Archaeological Treasures of the Silk Road in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region

Xinjiang has been a part of China since 60 BC in the Western Han dynasty and was the main artery linking Asia and Europe. Its dry climate and scanty rainfall made it possible for the ancient relics buried underground to remain well preserved. In recent years, archaeologists in Xinjiang have traveled all over the region, doing field diggings on both north and south of the Tianshan mountains as well as in the deserts and grasslands, and have found a large quantities of objects of from ancient sites and burial grounds along the Silk Road at Qiemo, Niya, Loulan, Loupu, Yuli and Tulufan. This catalog of the recent exhibit at the Shanghai Museum presents the choicest of these finds, with entries in both Chinese and English, and an English abstract of the essay by Yue Feng.