Archaeologists in Xinjiang (northwest China) discovered a Bronze Age stone mound that is probably the largest and best preserved of its kind.
     Wu Xinhua, the team's leading archaeologist, said that the mound is made of cobbles and mud and shaped like a cone surrounded by two stone walls. The diameter of the outermost wall reached 114 meters. The site, with a minor damage at its top, is one of the important sites yet discovered in Xinjiang, where archaeologists are studying the ancient nomadic culture that used to live in the vast prairie of the region.
     The mound can be dated back to 2,500 to 3,000 years ago in the late Bronze Age, or even a bit earlier, a claim supported by aerial photography and data calculated from sites and burial graves discovered last year in Russia's Republic of Tuva and Mt. Tianshan in eastern Xinjiang.
     Li Jun, deputy director of Xinjiang's Cultural Heritage Administration, said that the discovery will probably help to prove the peaceful interconnection of ancient cultures along the Silk Road, as the site discovered in Xinjiang showed many resemblances to those of other countries and regions in Central Asia.

Edited from China.org.cn (9 August 2016)