The Study of Ancient Human Skeletons from Xinjiang, China
by RAN Kangxin
Institute of Archeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing
Xinjiang is one of the main areas of contact and movement between the Eastern and Western races of the Eurasian continent. It is also an important area of the ancient "Silk Road" going to Central Asia. Therefore, the physical anthropological study of the racial characteristics of the ancient populations in this area is an important aspect of tracing the modern racial origins of the people of Xinjiang and the Central Asian region.
Between 1920 and 1940, only three foreign scientists published completed research in this area. They are: Arthur Keith of England (1929), CarI-Herman Hjortsjo and Ander Walander ofGermany (1924) and A.N. Iuzefovich of the USSR (1949). A total of twenty skulls were described. Five came from the northern part of the Taklamakan Desert and Keith thought they characterized the "Loulan racial type. " Eleven skulls were collected by Sven Hedin from near Luobubo (Lopnor) in 1928 and 1934, and have been subdivided into three groups (Nordic, Chinese, and Alpine) by Hjortsjo and Walander. The remaining skulls also came from the Luobubo (Lopnor) area and exhibit Mongoloid characteristics. Iuzefovich considered these to be of Tujue (Turkish) origin (Keith, A., 1929; Hjortsjo, C.H. and A. Walander, 1942; Iusefovich, A.N., 1949).
It should be pointed out that all the materials mentioned above were recovered by Western explorers who did not make systematic archeological excavations. The twenty skulls came from nine different localities which are all poorly dated, so it is very difficult to discuss the racial composition of the ancient population of Xinjiang according to these materials alone. Chinese scientists have conducted systematic excavations in this region since 1940. I have studied all the skeletal material housed at the Institute of Archeology of Xinjiang and analyzed the physical and racial characteristics of these human bones. The materials included about 274 skulls which were collected from nine ancient cemeteries in Xinjiang. The cemeteries range in age from about 1800 B.C.E. to 300 C.E.