CC BY
0THE SHANMA CROWD - THE CREATORS OF THE EARLY "JADE
ROAD"
Yuqiao Li
Northwest University (China) &The Silk Road International University of Tourism and Cultural
Heritage
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11216650
Abstract. The Shanma culture is an archaeological culture that emerged in the western part of China's Hexi Corridor after the Siba culture, filling the missing link in the archaeological culture of the region between the end of the Siba culture and the control of the western end of the Hexi Corridor during the Han Dynasty. In recent years the excavation of the jade mines at Jingbaoer in the Mazongshan of Subei and the turquoise mines at Heishanling in Hami, together with the publication of new dating results, have further clarified the cultural landscape and connotations of the Shanma culture. the information available to us to sort out and study the Shanma culture in terms of typology, chronological sequence and cultural exchange, and to draw new The Shanma culture is a cultural landscape and connotations of the Shanma culture.
Keywords: Shanma culture, bronze smelting technology, cultural affiliation, cultural exchange, jade road.
Аннотация. Культура Шанма - археологическая культура, возникшая в западной части китайского коридора Хекси после культуры Сиба и заполнившая недостающее звено в археологической культуре региона между концом культуры Сиба и контролем над западной частью коридора Хекси во времена династии Хань. В последние годы раскопки нефритовых рудников в Цзинбаоэр в Мазуншань в Субэе и бирюзовых рудников в Хэйшаньлин в Хами, вместе с публикацией новых результатов датировки, еще больше прояснили культурный ландшафт и коннотации культуры Шанма. Имеющаяся информация позволяет нам сортировать и изучать культуру Шанма с точки зрения типологии, хронологической последовательности и культурного обмена, а также делать новые выводы о культурном ландшафте и коннотациях культуры Шанма.
Ключевые слова: культура Шанма, технология выплавки бронзы, культурная принадлежность, культурный обмен, нефритовая дорога.
Annotatsiya. Shanma madaniyati Siba madaniyatidan keyin Xitoyning Hexi yo 'lagining g'arbiy qismida paydo bo'lgan arxeologik madaniyat bo'lib, Siba madaniyatining tugashi bilan Xitoyning g'arbiy uchini nazorat qilish o'rtasidagi mintaqa arxeologik madaniyatidagi etishmayotgan bo'g'inini to'ldiradi. Xan sulolasi davrida Hexi koridori. So'nggi yillarda Subeyning Mazongshan shahridagi Jingbaoerdagi jade konlari va Xamidagi Heishanlingdagi firuza konlarini qazish, yangi tanishish natijalarini nashr etish bilan birga Shanma madaniyatining madaniy landshafti va konnotatsiyalarini yanada aniqlab berdi. Shanma madaniyatini tipologiya, xronologik ketma-ketlik va madaniy almashinuv nuqtai nazaridan saralash va o'rganish va yangi Shanma madaniyatini chizish uchun bizda mavjud bo'lgan ma'lumotlar Shanma madaniyatining madaniy landshafti va konnotatsiyasidir.
Kalit so'zlar: Shanma madaniyati, bronza eritish texnologiyasi, madaniy aloqadorlik, madaniy almashinuv, jade yo'l.
MAIN TEXT
From the diverse artefacts unearthed in the Shanma culture, it can be seen that the Shanma culture had sufficient exchanges with the neighbouring regions. As mentioned above, the bronze and pottery of the Shanma culture have characteristics from other regions, and its bronze manufacturing technology inherited the arsenic-bronze tradition of the western Hexi Corridor and the eastern part of Xinjiang, and at the same time, it should have been influenced by the tin-bronze technology from the eastern part of the Corridor.
