Evrim Yazgin
Cosmos science journalist
A new study sheds light on unusual funerary practices of the Bronze Age Xiaohe culture which lived in what is today the Xinjiang region of China.
Xiaohe burials included boat-shaped coffins, cattle remains, and grave markers resembling paddles and mooring posts. These funerary practices are unlike any of the other cultures in the surrounding areas.
The Xiaohe culture lasted about from about 1950 to 1400 BCE along the rivers and oases of the Tarim Basin in the northwest of modern-day China. The culture did not produce any ceramics and relied heavily on agriculture and pastoralism.
The cemetery site was first discovered in the early 1900s and excavated in 1934, revealing 12 new graves. A further 167 graves were uncovered in the first complete excavation of the site in the early 2000s. It’s estimated the site contains about 350 graves, though many have since been destroyed or eroded.
The Xiaohe cemetery made headlines last year when it was reported that archaeologists had found the oldest piece of cheese next to a 3,600-year-old mummified corpse.
A new analysis published in the journal Asian Archaeology seeks to explain the unusual funerary practices of the community.
The most common type of burial in the Xiaohe cemetery involves narrow wooden coffins with a curved end, resembling a boat. There is a pole on the head of most of these coffins. Previously, researchers had interpreted these poles as being phallic (red painted tip) or vulva-like (dark painted tip).
But some of the female burials have the red-tipped posts and some of the male burials have dark-tipped posts.
“This interpretation risks oversimplifying complex prehistoric symbolic systems as the assumption that specific shapes and colours directly represent sexual organs is likely to be overly reductive,” writes author Gino Caspari from the Max Planch Institute of Geoanthropology in Germany. “Most problematic, however, is that the evidence does not match the interpretation.”
Caspari proposes an alternative explanation for the symbolism of the poles based on the environment in which the Xiaohe lived along the Tashkurgan River. This wet area is on the border of arid deserts, making it vital for the cattle herds which played a pivotal role in the Xiaohe culture.
It is more likely, the archaeologist says, that the poles represent paddles and mooring posts.
“The prevalence of water-themed items in the funerary ritual of Xiaohe might indicate that their imagination of an otherworld was indeed linked to the wet element. Boats have long been symbols of transition and journey and maybe the proponents of the Xiaohe culture favoured a similar narrative, preparing their dead for a voyage across a metaphorical river or lake,” Caspari write.
Caspari cautions that there is very little data and much of the archaeological work is based on speculation and interpretation.
“While I contend that most of the above is speculation, the Xiaohe site is located in an oasis environment, where water played a crucial role in sustaining life. The choice of boat-shaped coffins and their inverted burials seem to highlights the centrality of water in Xiaohe culture,” Caspari writes.
“The deceased are symbolically connected to the water sources that sustained their community, reinforcing the cultural importance of this resource. This perspective highlights the significance of water and boats in the Xiaohe worldview, where life and death might have been seen as interconnected journeys.”
