Nine 1700-year-old brick tombs have been discovered in northwest China's Xinjiang. Experts say that they can1valuable clues for the research of exchanges (交换；交流) between the central Chinese government at that time and2Western Regions.
It is the3time ancient tombs with typical characteristics of China's main Han nationality have been found in the Uygur ethnic region.
4from Beijing, Shanxi and Xinjiang concluded that the tombs were5between the middle and late third century and fourth century.
The tombs were unearthed during the6of a road earlier this year in Kuqa county, 740 km from Xinjiang's capital Urumqi and part of the7Qiuci State. Qiuci State, which8between the second century BC and 860 AD, was one of the 36 states in the Western Regions.
The tombs would help archaeologists with research into the political, economic and cultural9between the Central Plains government and states in the west, and on the cultural10of the Central Plains on the Western Regions.
Archaeologists from the Xinjiang institute have dug nine tombs since August 22, 11bodies of more than 30 people, some ancient12and more than 60 pottery (陶器) jars. It is thought there are another three tombs to be13.
The people buried in the tombs were14either people from the western regions deeply influenced by the Han culture or the Han residents (居民) in the 15.
