Longfellow Katharine. Threads of the Dead: An Investment in Appearance in Ancient Central Asia

No publisher. — 2013. — 67 p.The Cherchen Cemetery outside the village of Zaghunluq is located on a tableland north of the Cherchen River in the Tarim Basin, approximately six kilometers southwest of Cherchen City (Illustration I).1 The cemetery space covers about 800,000 square meters, running 1,100 meters from north to south and 750 meters east to west with an elevation of approximately 1,270 meters.2 The area of Cherchen is also known as Qiemo and is found in the Taklamakan Desert in the Xinjiang Region of China.3 The Cherchen Cemetery contains hundreds of graves dating from approximately 1000 BCE to the early centuries AD, although the exact number is difficult to ascertain because of frequent damage by local salt diggers and tomb raiders.4 The town of Cherchen, where the cemetery is located, was quite close to what would become the southern passage of the Silk Trade Route, exposing it to countless travelers and foreign goods.