The Subeshi culture (1100–100 BCE, Ch: 苏贝希文化), also Subeishi or Subeixi culture, is an Iron Age culture from the area of Shanshan County, Turfan, Xinjiang, at the eastern edge of the Tarim Basin.[1] The Subeshi culture contributes some of the later period Tarim Mummies. It might be associated with the Cheshi state (車師, Chü-shih, Jushi Kingdom) known from Chinese historical sources.[2][1] The culture includes three closely related cemeteries:
After 200 BCE, the Subeshi culture may have evolved into the later walled nation-state culture of the Jushi Kingdom.[4]
Characteristics
The origins of the Subeshi culture were influenced by the cultures of West Asia and Central Asia as far back as the late Neolithic period and the early Bronze Age, when bronze technology, pottery and ornamation styles were introduced from the west, before spreading further east to the early cultures of China, such as the Siba culture (about 2000–1600 BCE), Qijia culture (2500–1500 BCE) or Chawuhugoukou culture (around 800–100 BCE).[1]
The Subeshi culture is known for its Iron Age graveyards of the 1st millennium BCE, which resemble those of the Saka (Scythian) Pazyryk culture of the Altai Mountains. In particular, weaponry, horse gear and garments are similar to those of the Pazyryk culture.[5]
The "Witches of Subeshi" (4th or 3rd century BCE) wore 2-foot-long (0.61 m) black felt conical hats with a flat brim.[7] Though modern Westerners tend to identify this type of hat as the headgear of a witch, there is evidence that these pointed hats were widely worn by both women and men in some Central Asian tribes. For instance, the Persian king Darius recorded a victory over the "Sakas of the pointed hats".[8] The Subeshi headgear is likely an ethnic badge or a symbol of position in the society. Also found at Subeshi was a man with traces of a surgical operation on his abdomen; the incision is sewn up with sutures made of horsehair.[9]
The Subeshi culture is a candidate for the Iron Age predecessors of the Tocharians.[10] The material culture of the Subeshi culture is very similar to that of Saka sites such as Arzhan or Tasmola, but is also known to have spread across the northern Chinese steppes from Xinjiang to the Korean Peninsula, particularly through bronze weapons, horse harnesses, and ornaments.[11] The Subeshi site of Yanghai yielded what maybe the world's oldest known horse saddle, already displaying many characteristics of today's modern saddles, for which a radiocarbon date of 727–396 BCE (95.4% probability range) has been obtained: this is contemporaneous of possibly older than the previous "oldest saddle" from the Scythian Pazyryk culture site of Tuekta barrow no. 1 (430–420 BCE).[12] Knotted carpet with colorful wave-like motifs were dated to 700 BCE, and are now the oldest known knotted carpet in the world, before the 4th century BCE Pazyryk carpets.[13]
Scythian-style bows were also discovered in Subeshi.[14] The technical sophistication of these bows suggests intense technological transfer between the Saka areas and the Subeishi culture areas. No other Tarim Basin area benefited from this technological transfer, which was supplemented by some adaptation by the Subeishi people: the bows were slightly bigger, and used lacquer as an original compounds, suggesting technological contact with China as well.[15]
In terms of genetics, Afanasievo ancestry has been identified among Iron Age Dzungarian populations.[16]
Origin and language
The language of the Subeshi mummies is unknown at this point. Looking at the linguistic history of the region, the Subeshi mummies may have spoken the Saka language (Khotanese Saka) or the Tocharian language, or an unknown language if they were derived from a local Neolithic group.[17] Many of the cultural traits of the Subeshi people, such as the tall pointed hats, may seriously suggest a Saka origin, but they could also be derived from the earlier Afanasievo culture.[18]
Artifacts
Tomb at Yanghai cemetery
Cone-shaped high-peaked hat, Subeshi cemetery.[19][20]
Map of the Subeshi culture sites () in the context of Iron Age continental Asia, with main sites of Subeixi, Shengjindian and YanghaiThe Subeshi cemetery (at the top) within the general area of the Tarim Mummies
^ abcdZhang, Kai (4 February 2021). "The Spread and Integration of Painted pottery Art along the Silk Road". Region – Educational Research and Reviews. 3 (1): 18. doi:10.32629/RERR.V3I1.242. S2CID234007445. In the late Neolithic period and the early Bronze age, pottery, ornamentation and bronze culture with the characteristics of West Asia and Central Asia were introduced into Xinjiang, including Qijia culture (2500–1500 BC), Siba culture (about 2000–1600 BC), Chawuhugoukou culture (around 800–100 BC), Turpan Subeixi culture (1100 BC–100 BC) and other cultures.
^Li, Xiao; Wagner, Mayke; Wu, Xiaohong; Tarasov, Pavel; Zhang, Yongbin; Schmidt, Arno; Goslar, Tomasz; Gresky, Julia (21 March 2013). "Archaeological and palaeopathological study on the third/second century BC grave from Turfan, China: Individual health history and regional implications". Quaternary International. 290–291: 335–343. Bibcode:2013QuInt.290..335L. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2012.05.010. ISSN1040-6182. Archived from the original on 2 March 2024. Retrieved 21 October 2023. The whole graveyard including tomb M2 belongs to the Subeixi culture, associated with the Cheshi (Chü-shih) state known from Chinese historical sources (Sinor, 1990). Archaeological and historical data attest it as society with a developed agro-pastoral economy, that existed in and north of the Turfan Basin (Fig. 1) during the first millennium BC. The Subeixi weaponry, horse gear and garments (Mallory and Mair, 2000; Lü, 2001) resemble those of the Pazyryk culture (Molodin and Polos'mak, 2007), suggesting contacts between Subeixi and the Scythians living in the Altai Mountains.
