□ Xia Guoqiang
The ancient city of Loulan, recorded in the "Historical Records" and "Han Shu", disappeared into the vast desert due to changes in natural conditions.
At the beginning of the last century, the Swedish explorer Sven Hedin unveiled her mystery and opened the door to the study of Loulan.
At that time, most of the archaeological excavations were completed by overseas adventurers. Until 1927, when the Sino-Swiss Northwest Scientific Expedition came here, the Chinese team member Huang Wenbi excavated the wooden slips of the Han Dynasty at the Tuyin site, which made the mark of the search for Loulan with Chinese characters. name.
In April 1980, Hou Can led an archaeological team into Loulan and obtained a wealth of cultural relics and documents. Seven years later, he used the Loulan Archaeological Survey and Excavation Report (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") to bring Loulan back to the archaeological site. Research horizons.
Reading the "Report" is like walking into the ancient city of Loulan with the archaeological team: strolling through the decayed Populus euphratica forest, the surrounding houses are covered with peach pips, the soil layer walls mixed with plants, the barn where the wheat flour is piled up, the irregular city walls , winding ancient waterways and wooden slips and bamboo slips in house pots, official pagodas, and beacon tombs.
The "Report" uses figures to build for us towering city walls, gullies blown by strong winds, blocks of houses and buildings, wind-eroded pagodas, scattered clay pots, wooden figures, pieces of cloth, bronze mirrors, iron nails, and rings. , Bone carvings, restore the life scene of Loulan people - they live near the water, plant fruit trees, cultivate commerce, build nine-story pagodas, paint colorful murals, and extend the ruling management model of the central dynasty to this place.
412 wooden slips and 164 paper documents record the information of the officials and soldiers stationed in Loulan from the four years of Cao Wei Jiaping to the eighteenth year of Jianxing in the former Liang Dynasty, and the daily information of the officers and soldiers stationed in Loulan during the 78 years of reclamation and garrisoning, receiving utensils and food, as well as the information of "Huanyi Clothes". Greetings and the words "heart book".
Artifact measurement, carbon-14 determination, document year number... These figures silently describe the changes of the ancient city, allowing us to touch the memory of Loulan in the smoke and dust of history: Since the Stone Age, Loulan has been gathered in the lower reaches of the Peacock River. Human beings, the Han Dynasty formed the Silk Road, and the Wei and Jin Dynasties became the resident of the long history of the Western Regions.
Although Sven Hedin's "Central Asia and Tibet", "Scientific Achievements of the Central Asian Expedition from 1899 to 1902" and Stein's "Desert Khitan Abandoned Sites in the Desert" and "Archaeological Maps of the Western Regions", etc. Excavation records, but the archaeological survey and excavation chaired by Hou Can is the most valuable and meaningful, filling the gap and giving Chinese scholars a voice in the study of Loulan.
In the cascading historical fragments, more systematic and scientific work can undoubtedly put together the most realistic picture of Loulan.
In this expedition, the road into Loulan was first explored from the air and on the ground. In late March 1980, it was divided into east and west routes to enter Loulan. In addition to the Xinjiang Institute of Archaeology, the Xinjiang Meteorological Bureau and the Xinjiang Institute of Geography joined the investigation, cleaning, and Picture production, restoration and cleaning are more professional than ever.
Every detail in the "Report" shows the process of previous excavations. What we see is not only the archaeological site, but also an archaeological history of Loulan.
The "Report" revised the latitude and longitude positions of Loulan demarcated by Sven Hedin and Stein, and showed the rivers, plains, Populus euphratica forests and various plants in the ruins near the ancient city of Loulan with a more detailed perspective, making the city's surface humanistic and natural. Geographical elements are clearer.
At the same time, with the help of meteorological data, the exact site of the city wall after wind erosion was found, which corrected Stein's mistake that the city wall was square.
The determination of the wall site further refined the determination of the rammed earth layer, and it was found that the ancient city was built in separate buildings.
The "Report"'s attention to urban construction extends to the problems of urban water supply that early excavators failed to pay attention to, and supplements the data of ancient waterways. The investigation of remains along the waterway has made many corrections to Sven Hedin's excavation mistakes, verifying Stein's Some opinions have also obtained new documents and cultural relics in the Southwest District Office, which has been cleaned up by Sven Hedin and Stein.
Stein said in Archaeology of the Asian Heartland that the group of tombs named "Gutai Cemetery" was "disorganized" and "very puzzling chaos", but the "Report" found that the MB1 burials remaining in the area were not so out of order.
In the process of cleaning up the excavated MB2 tomb again, a large number of precious relics were found.
It is conceivable that if there is no "Report", perhaps we have been lost in Stein's records and missed Loulan's grace.
In March 1987, Hou Can completed the report, but due to various reasons, until September 16, 2016, Mr. Hou fell asleep forever, and Lou Lan was still lying quietly in the sealed cowhide pocket.
In December 2019, the Huang Wenbi Center of Xinjiang Normal University solemnly accepted the leftover manuscript of the "Report", devoted to Hou Can's handwritten manuscript, fine line drawings and photos. After sorting and proofreading, it was published by Phoenix Publishing House, fully showing Chinese scholars. "Lou Lan".