THE WUSUN IN NORTHEASTERN CENTRAL ASIA

Among the peoples mentioned in Chinese dynastic chronicles are the Xiongnu and other steppe nomads such as the Yuezhi and the Wusun. The Xiongnu forced both these peoples to abandon their camping grounds and move to Zhetysu. Numerous sites in Tuva of the Late Scythian period (those of the Uyuk–Sagly culture) reveal ties with the Xiongnu and suggest that they were associated with the Wusun. Artifacts from Suglug-Khem-1 and -2 and Khayirakan, Tuva, specifically mirrors with side handles, hairpins, wire earrings, small wooden four-legged tables, painted vessels, etc., are paralleled by finds from burials of the low-ranking Wusun in Zhetysu. Before arriving at Zhetysu, the Wusun crossed the Altai-Sayan highland and the Irtysh below Lake Zaisan, where their presence is attested by sites of the Kula-Zhurga type. The distinctive features of the latter are flexed burials in stone cists and vessels resembling those from Tuva in shape; other artifacts are extremely rare and similar to those from burials of the low-ranking Wusun in Zhetysu.