The Astana and Karakhoja cemeteries lie on the desert plateau north-east of Turpan, close to the ruins of Gaochang, and they were used as burial ground from roughly the third century to the eighth. More than five hundred tombs have been excavated, and the reason they matter is the climate: the soil is dry and saline and the air almost never holds moisture, so organic material that would have rotted anywhere else in China survived here intact for well over a thousand years.
The tombs
Most are family graves reached by a sloping ramp that runs down to a brick or rammed earth chamber, sometimes with two or three rooms, and several bodies were buried in each. The dead were laid out with the equipment they were expected to need, which for a society on the Silk Road meant a great deal of it: clay figurines of officials, soldiers, horses, camels and dancers, made in moulds and painted; silk and cotton textiles; wooden models of furniture; coins; and food vessels. Some chambers carry paintings of the household scene, the stars or the constellations.
The documents
The most important finds are the paper documents - contracts, tax receipts, land registers, lists of goods, private letters and official correspondence - which had been used in some cases to line the tombs and in others to make the shoes and hats buried with the dead. Because they carry dates and names and describe ordinary business, they are the single richest source for the administration and daily life of Gaochang and the Tang prefecture of Xizhou that followed it. Alongside them, the dry conditions preserved the bodies themselves, and a number of the dead are displayed or held by museums in the region.
Practical notes
The site is on the same road as Gaochang and Bezeklik, about forty minutes from Turpan by car, and it is usually combined with them on a half-day trip. Only a few tombs are open and lighting inside is limited; photography is not permitted. The ground above is bare desert with no shade, and the chamber below is cool but dusty, so a hat and water are essential. The site museum at the entrance explains the finds, and a visit there first makes far more sense of what is in the tombs.
