Early urban occupation in the Tarim Basin: recent fieldwork results from the fortified site of Kuiyukexiehai'er (Koyuk Shahri)

Abstract

Archaeological fieldwork at the fortified site of Kuiyukexiehai'er (Koyuk Shahri) in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of north-western China yields the earliest known evidence for urban occupation in the Tarim Basin, providing new insights into early urbanism and agro-pastoral subsistence practices in the region during the first millennium BC.