The strangest Loulan Sun Tomb in the Desert

What is the Sun Tomb? Why do archaeologists call this kind of tomb a "sun cemetery" in the desert? Let's explore this mysterious and strange burial method together!

In the winter of 1979, archaeologists Hou Can, Wang Binghua and others discovered an ancient tomb group east of Lop Nur. Located on the small sand dune on the north bank of the Kongque River, it is about 35 meters wide from east to west, about 45 meters long from north to south, and covers an area of about 1600 square meters. Among the 42 tombs excavated, they were divided into two shapes based on different surface signs of the tombs. The first shape is an earthen tomb dug in sand. There is an upright wooden stake at the east and west ends of the tomb that protrudes above the surface. The wooden coffin is simply made of small pieces of wood. The wooden coffin is in the shape of a boat, has no bottom, and stands at both ends to block the wood.

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is on the outside of the top plate of the wooden coffin covered with sheepskin or placed with dustpan-shaped straw woven fabric. Only one person was buried in most wooden coffins, with the deceased leaning back and his head facing east. The body was naked, wrapped in felt, wearing a pointed felt hat on its head, with bird feathers inserted into the hat, and wearing leather shoes. There were jade and bone beads on the neck, wrists and waist of the corpse. Place a small package of shredded Ephedra branches on the upper part of your chest, and there is also a small straw basket nearby containing a small amount of wheat grains or white pulp.

At the east end of some tombs, wooden or stone figures are buried. Other burial objects include wooden pots, bowls, cups, animal horns, serrated carved wood, etc. There were also children's bodies tightly wrapped in felt and preserved intact.

In the second type of tomb, neat circular rows of wooden piles are arranged on the surface, forming seven concentric circles around the tomb. The wooden piles are arranged from inside to outside, with orderly thickness. Outside the ring, there are radial rows of trees spreading out in four directions, forming radiation of 5 to 6 meters. What is even more intriguing is that all the owners in this type of tomb are male. Their burial postures were also all tilted up, their bodies straightened, their heads facing east and their feet facing west. There are not many burial objects in this type of tomb, except for serrated carvings, bone beads, bone cones, wood carvings, etc. The style is the same as the burial objects in the first type of tombs. The Sun Cemetery dates back 3800 years, and the famous "Loulan Beauty" was discovered here.

The reason why theis called the "Sun Cemetery" is because the tomb structure looks like a shining sun inlaid on the highland when viewed from a high place. There are seven rings of regular rings of Populus euphratica tree piles on the surface of the tomb, from inside to outside, with an orderly thickness. The smallest inner ring is about 2 meters in diameter, like a round sun. People are buried in the center of the "sun"; with the ring as the center, there are also seven rings of thick tree stumps arranged radially, in an orderly manner, like the light of the sun, which is spectacular. The stumps are all buried deeply vertically in the sand, with only the pile head exposed. This type of tomb is only found in one place in our country and is extremely precious.

In fact, this kind of tomb is extremely harmful. Archaeologists believe that this kind of wantonly felling of trees may have led to the destruction of Loulan.