5 6 7 8
0 31*
(Figure 1.1.1 Mussel and turquoise pendants from the Guazhou Tuhou site; 1-7. Mussel
pendant; 8. Turquoise pendant)
Turquoise and onyx beads from the West, sea shells (mussel ornaments) from the East, and a glazed bead (dragonfly eye) have been unearthed at the Guazhou Tuhou site. The origin of the dragonfly-eye type of glass beads is the Egyptian region of West Asia, and they were introduced to China through early land transport and found in the tombs of nobles in the Central Plains during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. After a great deal of dissemination in the Central Plains, the number of this artefact gradually declined and tended to disappear. The dating data of the earth gourd group is earlier than the Spring and Autumn period, and the author speculates that the Hexi Corridor should have been one of the stops in the process of the eastward transmission of such artefacts as dragonfly eyes. The spread of red onyx beads is also similar to this, this kind of artefacts in the late Shang Dynasty has not yet been found in large quantities, but in the Western Zhou Dynasty, but suddenly in the Central Plains in the burials of aristocrats in the spurt of the emergence. On the source of red agate beads, British scholar Jessica Rosen believes that it originated in the South Asian subcontinent, this kind of artefacts from the Indus Valley, in three thousand years time across the Pamir Plateau into Afghanistan and step by step to reach China's Xinjiang region, and then take a thousand years from China's Xinjiang across the Hexi Corridor to reach the Central Plains region, while at the same time more than four hundred years to reach the Inner Mongolia through the northern steppe path Through the northern steppe path to reach the whole of Inner Mongolia until Chifeng. Red agate beads, dragonfly eyes, and turquoise and other precious stones made up of stringed jewellery have been unearthed in India, Mesopotamia, and Egypt, and in the western part of the corridor, similar stringed jewellery has been unearthed from the Siba culture (Jiuquan Ganbonyi, Yumen Huoshaogou), and Shanma (Guazhou Tuhou), and these precious stones and artefacts have been the objects of admiration and
affection of the aristocracy of the Central Plains since they were introduced to the country. As important cultures in the western part of the corridor, the Siba and Shanma cultures undoubtedly played an important role in transporting similar artefacts along the corridor to the east, to the east-central region of Gansu and to Shaanxi, the stronghold of the Zhou people.
(Figure 1.1.2 Red agate beads and strings from the Tuhu site)
This empirical evidence fully demonstrates that the Shanma culture did not exist in isolation, but was in full communication with neighboring cultures. Some scholars believe that a "Jade Road" already existed in the region before the formation of the Silk Road. The jades from the Dunhuang Hanxia Jade Mine, the Subei Jingbaoer, and the Hanyaozi Mines are mostly tremolite, which is similar to Xinjiang's Hetian Jade in both composition and performance. Research has proved that the jade clothes and jade coffins from the Xiajin site (Taosi culture) in Shanxi and the tomb of the king of Chu at Shizishan, Xuzhou, all contain jade material from the jade mines of Subei and Dunhuang, which proves that the Shanma culture and thousands of cultures prior to it not only participated in foreign exchanges, but also played an important role in the circulation of jade, which not only proves that the route existed, but also provides evidence for the theory of the Yuezhi of the Shanma culture. The use of Hexi jade at the Ha Jin site directly links the jade used at the Tao Si site to the jade mines in the western part of the Hexi Corridor. At the same time, tremolite jade was mostly used to make headdresses and other small pieces of exquisite jade jewellery, which proves that high-quality jade from the west of the river was hard to come by. The presence of Hexi jade at the Xi Jin site also gives an important route terminus for the early eastward transmission of jade, which can be used to outline the possible routes of the ancient jade road.
The nephrite of the Hexi Corridor was exported from the east to the west, and the Shanma culture in this region naturally became a link of material and cultural exchange. The author believes that the gradual shift of the Shanma' mode of production to animal husbandry and even nomadic pastoralism should have a certain relationship with trade exchanges, in addition to being influenced by factors such as climate and soil and water. The fact that the Hanxia jade mines have been mined since the Qijia culture, and are still in use until the end of the Shanma, on the one hand, shows that jade and jade-using traditions have a long history, and that there has always been a demand for high-quality jade, and on the other hand, it also shows that the vitality of this "Jade Road" has been very strong.
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(Figure 1.1.3 Jade material excavated from H41 at the Jingbaoer Jade Mine)
The relics unearthed in the jade mines of Jingbaoer also indicate that the Shanma culture also had certain contacts and exchanges with the Han Dynasty, and it was probably only after the Han army launched the Battle of Hexi (121 B.C.), which completely routed the Xiongnu tribes that had occupied the area, and vigorously strengthened the control of the Hexi Corridor area, that the inhabitants of the Shanma culture gave up the jade mines and gradually relocated. The author believes that they may have continued to work for the Han Dynasty as miners, and in the process were gradually assimilated by the Han, dissolving their own cultural characteristics. However, because there are not many relics left behind by the Shanma culture, the Usun and Yuezhi, who are suspected to be part of the Shanma culture group, moved to the Western Region, but there are also very few relics of the Shanma culture left in the Western Region, so there is no way to know where this culture eventually died out. There is also a gap in time between the Shanma and the Siba culture, which was the dominant culture of the region, and there are also big differences between the two cultures, so the Shanma should not have developed directly from the Siba culture, and it is necessary to study the origin and direction of the Siba culture as well as that of the Shanma. However, due to the fact that there are fewer relics of the Shanma culture itself, there are still many issues to be researched and discussed.
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