, European Nucleotide Archive. The mummies, particularly the early ones, are frequently associated with the presence of the Indo-European Tocharian languages in the Tarim Basin,Baumer (2000), p. 28. although the evidence is not totally conclusive and many centuries separate these mummies from the first attestation of the Tocharian languages in writing. Victor H. Mair's team concluded that the mummies are Caucasoid, likely speakers of Indo-European languages such as the Tocharians. A study published in 2021 suggests that the earliest Tarim Basin cultures appear to have had high levels of Ancient North Eurasian ancestry, with smaller ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Museum Urumqi Xinjiang China 新疆 乌鲁木齐 新疆维吾尔自治区博物馆 - Panoramio (2)
Xinjiang, SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; Chinese postal romanization, formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the Northwest China, northwest of the country at the crossroads of Central Asia and East Asia. Being the List of Chinese administrative divisions by area, largest province-level division of China by area and the List of the largest country subdivisions by area, 8th-largest country subdivision in the world, Xinjiang spans over and has about 25 million inhabitants. Xinjiang borders the countries of Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. The rugged Karakoram, Kunlun Mountains, Kunlun and Tian Shan mountain ranges occupy much of Xinjiang's borders, as well as its western and southern regions. The Aksai Chin and Trans-Karakoram ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sven Hedin
Sven Anders Hedin, KNO1kl RVO,Wennerholm, Eric (1978) ''Sven Hedin – En biografi'', Bonniers, Stockholm (19 February 1865 – 26 November 1952) was a Swedish geographer, topographer, explorer, photographer, travel writer and illustrator of his own works. During four expeditions to Central Asia, he made the Transhimalaya known in the West and located sources of the Brahmaputra, Indus and Sutlej Rivers. He also mapped lake Lop Nur, and the remains of cities, grave sites and the Great Wall of China in the deserts of the Tarim Basin. In his book '' Från pol till pol'' (''From Pole to Pole''), Hedin describes a journey through Asia and Europe between the late 1880s and the early 1900s. While traveling, Hedin visited Turkey, the Caucasus, Tehran, Iraq, lands of the Kyrgyz people and the Russian Far East, India, China and Japan. The posthumous publication of his ''Central Asia Atlas'' marked the conclusion of his life's work. Overview At 15 years of age, Hedin witnessed the tri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Qiemo
Qiemo County () as the official romanized name, also transliterated from Uyghur as Qarqan County ( Uyghur: ; ), is a county under the administration of the Bayin'gholin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, bordering the Tibet Autonomous Region to the south. Its area is and, according to the 2002 census, it has a population of 60,000. The county seat is at Qiemo Town. Name "Qiemo (W-G: Ch'ieh-mo) 且末 = modern Cherchen or Charchan (Uyghur: ''Qarqan''). There has been uncertainty about this name as Chavannes (1907), p. 156, and then Stein (1921a), Vol. I, 296 ff., gave an incorrect romanization for the first character. Chavannes, using the French EFEO romanization system, gave ''tsiu'', and Stein used the Wade-Giles equivalent, ''chü''. In fact, the character is correctly rendered ''k’ie'' in EFEO, ch’ieh in Wade-Giles and qie in pinyin. Nevertheless, there has never been any serious dispute about its ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cherchen
Qiemo County () as the official romanized name, also transliterated from Uyghur as Qarqan County ( Uyghur: ; ), is a county under the administration of the Bayin'gholin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, bordering the Tibet Autonomous Region to the south. Its area is and, according to the 2002 census, it has a population of 60,000. The county seat is at Qiemo Town. Name "Qiemo (W-G: Ch'ieh-mo) 且末 = modern Cherchen or Charchan (Uyghur: ''Qarqan''). There has been uncertainty about this name as Chavannes (1907), p. 156, and then Stein (1921a), Vol. I, 296 ff., gave an incorrect romanization for the first character. Chavannes, using the French EFEO romanization system, gave ''tsiu'', and Stein used the Wade-Giles equivalent, ''chü''. In fact, the character is correctly rendered ''k’ie'' in EFEO, ch’ieh in Wade-Giles and qie in pinyin. Nevertheless, there has never been any serious dispute about its ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Niya (Tarim Basin)
The Niya ruins (), is an archaeological site located about north of modern Niya Town on the southern edge of the Tarim Basin in modern-day Xinjiang, China. The ancient site was known in its native language as Caḍ́ota, and in Chinese during the Han Dynasty as Jingjue (, Old Chinese ''tseng-dzot'', similar to ''Caḍ́ota''). Numerous ancient archaeological artifacts have been uncovered at the site. Niya was once a major commercial center on an oasis on the southern branch of the Silk Road in the southern Taklamakan Desert. During ancient times camel caravans would cut through, carrying goods from China to Central Asia. History In ''Hanshu'', an independent oasis state called Jingjue, generally thought to be Niya, is mentioned: Niya became part of Loulan Kingdom by the third century. Towards the end of the fourth century it was under Chinese suzerainty. Later it was conquered by Tibet. Excavations In 1900, Aurel Stein set out on an expedition to western China and the Takl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Khotan
