Pages: 15-30

Based on archaeological materials and written sources, the article considers the issue of migration processes in which the 9th—3rd centuries BC early nomads in North China and Xinjiang took part. Critically, with the use of new archaeological data, the existing concepts and views on migration in this territory are analyzed. The authors conclude that there are no noticeable Mongoloid population migrations from northern China in the Kazakhstan steppes and Altai through Xinjiang in the 9th—3rd centuries BC. There is also no data on any noticeable movements of the Caucasian population from Xinjiang to China. During this period, these cultural areas existed in isolation. China’s discovery of the path through the Xinjiang oases and the Silk Road establishment only in the 2nd—1st centuries BC serve the evidence for this.
At the same time, there were cultural contacts between Northern China and Southern Siberia since the Late Bronze Age. Meridional migrations including ones that occurred during the nomadic aggressive campaigns are noted. The movement from North China to the west is recorded only in the Korgantas type burials stretching as a chain from the 6th—4th centuries BC through Tuva and the Altai Mountains to Central Kazakhstan. In the 4th century BC, two centuries earlier than with the peoples of Central Asia along the Silk Road, active trade relations between the kingdoms of China and the northern nomads were established. Of particular interest are the migration processes in northern China, which included nomads and the agricultural population. In particular, from the 7th to the 3rd century BC, in the area east of Ordos, a sequential transformation of Scythoid cultures is traced, the funerary rite of which was adopted by the Xiongnu.

Keywords: Northern China, Xinjiang, Southern Siberia, early nomads, Scythoid cultures, Chauhu culture, Yuhuangmiao culture, Maoqinggou culture, Pazyryk culture, migrations, funerary rite

Information about authors:

Petr Shulga (Novosibirsk, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Akademik Lavrentiev Ave., 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]
Daniil Shulga (Novosibirsk, Russian Federation). Siberian Institute of Management, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. Nizhegorodskaya St., 6, Novosibirsk, 630102, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]