Keyak Kuduk Fengsui Ruins, this name is not only unfamiliar to many people, but also feels a bit awkward when reading it for the first time.
What does kyakkuduk mean?
What was the name of the beacon in the Tang Dynasty?
A few days ago, the West China Metropolis Daily and the cover news reporter talked to Hu Xingjun, the research librarian of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the project leader of the Keakkuduke Fengsui Site Project, to interpret it for you.
Kayak Kuduk means weeds by the well
What does kyakkuduk mean?
Hu Xingjun said that the Kongque River area where the Keyakkuduk beacon is located is located in today's Xinjiang Bayingoleng Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture.
Historically, this area was the settlement of many ethnic groups, so many place names in this area were named in Uyghur or Mongolian.
"Kyak Kuduk, among them Kyak is a kind of aquatic plant, and Kuduk is a well, which means that there is a lush Kyak grass next to the well." said Hu Xingjun, who is also one of the Peacock River beacon groups. Xike beacon, because the wall of the beacon has triangular holes, which means beacon with triangular holes.
Kumushi in the beacon of Kumushi means reed grass.
But in fact, these beacons had other names in the Tang Dynasty documents.
Archaeologists have sorted out the documents and wooden slips unearthed in the Keak Kuduk beacon and found many names of the beacon in the Tang Dynasty.
"For example, Shadui Feng, Linhe Feng, Ma Pu Feng, Qiquan Feng, Hengling Feng, these names in the Tang Dynasty were actually named after the landform." Hu Xingjun said, "For example, Shadui Feng is actually because of this. The beacon was built on a large sand pile; the beacon in Linhe was built very close to the bank of the Kongque River.”
Restoration and conservation works expected to start this year
On December 15, 2021, the field excavation was about to end, and Hu Xingjun circled the Keakkuduk beacon site twice.
He has an emotional connection with this beacon tower for 10 years. Before the site is about to be backfilled and protected, he is still thinking and reviewing, for fear of missing something.
On March 31 this year, the Keakkuduk beacon site was selected as one of the top ten new archaeological discoveries in the country in 2021. This is undoubtedly an encouragement to Hu Xingjun and his Xinjiang archaeological colleagues around this project.
The field excavation is over, and follow-up research and protection will continue.
Hu Xingjun said that the documents unearthed at the Fengsui site contained many new defense lines, such as Loulan Road, Maze Thief Road, and Yanqi Road.
"Where are these defense lines? We plan to conduct a multidisciplinary archaeological survey along the Kongque River and the Loulan area this fall." In addition, the restoration of the unearthed cultural relics will continue. "The flattening of many paper documents has just begun. It takes a long time to repair and interpret, and further analysis is required in the follow-up, multidisciplinary participation and high-tech 'eyes' are used to find answers that we cannot see." Hu Xingjun said.
According to reports, at the beginning of the new year, the Great Wall National Cultural Park (Xinjiang section) project was officially launched, and the restoration and protection of the Keakkuduk beacon site, one of the key projects, will start this year.
Hu Xingjun hopes that the archaeological achievements of this thousand-year-old Tang Dynasty beacon site will become a living teaching material for telling history and patriotic education in the future.
West China Metropolis Daily - Cover reporter Zhou Qin, Yan Wenwen, Chen Guangxu