Hotan (also known as Gosthana, Gaustana, Godana, Godaniya, Khotan, Hetian, Hotien) is a major oasis town in southwestern Xinjiang, an autonomous region in Western China. The city proper of Hotan broke off from the larger Hotan County to become an administrative area in its own right in August 1984. It is the seat of Hotan Prefecture. With a population of 408,900 (2018 census), Hotan is situated in the Tarim Basin some southwest of the regional capital, Ürümqi. It lies just north of the Kunlun Mountains, which are crossed by the Sanju, Hindutash and Ilchi passes. The town, located southeast of Yarkant County and populated almost exclusively by Uyghurs, is a minor agricultural center. An important station on the southern branch of the historic Silk Road, Hotan has always depended on two strong rivers—the Karakash River and the White Jade River to provide the water needed to survive on the southwestern edge of the vast Taklamakan Desert. The White Jade River still provides wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kumul (city)
Hami (Kumul) is a prefecture-level city in Eastern Xinjiang, China. It is well known as the home of sweet Hami melons. In early 2016, the former Hami county-level city was merged with Hami Prefecture to form the Hami prefecture-level city with the county-level city becoming Yizhou District. Since the Han dynasty, Hami has been known for its production of agricultural products and raw resources. Origins and names Cumuḍa (sometimes ''Cimuda'' or ''Cunuda'') is the oldest known endonym of Hami, when it was founded by a people known in Han Chinese sources as the '' Xiao Yuezhi'' ("Lesser Yuezhi"), during the 1st millennium BCE. The oldest attested Chinese names is "" (; by the time of the Han dynasty it was referred to in Chinese as "" () or "" (), in the Tang dynasty as , . By the 10th century CE, the city and its residents were known to the Han as "" (). A monk named Gao Juhui, who had traveled to the Tarim Basin, wrote that the ''Zhongyun'' were descendants of the ''Xiao Yu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Loulan Kingdom
Loulan, also called Krorän or Kroraina ( zh, s=, t=, p=Lóulán < ''lo-lɑn'' < ''rô-rân''; ug, كروران, Kroran, USY: Кроран), was an ancient kingdom based around an important city along the already known in the 2nd century BCE on the northeastern edge of the |
Turpan
Turpan (also known as Turfan or Tulufan, , ug, تۇرپان) is a prefecture-level city located in the east of the autonomous region of Xinjiang, China. It has an area of and a population of 632,000 (2015). Geonyms The original name of the city is unknown. The form Turfan (while it is older than Turpan), was not used until the middle of the 2nd millennium CE and its use became widespread only in the post-Mongol period. Historically, many settlements in the Tarim Basin have been given a number of different names. Some of these names have also referred to more than one place: Turpan/Turfan/Tulufan is one such example. Others include Jushi/Gushi, Gaochang/Qocho/Karakhoja and Jiaohe/Yarkhoto. The center of the region has shifted a number of times, from Yar-Khoto (Jiaohe, to the west of modern Turpan) to Qocho (Gaochang, to the southeast of Turpan) and to Turpan itself. History Turpan has long been the centre of a fertile oasis (with water provided by the ''karez'' canal sy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lopnur
Lop Nur or Lop Nor (from a Mongolian name meaning "Lop Lake", where "Lop" is a toponym of unknown origin) is a former salt lake, now largely dried up, located in the eastern fringe of the Tarim Basin, between the Taklamakan and Kumtag deserts in the southeastern portion of the Xinjiang (Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region). Administratively, the lake is in Lop Nur town (), also known as Luozhong () of Ruoqiang County, which in its turn is part of the Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture. The lake system into which the Tarim River and Shule River empty is the last remnant of the historical post-glacial Tarim Lake, which once covered more than in the Tarim Basin. Lop Nur is hydrologically endorheic – it is landbound and there is no outlet. The lake measured in 1928, but has dried up due to construction of dams which blocked the flow of water feeding into the lake system, and only small seasonal lakes and marshes may form. The dried-up Lop Nur Basin is covered with a salt cru ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Central Asia
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the former Soviet Union, Soviet republics of the Soviet Union, republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, which are colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as the countries all have names ending with the Persian language, Persian suffix "-stan", meaning "land of". The current geographical location of Central Asia was formerly part of the historic region of Turkestan, Turkistan, also known as Turan. In the pre-Islamic and early Islamic eras ( and earlier) Central Asia was inhabited predominantly by Iranian peoples, populated by Eastern Iranian languages, Eastern Iranian-speaking Bactrians, Sogdians, Khwarezmian language, Chorasmians and the semi-nomadic Scythians and Dahae. After expansion by Turkic peop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antiquities
Antiquities are objects from antiquity, especially the civilizations of the Mediterranean: the Classical antiquity of Greece and Rome, Ancient Egypt and the other Ancient Near Eastern cultures. Artifacts from earlier periods such as the Mesolithic, and other civilizations from Asia and elsewhere may also be covered by the term. The phenomenon of giving a high value to ancient artifacts is found in other cultures, notably China, where Chinese ritual bronzes, three to two thousand years old, have been avidly collected and imitated for centuries, and the Pre-Columbian cultures of Mesoamerica, where in particular the artifacts of the earliest Olmec civilization are found reburied in significant sites of later cultures up to the Spanish Conquest. A person who studies antiquities, as opposed to just collecting them, is often called an antiquarian. Definition The definition of the term is not always precise, and institutional definitions such as museum "Departments of Antiquities ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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