Loulan
Encyclopedia
Oasis
In geography, an oasis or cienega is an isolated area of vegetation in a desert, typically surrounding a spring or similar water source...
city already known in the 2nd century BCE on the north-eastern edge of the Lop Desert
Lop Desert
The Lop Desert or Lop Nur or Lop Nor, is a desert extending from Korla eastwards along the foot of the Kuruktagh to the formerly terminal Tarim Basin in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China. It is an almost perfectly horizontal expanse...
. Loulan, known to Russian archaeologists as Krorayina, was an ancient kingdom along the Silk Road
Silk Road
The Silk Road or Silk Route refers to a historical network of interlinking trade routes across the Afro-Eurasian landmass that connected East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean and European world, as well as parts of North and East Africa...
. In 108 BCE, the Han Dynasty
Han Dynasty
The Han Dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin Dynasty and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms . It was founded by the rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han. It was briefly interrupted by the Xin Dynasty of the former regent Wang Mang...
forces defeated the armies of the Loulan kingdom and made it into a puppet/allied state. In 77 BCE, according to the History of the Former Han Dynasty
Book of Han
The Book of Han, Hanshu or History of the Former Han Dynasty |Fan Ye]] . Various scholars have estimated that the earliest material covered in the book dates back to between 206 and 202 BCE...
, the Chinese envoy Fu Jiezi
Fu Jiezi
Fu Jiezi , born in Qingyang, Gansu, was responsible for the assassination of Loulan king Angui in 77 BC....
assassinated Loulan's king, Chang Gui. The kingdom then came under the control of the Han empire and was given the Chinese name of Shanshan
Shanshan
Shanshan is the Chinese name for a kingdom that existed roughly from 200 BCE-1000 CE at the north-eastern end of the Taklamakan Desert including the great, but now mostly dry, salt lake known as Lop Nur....
, though the town at the northwestern corner of the brackish desert lake Lop Nur
Lop Nur
Lop Lake or Lop Nur is a group of small, now seasonal salt lake sand marshes between the Taklamakan and Kuruktag deserts in the Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, southeastern portion of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China.The lake system into which the Tarim...
retained the name of Loulan. The ruins of the town of Loulan are on what were the western banks of Lop Nur, now desiccated, in the Bayin'gholin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture
Bayin'gholin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture
Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture , short for Bayingol is an autonomous prefecture of the People's Republic of China. It is the largest autonomous prefecture of China with an area of 462,700 km²...
, Xinjiang
Xinjiang
Xinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. It is the largest Chinese administrative division and spans over 1.6 million km2...
. The site is now completely surrounded by desert.
History
Tarim mummies
The Tarim mummies are a series of mummies discovered in the Tarim Basin in present-day Xinjiang, China, which date from 1900 BC to 200 AD. Some of the mummies are frequently associated with the presence of the Indo-European Tocharian languages in the Tarim Basin, although the evidence is not...
, was discovered in Loulan in 1980, indicating very early settlement of the region.
Loulan was on the main route from Dunhuang
Dunhuang
Dunhuang is a city in northwestern Gansu province, Western China. It was a major stop on the ancient Silk Road. It was also known at times as Shāzhōu , or 'City of Sands', a name still used today...
to Korla
Korla
-Economy:Korla has long been the biggest centre in the region after Karashahr itself, having abundant water and extensive farmlands, as well as controlling the main routes to the south and west of Karashahr. Due to the discovery of oil in the Taklamakan Desert, Korla is now both more populous and...
, where it joined the so-called "northern route", and was also connected by a route southwest to the kingdom’s seat of government in the town of Wuni in the Charkhlik/Ruoqiang
Ruoqiang
Ruoqiang, historically referred to Charkliq, Charkhlik, Qarkilik, or Chakliq, and alternatively spelt Jo-ch'ien, can refer to:*Ruoqiang County in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China...
oasis, and from thence to Khotan
Khotan
Hotan , or Hetian , also spelled Khotan, is the seat of the Hotan Prefecture in Xinjiang, China. It was previously known in Chinese as 于窴/於窴 and to 19th-century European explorers as Ilchi....
and Yarkand.
The first historical mention of Loulan was in a letter from the Chanyu
Chanyu
Chanyu , was the title used by the nomadic supreme rulers of Middle and Central Asia for 8 centuries, starting...
of the Xiongnu
Xiongnu
The Xiongnu were ancient nomadic-based people that formed a state or confederation north of the agriculture-based empire of the Han Dynasty. Most of the information on the Xiongnu comes from Chinese sources...
to the Chinese Emperor in 126 BCE in which he boasted of conquering the Yuezhi
Yuezhi
The Yuezhi, or Rouzhi , also known as the Da Yuezhi or Da Rouzhi , were an ancient Central Asian people....
, the Wusun
Wusun
The Wūsūn were a nomadic steppe people who, according to the Chinese histories, originally lived in western Gansu in northwest China west of the Yuezhi people...
