Xinjiang is located at the crossroad of the ancient Silk Road, which adjoins Central Asia to the West, the Mongolian Plateau and Russian Altay to the north, the Qinhai-Tibet Plateau to the south, and the Hexi Corridor to the east. The late phase of the prehistory of Xinjiang spanned from the beginning of the Bronze Age (c.4500 BP) to the end of the Early Iron Age (c.2200 BP) when this area was gradually governed by the Han Dynasty.

The archaeological discoveries of this period are dominated by burials. The burial record reveals that the social complexity of different sub-regions of Xinjiang developed in unbalanced degrees, other than the dichotomy proposed by previous scholars that the northern region is dominated by pastoral kingdoms and the southern region is featured by oasis states. Influence from adjoining regions played an important role in the unbalanced development of cultures and societies of late prehistoric Xinjiang.

Qi Meng is a PhD candidate in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Sydney. He specialises in the Bronze Age archaeology of Northern China and the Eastern Eurasian Steppe. His PhD research focuses on the burials and societies of prehistoric Xinjiang.

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