After three years of surveys and excavation, archeologists have completed unearthing an ancient site of nomadic people in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the first research on relics of nomadic people in China, reported Sunday's Guangming Daily.
According to Prof. Wang Jianxin, director of the archeology center in Northeast China University, more than 100 construction sites, some 200 burial sites and more than 1,000 cliff paintings were unearthed in a 3,000-year-old, 10-sq km area in the southwest of Kazak Autonomous county of Barkol in Hami prefecture, northeastern Xinjiang.
Large numbers of stoneware were found in a main house, bearing marks that indicated they had been used. After meticulous studies, experts proved that one club-like stone was used in removing hulls of corns, Wang was quoted as saying.
The site might have been a residential area for royal families of a nomadic ethnic group in ancient times, said Wang, and if the hypothesis is proved, the relics will be of great value.
(Xinhua News Agency February 10, 2003)