, Loulan, and Hujie, "as well as the twenty-six states nearby." In 126 BCE, the Chinese envoy, Zhang Qian
Zhang Qian
Zhang Qian was an imperial envoy to the world outside of China in the 2nd century BCE, during the time of the Han Dynasty...
described Loulan as a fortified city near Lop Nur.
In 77 BCE the Chinese envoy Fu Jiezi
Fu Jiezi
Fu Jiezi , born in Qingyang, Gansu, was responsible for the assassination of Loulan king Angui in 77 BC....
stabbed Loulan's King, Chang Gui, to death. The kingdom then became a Chinese puppet state and was renamed the kingdom of Shanshan
Shanshan
Shanshan is the Chinese name for a kingdom that existed roughly from 200 BCE-1000 CE at the north-eastern end of the Taklamakan Desert including the great, but now mostly dry, salt lake known as Lop Nur....
. The capital was to south-west of Lop Nur
Lop Nur
Lop Lake or Lop Nur is a group of small, now seasonal salt lake sand marshes between the Taklamakan and Kuruktag deserts in the Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, southeastern portion of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China.The lake system into which the Tarim...
near modern Ruoqiang
Ruoqiang
Ruoqiang, historically referred to Charkliq, Charkhlik, Qarkilik, or Chakliq, and alternatively spelt Jo-ch'ien, can refer to:*Ruoqiang County in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China...
(Charkhlik) on the Southern Silk Route between Dunhuang
Dunhuang
Dunhuang is a city in northwestern Gansu province, Western China. It was a major stop on the ancient Silk Road. It was also known at times as Shāzhōu , or 'City of Sands', a name still used today...
and Khotan
Khotan
Hotan , or Hetian , also spelled Khotan, is the seat of the Hotan Prefecture in Xinjiang, China. It was previously known in Chinese as 于窴/於窴 and to 19th-century European explorers as Ilchi....
.
Because of its strategic position on what became the main route from China to the West, during the Former Han and Later Han
Later Han Dynasty (Five Dynasties)
The Later Han Dynasty was founded in 947. It was the fourth of the Five Dynasties and the third consecutive Shatuo Turk dynasty...
, control of it was regularly contested between the Chinese and the Xiongnu. The Hanshu records that:
"it lay close to Han and confronted the White Dragon Mounds. The locality was short of water and pasture, and was regularly responsible for sending out guides, conveying water, bearing provisions and escorting or meeting Han envoys. In addition, the state was frequently robbed, reprimanded or harmed by officials or conscripts and found it inexpedient to keep contact with the Han. Later, the state again conducted espionage for the Xiongnu, often intercepting and killing Han envoys."
The Xiongnu repeatedly contested the Han Chinese for control of the region until well into the 2nd century CE, and is recorded as a dependent kingdom of Shanshan in the 3rd century Weilüe.
A military colony of 1,000 men was established at Loulan in 260 CE by the Chinese General So Man. The site was abandoned in 330 CE due to lack of water when the Tarim River
Tarim River
The Tarim River is the principal river of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China...
, which supported the settlement, changed course and the military garrison was moved 50 kilometres (31.1 mi) south to Haitou. The fort of Yingpan to the northwest remained under Chinese control until the Tang Dynasty
Tang Dynasty
The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
.
The later history of the site is described under Shanshan
Shanshan
Shanshan is the Chinese name for a kingdom that existed roughly from 200 BCE-1000 CE at the north-eastern end of the Taklamakan Desert including the great, but now mostly dry, salt lake known as Lop Nur....
.
Sven Hedin
Loulan was rediscovered by Sven HedinSven Hedin
Sven Anders Hedin KNO1kl RVO was a Swedish geographer, topographer, explorer, photographer, and travel writer, as well as an illustrator of his own works...
in 1899, who excavated some houses and found a wooden Kharosthi tablet and many Chinese manuscripts from the Later Han Dynasty (3rd century CE).
Aurel Stein
Aurel Stein made further excavations in 1906 and 1914, investigating the town's packed-earth and straw wall. It was over 1000 feet (304.8 m) on each side, and 20 feet (6.1 m) thick at the base. Stein also recovered a wool-pile carpet fragment, some yellow silkSilk
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...
, and Gandhara
Gandhara
Gandhāra , is the name of an ancient kingdom , located in northern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. Gandhara was located mainly in the vale of Peshawar, the Potohar plateau and on the Kabul River...
n architectural wood-carvings.
Chinese archaeological expedition, 1979-1980
In 1979 and 1980, three archaeological expeditions sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Xinjiang Branch performed excavations in Loulan. discovered a manmade canalCanal
Canals are man-made channels for water. There are two types of canal:#Waterways: navigable transportation canals used for carrying ships and boats shipping goods and conveying people, further subdivided into two kinds:...
, 15 feet (4.6 m) deep and 55 feet (16.8 m) wide, running through Loulan from northwest to southeast; a 32 feet (9.8 m) high earthen dome
Dome
A dome is a structural element of architecture that resembles the hollow upper half of a sphere. Dome structures made of various materials have a long architectural lineage extending into prehistory....
