Qiemu’erqieke (Shamirshak) Stones

Figure 6: Stone Stelae: 1-4. Qiemu’erqieke Phase I from the Kayinar cemetery (Kovalev 1999); 5, 6. Qiemu’erqieke Phase II from Kalatasi cemetery (Wang 1995:62, 177-Ea-22, 23); 7. Scythian (Telegin and Mallory 1994); 8.Turkic (Wang 1995: 82). Credit: V. G. Betts, Alison & Wei Ming Jia, Peter. From A re-analysis of the Qiemu’erqieke (Shamirshak) cemeteries, Xinjiang, China in Journal of Indo-European Studies · September 2010.

According to the paper:

The date of the Qiemu’erqieke cultural complex has been the subject of some discussion but there are indications that the earliest stage may date in the late 5th to early 4th millennium BP, possibly contemporary with the later Afanasievo but more likely with the Okunevo tradition of the Upper Yenisei in southern Siberia (Jia and Betts, 2010).

• A. V. G. Betts and P. Wei Ming Jia, “A re-analysis of the Qiemu’erqieke (Shamirshak) cemeteries, Xinjiang, China,” , vol. 38, iss. 3 & 4, 2010.
  [Bibtex]

  @Article{vgBettsIndoeropean2010,
    author =       {V. G. Betts, Alison \& Wei Ming Jia, Peter},
    title =        {A re-analysis of the Qiemu’erqieke (Shamirshak) cemeteries, Xinjiang, China},
    journaltitle = {Journal of Indo-European Studies, The},
    year =         {2010},
    volume =       {38},
    number =       {3 \& 4},
    issue =        {Fall/Winter},
    url =          {https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275275447},
    abstract =     {Excavation of the Qiemu’erqieke cemeteries in the 1960s revealed the earliest known Bronze Age culture in northern Xinjiang. Burial practices and grave goods show important connections to the Eurasian steppes. The sites have never been fully published and there has been much speculation about the exact nature of the Qiemu’erqieke finds. This paper sets out a highly detailed re-analysis of the available data and presents some new perspectives on the sites, their chronology and external parallels.},
    file =         {vgBettsIndoeropean2010.pdf:media/trismegisto/Vitamin/Documents/Bibliography/vgBettsIndoeropean2010.pdf:PDF},
    timestamp =    {2016-06-23}
  }

 

First, a photo of them and then other similar stones:

researchgate.net