| Loulan Kingdom | |||||||||
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| A carved wooden beam from Loulan, 3-4th century CE. The patterns show influences from ancient western civilizations. | |||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 樓蘭故城 | ||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 楼兰故城 | ||||||||
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| Uyghur name | |||||||||
| Uyghur |
كروران قەدىمكى شەهىرى
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Loulan or Kroran was an ancient kingdom based around an important oasis city already known in the 2nd century BCE[1] on the north-eastern edge of the Lop Desert. Loulan, known to Russian archaeologists as Krorayina, was an ancient kingdom along the Silk Road. In 108 BCE, the Han Dynasty forces defeated the armies of the Loulan kingdom and made it into a puppet/allied state. In 77 BCE, according to the History of the Former Han Dynasty, the Chinese envoy Fu Jiezi assassinated Loulan's king, Chang Gui. The kingdom then came under the control of the Han empire and was given the Chinese name of Shanshan,[2] though the town at the northwestern corner of the brackish desert lake Lop Nur retained the name of Loulan. The ruins of the town of Loulan are on what were the western banks of Lop Nur, now desiccated, in the Bayin'gholin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang. The site is now completely surrounded by desert.[3]
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A 3,800-year-old female mummy (circa 1600 BCE), the first of a series of mummies now known as the Tarim mummies, was discovered in Loulan in 1980, indicating very early settlement of the region.
Loulan was on the main route from Dunhuang to Korla, where it joined the so-called "northern route", and was also connected by a route southwest to the kingdom’s seat of government in the town of Wuni in the Charkhlik/Ruoqiang oasis, and from thence to Khotan and Yarkand.[4]
The first historical mention of Loulan was in a letter from the Chanyu of the Xiongnu to the Chinese Emperor in 126 BCE in which he boasted of conquering the Yuezhi, the Wusun, Loulan, and Hujie, "as well as the twenty-six states nearby." In 126 BCE, the Chinese envoy, Zhang Qian described Loulan as a fortified city near Lop Nur.[5]
In 77 BCE the Chinese envoy Fu Jiezi stabbed Loulan's King, Chang Gui, to death. The kingdom then became a Chinese puppet state and was renamed the kingdom of Shanshan.[6] The capital was to south-west of Lop Nur near modern Ruoqiang (Charkhlik) on the Southern Silk Route between Dunhuang and Khotan.
Because of its strategic position on what became the main route from China to the West, during the Former Han and Later Han, control of it was regularly contested between the Chinese and the Xiongnu. The Hanshu records that:
"it lay close to Han and confronted the White Dragon Mounds. The locality was short of water and pasture, and was regularly responsible for sending out guides, conveying water, bearing provisions and escorting or meeting Han envoys. In addition, the state was frequently robbed, reprimanded or harmed by officials or conscripts and found it inexpedient to keep contact with the Han. Later, the state again conducted espionage for the Xiongnu, often intercepting and killing Han envoys."[6]
The Xiongnu repeatedly contested the Han Chinese for control of the region until well into the 2nd century CE,[7] and is recorded as a dependent kingdom of Shanshan in the 3rd century Weilüe.[8]
A military colony of 1,000 men was established at Loulan in 260 CE by the Chinese General So Man. The site was abandoned in 330 CE due to lack of water when the Tarim River, which supported the settlement, changed course and the military garrison was moved 50 kilometres (31 mi) south to Haitou. The fort of Yingpan to the northwest remained under Chinese control until the Tang Dynasty.[9]
The later history of the site is described under Shanshan.
Loulan was rediscovered by Sven Hedin in 1899, who excavated some houses and found a wooden Kharosthi tablet and many Chinese manuscripts from the Later Han Dynasty (3rd century CE).
Aurel Stein made further excavations in 1906 and 1914, investigating the town's packed-earth and straw wall. It was over 1,000 feet (300 m) on each side, and 20 feet (6.1 m) thick at the base. Stein also recovered a wool-pile carpet fragment, some yellow silk, and Gandharan architectural wood-carvings.
In 1979 and 1980, three archaeological expeditions sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Xinjiang Branch performed excavations in Loulan.[10] discovered a manmade canal, 15 feet (4.6 m) deep and 55 feet (17 m) wide, running through Loulan from northwest to southeast; a 32-foot (9.8 m) high earthen dome-shaped Buddhist stupa; and a 41 feet (12 m) long by 28 feet (8.5 m) wide home apparently for a Chinese official, housing 3 rooms and supported by wooden pillars. They also collected 797 objects from the area, including vessels of wood, bronze objects, jewelry and coins, and Mesolithic stone tools[11][12] Other reported (2003) finds in the area include additional mummies and burial grounds, ephedra sticks, a string bracelet that holds a hollowed jade stone, a leather pouch, a woolen loincloth, a wooden mask painted red and with large nose and teeth, boat-shaped coffins, a bow with arrows and a straw basket.