The Development Of The Pre-historic Cultures In Xinjiang And The Interaction With Neighbor Cultures

Xinjiang is in the interior of Eurasian continent. It is one of the most important thoroughfares from the West to the East. In Han Dynasty, Zhangqian was sent to the turkestan and the Silk Road has been opened. Since then, Xinjiang became the junction of the West and the East for their goods commercial and cultural communications. However, concerned about existing archaeological materials, some parts of the Silk Road could very possibly have played important roles before the Han Dynasty. The interactions between Xinjiang and Central Asia and the inland of China could be traced back to the Bronze Age. And this makes it particularly important the development of cultural patterns in Xinjiang area before Han Dynasty in the research of cultural exchanges. This dissertation is in an attempt to list systematically on the published pre-historical archaeological materials. By analyzing cultural characters and chronology of all kinds of relics, the author builds the basic space-time framework. And based on this, the dissertation discusses the development and evolution of prehistory culture patterns, thus to promote further researches in this field.This dissertation has five chapters.Chapter one is the preface. In this part, the author defines the space of time and region, and explains some concepts such as"Central Asia"and"Prehistory of Xinjiang". And then summarizes and analyzes the history and current situation of the discoveries and researches in Xinjiang pre-historical archaeology. The author also raises some problems existing in the present research. Against these problems, the author represents his proof line and purpose. Chapter two is about the space-time framework of archaeological cultures in Xinjiang area. In this part, the author systematically lists all pre-historical cultures in Xinjiang area. On the basis of present research result, he divides the pre-history period into three stages, and then analyzes the cultural relics in each stage in the aspects of their characters, phases and chronology. He builds and completes the framework.Chapter three is about some relevant archaeological cultures out of China. In this part, the author introduces several cultures out of China. These cultures mainly includes: in third millennia BC and earlier, the Pit-grave culture and Afanasievo culture; in second millennia BC, the Sintashita culture, Andronovo culture, Seima- Turbino culture, Okunevo culture, Karasuk culture and Chust culture; in first millennia BC, the Tagar culture, Saka culture, Sauro-Sarmatians culture and some early nomadic cultures in Altai and Tuva area. The introduction of these cultures is not only the background knowledge of researches on Xinjiang's pre-historical culture patterns, but also the necessary reference helping to study culture communications of the East and the West.Chapter four is the interaction of relics in each stage and the development of cultural patterns. After discussion in chapter two and three, the author analyzes the connections of cultural relics of each stage, and also the interactions between all kinds of cultures in Xinjiang and those out of China and Gasu-qinghai area in the east. Upon such compare, the author shows out the features and developments of culture patterns in three different stages. Seen from the whole Xinjiang area, in the first stage, from the early to the middle of second millennia BC, few relics are found, and nearly all cultures have interactions with those outside of China. In the second stage, from the middle second millennia BC to the early first millennia BC, exotic cultures remain their top position, but the native cultures in some parts have been initially developed. In the third stage, from the early first millennia BC to the Western Han Dynasty, although foreign culture factors were still playing important roles, the original cultures in many areas have made a full development.Chapter five is the conclusion. In this part, the author summarizes the developing process of cultural patterns, and explains the role the cultures in the East and the West would play in this course. At the same time, he deduces the transportation path of the culture factors through the East and the West. The author thinks that there some differences on the effects that the East cultures and the West cultures have caused on the formation and development of the cultural patterns. He also makes his point on the disjunctive characters of the West cultures factor and the continuous characters of the East culture factors. In addition, he analyses the internal reason why such different characters formed. At last, the author points out the deficiency of this dissertation and some problems need more deep researches.