Origin of the Alans

[Alanus]

Baifu M1, 2, and 3: Dying at the Front Line.

We return to Baifu and all of its implications. The two intact graves exhibit "wealth" in a sense that those buried there were from the upper strata of a tripart society-- a combination of Zhou, Shang, and an unknown "ghost" culture from the Far North. In Baifu M2 and 3, the central clusters around the bodies contain northern bronze artifacts, similar to the ones found in Karasuk and Arzhan graves. Around the periphery of both burials, we find large bronze containers of both Shang and Zhou style, only reserved for the highest "upper crust." The woman commander in M2 was given the most attention by those who interred her, but the log chamber was roughly cut with no mortise work. The officer in M3 was lying face down, as if hastily dropped to his grave (or in an extended prostrate position, not fully described by the author [Csorba, Sept. 1, 1996, Antiquity]). However, indications point to rushed interment.

   
If we look at an area map, we find Liulihe (the Yan capital) about 90 km south. The frontier stations-- Baifu, Xiaohenan, and Chaodaogou-- are located equidistant from each other in a straight line that runs west-southwest to east-northeast. They form a 200 kilometer "front line" and face the Yan Mountains. The enemy would be the "Shanrong," pastorals attacking from the lower regions of Yanshan. This accounts for the hurried burials. The three officers in Baifu 1, 2, & 3, were commanding a defensive war under the direction of the Marquis of Yan (who was probably quite safe back at Liulihe).

   
   
   
   
Here are some artifacts found in Shanrong graves. And here too, we see Northern-styled horse bits, artwork, and bronze riding gear similar to those discovered at Arzhan 1.

We have no facts to decipher when this woman commander's culture entered northeastern Shang China. They were quite Sinicized at the time the Zhou amassed 500 chariots against the last Shang king (whose wife was recorded as a "fox demon"). There's no news like old news; and back in 1980 Karl Jettmar phrased it this way, "Tribes participating in the battles that led to the shift of power from Shang to Chou [Zhou] certainly reveal cultural traits of East European origin, either because they were immigrants themselves or because they had accepted innovations of immigrants... [The three Baifu] burials in wooden chambers belong to a transition period from Shang to Chou... The victorious Chou installed a new dynasty there [in Yan] whose symbol could be a prototype of the 'tamgus' used during later periods by the peoples of the steppes." (Jettmar, 1980, p.149)

We have several indications that the northern tribes were well inside Shang China for at least four generations, going back to the tomb of Fu Hao, and the 50 Alpine (Adronovo) skulls found in Anyang's sacrificial pits. Anthropologist Yan Sun has referred to the woman in M2 as a "local elite," indicating her tribe was within the Yan polity, in touch with the central Zhou court, and favored by it. She was an accepted leader of an Indo-Iranian pastoral community at the frontier of Zhou society.

I'll relate more info in a future post, especially the prominent Zhou family of Peng Bo, which falls into haplogroup Q1a1a. (Same haplogroup mentioned in an earlier post on Bronze age DNA within Altai graves) In closing, I should mention that the woman commander in M2 was buried with Shang oracle bones, cowrie shells, and jade waist pendants. She was "Shangized" and less related to Zhou culture. The waist pit beneath her body contained a single dog (Fu Hao's tomb contained six canines), another Shang burial custom. More to come, hopefully.