Nestled between the Tianshan Mountains and the Gobi Desert, the Hami oasis in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region is a land characterized by little rain, constantly buffeted by wind and sand. It is also home to the region’s oldest known burial site, the Tianshanbeilu cemetery, located approximately 500 km (310 miles) east of Urumqi, the regional capital. More than 700 Bronze Age tombs have been uncovered here, previously thought to belong to Eurasian nomads who migrated eastward from the steppes.
However, a study published in the journal Science challenges this assumption, revealing a previously unknown, genetically mixed population that inhabited the eastern Tianshan region around 3,600 years ago, during the Shang dynasty (1600-1050 BC).
