Buried in sands: environmental analysis at the archaeological site of Xiaohe cemetery, Xinjiang, China

Palynomorphs extracted from the mud coffins and plant remains preserved at the archaeological site of Xiaohe Cemetery (Cal. 3980 to 3540 years BP) in Lop Nur Desert of Xinjiang, China were investigated for the reconstruction of the ancient environments at the site. The results demonstrate that the X...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2013-07, Vol.8 (7), p.e68957-e68957
Main Authors: Li, Jin-Feng, Abuduresule, Idelisi, Hueber, Francis M, Li, Wen-Ying, Hu, Xin-Jun, Li, Yue-Zhuo, Li, Cheng-Sen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Animals
Archaeological sites
Archaeology
Arid zones
Botany
Caskets
Cemeteries
China
Climate change
Coffins
Desert environments
Deserts
Drought
Environment
Ephedra
Excavations (Archaeology)
Fossils
Historic sites
Laboratories
Microfossils
Mud
Plant extracts
Plant sciences
Plants
Populus euphratica
Protection and preservation
Silicon Dioxide
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Summary:Palynomorphs extracted from the mud coffins and plant remains preserved at the archaeological site of Xiaohe Cemetery (Cal. 3980 to 3540 years BP) in Lop Nur Desert of Xinjiang, China were investigated for the reconstruction of the ancient environments at the site. The results demonstrate that the Xiaohe People lived at a well-developed oasis, which was surrounded by extensive desert. The vegetation in the oasis consisted of Populus, Phragmites, Typha and probably of Gramineae, while the desert surrounding the oasis had some common drought-resistant plants dominated by Ephedra, Tamarix, Artemisia and Chenopodiaceae. This present work provides the first data of the environmental background at this site for further archaeological investigation.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0068957