Xinjiang gold: gold hometown far culture

Tiger shaped gold ring

There is a mountain range called Altai Mountain in Xinjiang. Altai's Chinese meaning is gold. The earliest cultural exchanges between the East and the West were first spread through gold by those early nomadic peoples who galloped across the grasslands of Central Asia. The rare birds and beasts that are engraved on the gold are an important part of the culture of ancient western grassland that has a long history and unique gold culture. The lavishness of the tribal chiefs, “everywhere not golden”, and the rewards of the dragon gilt buckles from the central dynasty are all telling the distant culture of the golden hometown.

Gold hometown

About 10,000 years ago, gold was discovered and used by humans. It is thousands of years earlier than many common metals such as copper, iron and aluminum that we are now familiar with.

Many places in Xinjiang produce gold. It is said that as early as in the primitive society, a Scythian person went to Altai to mine gold and transported the collected gold source to the West. Therefore, the way to communicate things is called the “Golden Route”. In addition to the famous Altai, there are also gold produced in the Tianshan Mountains, as well as in rivers formed by wind erosion and water erosion. In the Qing Dynasty, gold mines were mainly mined by the government. The mountains produce large chunks of watercress gold, roller gold, dog's head gold, dog liver gold, etc., but the most is the gold dust mixed in the sand.

To separate the gold from the sand, the principle of using lighter weight and different gravity of the two is mainly used. The ancient Xinjiang people mastered gravity dressing very early on, that is, gold pot gold mining method. They made rectangular wooden tubs of willows. In places where Jinyuan is rich and where water flows, they put gold-containing sand into tubs, wash them in the water, separate the gold and sand, and concentrate the gold. Blocks of gold.

Altay, which is rich in gold, is also known as "Gold Mountain Silver Water." When Yuan Ji, the famous Taoist leader of the Yuan Dynasty, was sent to the Western Regions by Genghis Khan, he briefly stayed in Altai and made Jinshan poems. Although the details of the gold rush are not visible in the poem, it is not difficult to see from the sentence “The river south of Jinshan River and the meander river bends to appreciate the autumn”. At least in the Yuan Dynasty, the gold of Altai was famous in the Central Plains.

The history of the Nuggets

In the Greek writings, the Scythians who lived in Altai in ancient times were described as “Gryffindors, the gold-headed gryphon”.

The habits of the Scythians are well documented in Herodotus's book. The Scythians used the captain's first class habit of drinking a drinker: remove the first level from below the eyebrows and clean the rest. In the first stage of the poor, raw hides and skins are wrapped on the outside; the first class of rich people is then covered with cowhide, and the inside is plated with gold, and the finished product is used as a cup.

Regardless of cruelty, we can see that in ancient times, Altai was not only rich in gold, but also that the Scythians had a higher level of goldsmithing.

The Scythians' gold craftsmanship can be used as a representative of nomadic people's art. It also deeply affects many peoples on the Central Asian grasslands. Its main characteristic is the animal style, so it is called "art of the animal style" or "art of the beast style". It uses the animal's image to decorate all kinds of supplies. It typically shows the aesthetic concept of early nomads.

Nomads grazing livestock, such as horses, cows and sheep, and also engaged in hunting. They are in contact with elk and lions. Therefore, their thinking is full of such animal images. The gold ornaments unearthed in Xinjiang are mostly related to lion tigers.

**In eighteen years (1919), the Xinjiang governor Yang Zengxin sent a secret letter to Yin Zhougong School of Ashan Road, just two months after he took office. The letter said: The production of hardware, the benefits of the natural world, will be declared for a long time, but also natural and natural world. In Altai Mountains, the Mongolian language is translated into Jinshan, and the mountain of Yang is in the middle. The mountain of Yin belongs to Russia. Since the demarcation of Russia, this mountain yin has been exploited by the public. The gold is extremely prosperous and the lessons are very rich. They are published in Chinese and foreign newspapers. On the same mountain, our country was abandoned by Murray and no one cares.

During the ** years, the Altay Gold Mine again began to exploit larger scale under the leadership of the government. Since modern times, "Aletai 72 ditch, ditch has gold" has become the consensus of people.

According to the records of Fuhai County, in the 32 years (1943), the county had a total population of 6,948. And four years later, all the provincial bankrupt farmers came to collect gold. There are thousands of people who are engaged in gold mining every year.

In the area of ​​Hongshanzui in Fuhai County, “gold mining fever” was formed in the 1980s, and a large number of migrant workers from the Mainland poured in. There were more than 100,000 migrant workers.

Nowadays, in the rugged mountainous roads and narrow watercourses leading to Hongshanzui, it is conceivable that in order to dig up gold, 100,000 people are eagerly engaged in the overwhelming labor scenes and fear the hardships and dangers of gold rushing “faith”.

After seeing the riverbed that has been turned several times in the Jinjingou area of ​​Fuhai, we know that the enrichment of gold here has never changed. The gold rushers who were frozen in the mountains also let us see that people have no change in the "love" here.

Red Love Raptor

Urumqi Nanshan Yuergou and Aragou are located in the depths of the Tianshan Mountains. In summer, the scenery is pleasant and the weather is pleasant. This was an ancient road leading to the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains. When the Southern Xinjiang Railway was built in the last century, the famous gold tomb was found here.

