Posted on 10/10/2002 5:43:05 PM PDT by blam
Sand-covered Huns city unearthed
10/08/2002
XI'AN: Chinese archaeologists recently discovered a unique, ancient city which has lain covered by desert sands for more than 1,000 years.
It is the first ruined city of the Xiongnu (Huns) ever found, said Dai Yingxin, a well-known Chinese archaeologist. The Xiongnu was a nomadic ethnic group, who for 10 centuries were tremendously influential in northern China.
The unearthed city occupies 1 square kilometre in Jingbian County, in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, adjacent to the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in the north of the country.
It is believed that the city was built by more than 100,000 Xiongnu people in AD 419. Named "Tongwancheng," which means "to unify all countries," the city is composed of three parts: the palace walls, the inner city and the outer city. Watchtowers stand at the four corners of the complex.
The 16 to 30 metre thick city walls are made with sand and white-powdered earth, mixed with glutinous rice water. This intriguing concoction made the earthen walls as hard as those made from stone.
From a distance, the white city looks like a giant ship. The southwestern turret, the highest of the four, is 31 metres high and resembles a ship's mast. The ruined city is now fenced with brush-wood, trees and grass.
"It is the most substantial, magnificent and well-preserved city to be built by any ethnic group in the history of China," said Zhu Shiguang, president of the China Ancient City Society.
Tongwancheng used to be a prosperous city on the upper reach of the Wuding River, a major tributary of the Yellow River. It remained the political, economic and military centre of the southern Ordos Plateau for over five centuries. It was as the river continued to dry up, that the ancient city was buried by moving sands, said Xing Fulai, a research fellow at the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology.
Its discovery provides vital information for the study of the Xiongnu tribesmen, who have, to date, remained a mystery to both Chinese and foreign archaeologists because of a lack of adequate historical material and evidence relating to their culture.
Xing said the city ruins will be considered for world heritage status by UNESCO.
Xinhua
Not that I know of. I can't rememer right now where the Laplanders came from.
No,I was calling a Finn a Finn.
Hah! Slavs aren't 'white looking'--there's an old Russian saying: Scratch a Slav, wound a tartar. Look at Lenin and those mongolian features. The Magyar were probably the progeny of the caucasoid xiongnu coming back west to trade in europe.
But, do you have any of Courtney shaking her booty with Springsteen on-stage?
The Magyar were probably the progeny of the caucasoid xiongnu coming back west to trade in europe.
Language doesn't work.
Never mind. I don't care.
Now you've got your thinking cap on.
I think most split the Tarim/Turpan basin going east and west due to a climate change that dried the whole region out. The Xiongnu assimilated with the Han and became the Hakka who migrated to southern China and elsewhere(IMO). I'm thinking that the earliest western version of the Hakka were the Picts. To this day, the Hakka are know as 'guests' in China.
Hmmm, makes you wonder. Anyone else look at pictures of that seven foot something Chinese basketball player for Houston and see something faintly European (not just his height)?
I've just seen him in a couple quick commercials. What do you see?
Thank you, you are most generous. I guess my obsession is showing, huh? I have more questions than answers.
China Unveils Another 'Army'
This article was excerpted from an article in Archaeology magazine which mentions that some of the figurines were clearly Caucasian. The New York Times excerpt fails to mention this fact. (I read both!)
Thanks for putting this article, though a couple of years old, onto the Weekly GGG Digest.
Very interesting and I haven't seen it before.
I guess the Huns weren't just a bunch of savages. This city sounds impressive.
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