The Yanbulaq culture (Ch: 焉不拉克文化 or 焉布拉克文化, Yanbulake wenhua, 1100–500 BCE) was an ancient culture based on the tombs of the Yanbulaq Cemetery (Chinese 焉不拉克古墓群, Pinyin Yānbùlākè gǔmùqún or焉不拉克墓地, Yānbùlākè mùdì , English Yanbulaq Cemetery) located on the northern hills of the Qumul Basin, in Yizhou District, Xinjiang, China. It was a Bronze Age culture, or an early Iron Age culture.
The cemetery at Yanbulaq contained 29 mummies which dated from 1100 to 500 BCE, 21 of which are Asian—the earliest Asian mummies found in the Tarim Basin—and the remaining 8 are of the same Caucasian physical type as found at Qäwrighul.[1] These later and eastern "Tarim mummies" represented both "Caucasoid" and "Mongoloid" remains, indicating contact between newly arrived western nomads and agricultural communities in the east.[2]
The Yuezhi may have been positionned around the Shirenzigou culture area, between the Subeshi culture to their west, the Yanbulaq culture to their east, the aftermaths of the Chemurchek culture to the north, and a wide desertical area to south about a thousand kilometers away from the Central Plains of China.[3] It may also have had contacts with the painted pottery Bronze Age cultures in the Gansu and Qinghai regions.[4]
Archaeological finds of iron knives suggest that the Yanbulaq culture, as well as the Shajing culture further south, may have been instrumental in the transmission of iron technology to China.[5]
^Benjamin, Craig (3 May 2018). Empires of Ancient Eurasia: The First Silk Roads Era, 100 BCE – 250 CE. Cambridge University Press. p. 45. ISBN978-1-108-63540-0. ... the fact that in cemeteries such as Yanbulaq both Europoid and Mongoloid mummies have been found together, also indicates some degree of interaction between existing farming populations and newly arrived nomadic migrants from the West.
^MEI, JIANJUN (2003). "Cultural Interaction between China and Central Asia during the Bronze Age"(PDF). Proceedings of the British Academy: 28. The eastward transmission of iron technology appears to have taken a route from southern Xinjiang to eastern Xinjiang and then on into the Hexi Corridor. This view seems to be supported by finds of iron knives of the Yanbulake culture in eastern Xinjiang, as well as iron knives and spades of the Shajing culture (c.900–600 BC), which are distributed in the middle part of the Hexi Corridor (Li 1994: 501–5; Zhao 1996: 293–4).
Zhang Ping (among others): “Xinjiang Hami Yanbulake mudi” (The Yanbulake Cemetery in Hami, Xinkiang). Kaogu xuebao 1989, No. 3, pp. 325–362 + plates 7–14. English summary p. 362. Han Kangxin: Xinjiang). Kaogu Xuebao 1990, No. 3
Mallory, J. P.; Mair, Victor H. (2000). The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West. London: Thames & Hudson.
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