Under the two-meter deep yellow sand and two meters deep pebbles, there is a young woman who sheds jade. Under the huge pebbles, her bones and her gold ornaments are "crashed." But compared to the decayed bones, the sparkling gold jewelry still tells people through the distant years the luxury buried in history.

It is conceivable that, at the time of the burial, the large and small gold ornaments were once encrusted with her body. Eight tiger prints, four tiger prints, and a golden lion tell the young woman's extraordinary family status and identity. The golden tombs unearthed in this gold tomb have more than 200 gold beads and golden flowers.

The fierce lion-tiger decoration symbolizes the aesthetic concept of the nomadic peoples in the early Central Asian steppes. The lion tiger is a beast of the prairie and is an idol in the prairie's national heart. He hopes that he will ride like a beast on the grassland and be invincible. Even for a woman. This continues the tradition of the Scythians' "Fine Art".

According to archaeologists' speculation, the gold tomb may have been left by Serbs 2000 years ago, and the woman in the tomb may be a daughter of a certain tribal chief or a lady like Wang Shuo.

Central Plains

Dragon is a symbol of Chinese culture and is a sign of royal authority. Among the many golden utensils unearthed in the golden hometown of Xinjiang, the eight dragon buckle can be regarded as a fine product in gold products.

The gold belt buckle was unearthed in an ancient tomb near the Bogda-eup site in Gifu Prefecture. The eight-dragon gold buckle was awarded as a precious gift by the Central Government of the Han Dynasty to the king of the time.

The buckle made of gold has a weight of 48 grams. It is first compacted with a sequin mold and then processed in detail. Some of the longan nucleus is inlaid with ruby ​​and turquoise. At the edge of the buckle, it is decorated with fine gold silk. The eight-dragon pattern buckle is a masterpiece of the art of sculpture and inlay used in gold crafts.

Coincidentally, the Central Museum of Korea also houses an identical gold buckle, which was also awarded to the head of the North Korean local regime by the Emperor of the Han Dynasty.

The golden buckle can be regarded as the cultural exchange between the Western Regions and the Central Plains at that time, and it was also the “Simple Winding of the Western Regions” to open up the Silk Road for east-west exchanges. The Western Region was included in the Chinese territory and the central dynasty demonstrated its effective rule over the Western Regions.

Turkic gold mask. Located approximately 60 kilometers southwest of Zhaosu County in Ili County, the high density of forests and pastures on the Pomar Mountain is an ideal habitat for pastoral nomads in the past. It is also a must for the Silk Road grassland. The Tang dynasty Xuan Zang is from the Tianshan Pass of the North Vietnam in the Tarim Basin, passing through to the famous city of Central Asia on the bank of Issyk-Kul. The famous gold mask was unearthed here.

This ruby ​​gold mask is 17 cm high and 16.5 cm wide. The colors are colorful and the figures are majestic and powerful. They are almost the same size as real faces. His forehead is wide, his jaw is full, his cheeks are full. The tomb owner’s “face” has been transformed into dust and earth. This life-like mask has retained its true content for thousands of years.

Experts speculate that the lower limit of its time should be around the 6th and 7th centuries, that is, the relics of the Western Turks era. The middle-aged man in the mask had a high nose and thick eyebrows, a mustached beard, two eyes and eyes, and eyesight. Like meditation, it seems to be watching everything in front of me silently. Revealed a kind of unyielding persistence and deepness.

The manufacturing process of the mask is extremely exquisite and delicate, and almost all the techniques of mosaic, welding, polishing, etc. used in ancient gold and silverware production are used. The mask is divided into right and left halves from the center line. After the hammer is formed and polished, it is welded and then riveted together with small rivets. Its mouth, nose, eyes and cheeks form a hammer. Its eyebrows, eyes, and whiskers are expressed in gold and ruby.

According to historical records, the nobility of the peoples in the vast areas of Central Asia are using gold and silver devices to show off their status and status. In addition, the custom of the gold jewelry of Xinjiang ethnic minorities so far shows that advocating gold is a tradition of the Central Asian grasslands.

The East Roman historian Mina recorded: The ambassador Cai Makus met in the Valley surrounded by Jinshan to see the West Turkic quarter. Khan was sitting on a gold chair in the mat. There are two wheels in the chair and they can be pulled by Ma. Khan's bed is made of gold, and the jug and jar are all made of gold. The wooden columns of the yurts are covered with sequins, and Khan’s seat is placed on four gold peacock. Turkic Khan's rich luxury is evident.

In the early Iron Age, with the rapid development of mineral extraction, metal smelting and processing technologies, the number of gold products used by tribal leaders or nobles has greatly increased, and the shape and subject matter have become more abundant. In addition to gold jewellery, there are also a large number of gold medallions on animal motifs, and horses and weapons are decorated with gold. At the same time, due to the popularity of horse riding, the nomadic peoples in the Central Asian grasslands and western grasslands, and the cultural exchanges between the Persian Achaemenid Empire in the South have increased significantly. Some Persian cultural factors have been absorbed and transformed by Central Asian tribes, and are also reflected in gold. In art.

The ancient Western Regions rich in gold have created a unique gold culture. Compatible with each other, gold products combined with the East and West are another legend of the Gold Road and the Silk Road.