^Wagner, Mayke; Wu, Xinhua; Tarasov, Pavel; Aisha, Ailijiang; Ramsey, Christopher Bronk; Schultz, Michael; Schmidt-Schultz, Tyede; Gresky, Julia (20 September 2011). "Radiocarbon-dated archaeological record of early first millennium B.C. mounted pastoralists in the Kunlun Mountains, China". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 108 (38): 15733–15738. Bibcode:2011PNAS..10815733W. doi:10.1073/pnas.1105273108. ISSN0027-8424. PMC3179056. PMID21911387. The Liushui bronze weaponry, particularly the very distinctive rhombic arrowheads with one side spur, and horse harnesses (Fig. 2) show great similarity to finds from kurgans (e.g., Arzhan 1 and Berlik in Fig. 1), with the inventories representing different steppe and forest-steppe cultures, such as Bol'shaya Rechka, Krasnoozero, and late Irmen' in Siberia (4); Tasmola and Zebakino-Dongal in Kazakhstan (4); and Subeshi in Xinjiang (31). Except for the rhombic socketed arrowheads, all other bronze weapons, horse harnesses, and ornaments have been found across the northern Chinese steppes from Xinjiang to the Korean Peninsula (32, 33).
^Festa, Marcella. "Bronze Age communities and bronze metallurgy in Xinjiang"(PDF). Corso di Dottorato di ricerca in Studi sull'Africa e sull'Asia. Archived(PDF) from the original on 25 July 2022. Retrieved 2 March 2024. Other than in the Scythian regions in the north and west, similar bows were discovered in the Turfan Basin, at the sites of Subeixi, Yanghai and Shengjindian (all dating to the first millennium BC by carbon dating and typological analysis), while there is little evidence in other areas of Xinjiang1199. Given that the complex shape of these bows was unlikely to have been accidental, it can be suggested that the knowhow for producing these objects came from the northern Scythian region, in South-western Siberia, and reached Southern Xinjiang across the Turfan Basin....
^Mallory, J. P. "Bronze Age Languages of the Tarim Basin"(PDF). Expedition. 52 (3): 46. Archived(PDF) from the original on 2 March 2024. Retrieved 2 March 2024. Once one excludes all the languages imported by foreign missionaries, outside merchants, Chinese administrators, and later Turkic invaders, we are effectively left with two main language groups in the Tarim Basin that might be associated with at least some of the Tarim mummies of the Bronze Age and Iron Age: Khotanese Saka (or any other remnant of the Scythians of the Eurasian steppe) and Tocharian. Of course, totally different languages may have been spoken by these populations, especially if they were derived from native Neolithic groups, whose languages did not survive into the historical record.
^Mallory, J. P. "Bronze Age Languages of the Tarim Basin"(PDF). Expedition. 52 (3): 50. Archived(PDF) from the original on 2 March 2024. Retrieved 2 March 2024. The tall hats of the female mummies from Subeshi might also pass for a Saka trait, and so identification of some of the mummies with the Saka or Iranian speakers in the northeast Tarim is a serious possibility (...)
^Xin, Xiaoyu (2015). "Research on Prehistoric Hats in Xinjiang (2000 BC–200 BC)". Asian Social Science. 11 (7). doi:10.5539/ASS.V11N7P333. S2CID56018775.
^Xin, Xiaoyu (2015). "Research on Prehistoric Hats in Xinjiang (2000 BC–200 BC)". Asian Social Science. 11 (7). doi:10.5539/ASS.V11N7P333. S2CID56018775.
^Jiang, H. (2009). "Evidence for early viticulture in China: Proof of a grapevine (Vitis vinifera L., Vitaceae) in the Yanghai tombs, Xinjiang". Journal of Archaeological Science. 36 (7): 1458–1465. Bibcode:2009JArSc..36.1458J. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2009.02.010. Archived from the original on 1 November 2023. Retrieved 2 March 2024. A stem was discovered in the Yanghai Tombs, Turpan District in Xinjiang, China. Anatomical features showed it to be of grape (Vitis vinifera L.). Radiocarbon dating indicates it to be nearly 2300 years old, which would suggest that there was grape cultivation at least from that time. To date, this is the earliest physical evidence of V. vinifera cultivation in China.(...) By the studying of the ancient grapevine, we have gained new insight into the viticulture in China. Based on the physical evidence, we have been able to confirm one of the conclusions drawn by Yang (2003), namely that the cultivated grape (V. vinifera) was introduced into Xinjiang around 300 BCE. On the other hand, we would also argue that the earliest grape cultivation in China was not in the western and southern part of the Tarim Basin, but in the Turpan Basin, based on the evidence to date.