-shaped Buddhist stupa
Stupa
A stupa is a mound-like structure containing Buddhist relics, typically the remains of Buddha, used by Buddhists as a place of worship....
; and a 41 feet (12.5 m) long by 28 feet (8.5 m) wide home apparently for a Chinese official, housing 3 rooms and supported by wooden pillar
Column
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a vertical structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. For the purpose of wind or earthquake engineering, columns may be designed to resist lateral forces...
s. They also collected 797 objects from the area, including vessel
Packaging and labelling
Packaging is the science, art, and technology of enclosing or protecting products for distribution, storage, sale, and use. Packaging also refers to the process of design, evaluation, and production of packages. Packaging can be described as a coordinated system of preparing goods for transport,...
s of wood, bronze
Bronze
Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...
objects, jewelry and coin
Coin
A coin is a piece of hard material that is standardized in weight, is produced in large quantities in order to facilitate trade, and primarily can be used as a legal tender token for commerce in the designated country, region, or territory....
s, and Mesolithic
Mesolithic
The Mesolithic is an archaeological concept used to refer to certain groups of archaeological cultures defined as falling between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic....
stone tool
Stone tool
A stone tool is, in the most general sense, any tool made either partially or entirely out of stone. Although stone tool-dependent societies and cultures still exist today, most stone tools are associated with prehistoric, particularly Stone Age cultures that have become extinct...
s Other reported (2003) finds in the area include additional mummies
Mummy
A mummy is a body, human or animal, whose skin and organs have been preserved by either intentional or incidental exposure to chemicals, extreme coldness , very low humidity, or lack of air when bodies are submerged in bogs, so that the recovered body will not decay further if kept in cool and dry...
and burial
Burial
Burial is the act of placing a person or object into the ground. This is accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing an object in it, and covering it over.-History:...
grounds, ephedra
Ephedra
Ephedra refers to the plant Ephedra sinica. E. sinica, known in Chinese as ma huang , has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for 5,000 years for the treatment of asthma and hay fever, as well as for the common cold...
sticks, a string bracelet
Bracelet
A bracelet is an article of jewelry which is worn around the wrist. Bracelets can be manufactured from metal, leather, cloth, plastic or other materials and sometimes contain jewels, rocks, wood, and/or shells...
that holds a hollowed jade
Jade
Jade is an ornamental stone.The term jade is applied to two different metamorphic rocks that are made up of different silicate minerals:...
stone, a leather
Leather
Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...
pouch
Pouch
Pouch may refer to:* A small bag such as a pocket, teabag, money pouch, sporran, etc* Cadaver pouch, body bag * Diplomatic pouch* Electric heating pouch, medical apparatus, electric heating device for curative treatment...
, a wool
Wool
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....
en loincloth
Loincloth
A loincloth is a one-piece male garment, sometimes kept in place by a belt, which covers the genitals and, at least partially, the buttocks.-History and types:Loincloths are being and have been worn:*in societies where no other clothing is needed or wanted...
, a wooden mask
Mask
A mask is an article normally worn on the face, typically for protection, disguise, performance or entertainment. Masks have been used since antiquity for both ceremonial and practical purposes...
painted red and with large nose and teeth, boat
Boat
A boat is a watercraft of any size designed to float or plane, to provide passage across water. Usually this water will be inland or in protected coastal areas. However, boats such as the whaleboat were designed to be operated from a ship in an offshore environment. In naval terms, a boat is a...
-shaped coffin
Coffin
A coffin is a funerary box used in the display and containment of dead people – either for burial or cremation.Contemporary North American English makes a distinction between "coffin", which is generally understood to denote a funerary box having six sides in plan view, and "casket", which...
s, a bow
Bow (weapon)
The bow and arrow is a projectile weapon system that predates recorded history and is common to most cultures.-Description:A bow is a flexible arc that shoots aerodynamic projectiles by means of elastic energy. Essentially, the bow is a form of spring powered by a string or cord...
with arrow
Arrow
An arrow is a shafted projectile that is shot with a bow. It predates recorded history and is common to most cultures.An arrow usually consists of a shaft with an arrowhead attached to the front end, with fletchings and a nock at the other.- History:...
s and a straw basket
Basket
A basket is a container which is traditionally constructed from stiff fibres, which can be made from a range of materials, including wood splints, runners, and cane. While most baskets are made from plant materials, other materials such as horsehair, baleen, or metal wire can be used. Baskets are...
.
Further reading
- Ma Dazheng. 2003. The Tarim Basin. Ch. 7 in: History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume 5: Development in contrast: from the sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth century. Edited by Chahryar Adle and Irfan Habib. UNESCO Publications.
External links
- Downloadable article: "Evidence that a West-East admixed population lived in the Tarim Basin as early as the early Bronze Age" Li et al. BMC Biology 2010, 8:15. http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1741-7007-8-15.pdf
- Loulan, vanished in sand