Free Web NovelChapter 2116: Chapter 1980: Old Li (3)
However, afterward, Loulan, this frontier town, gradually disappeared from history, until 1900, when Swedish explorer Sven Hedin accidentally got lost in the desert due to a shovel and stumbled upon the ancient city, giving the Loulan Ancient City Ruins a chance to be rediscovered.
The Loulan Ancient City Ruins, buried under wind and sand, were preserved intact, its city walls towering, yet devoid of human presence; the buildings within the ancient city were perfectly preserved, as if overnight, the entire nation had become an empty city.
The disappearance of Loulan was directly related to Lop Nur. In 1878, Russian explorer Przhevalsky discovered during his investigation of Lop Nur that the position marked on ancient Chinese maps was inaccurate, not located south of the Kuruktagh Mountains, but near the Altun Mountains, and the location identified by Przhevalsky is now just a Salt Marsh.
This indicates that Lop Nur is a wandering lake. Domestic and foreign researchers agree with this idea, because the rivers feeding Lop Nur pass through the desert, and the river water contains a lot of silt, easily causing the riverbed to block and shift course, forming a new lake in low-lying areas of the desert, while the original old lake dries up and gets swallowed by the desert.
Loulan Ancient City was built by the water, and after the upstream rivers changed course, the city’s residents abandoned it, leaving behind an empty city, which seems reasonable.
But the problem is, in the desert, there is only one Loulan Ancient City, and so far, no other ancient city ruins have been discovered elsewhere.
This means that the residents of the Loulan Ancient City did not have the opportunity to rebuild a new city by the new lake, and no other civilization sites similar to Loulan have ever been discovered in the vicinity of Lop Nur.
The origin and decline of any civilization are continuous; cities can be abandoned, but as long as the fire of civilization hasn’t extinguished, there is always a chance for it to take root and sprout elsewhere. However, the civilization of Loulan was limited to this one ancient city, its writing, architecture, and burial culture never appearing elsewhere again.
This means that Loulan’s culture declined along with the Loulan Ancient City.
Various historical documents are also vague about the situation in Loulan. The sudden disappearance of a frontier town in the Western Regions left no trace in the historical documents of any dynasty, only a silence.
China began archaeological investigations of Loulan in 1979, discovering ancient tombs downstream of the Peacock River, along with Loulan’s unique burial culture. Surrounding the grave is circle upon circle of logs arranged radially, like sunlight radiating from the sun in the sky, but the specific meaning is unknown.
Guesses about the mysterious disappearance of the Ancient Loulan Kingdom are numerous, and various conspiracy theories have taken advantage, with six or seven representative theories.
Chapter 1982 Frontline
The most widely accepted theory is the war theory; after the fifth century AD, frequent invasions by northern nomadic tribes weakened the Ancient Loulan Kingdom, which was eventually abandoned.
Researchers who refute this theory believe the size of the Loulan Ancient City Ruins indicates that when the Loulan Ancient City went extinct, the Ancient Loulan Kingdom was still very strong.
Another competitive theory is the environmental destruction theory, claiming Loulan’s decline is similar to the drying up of Lop Nur in 1972, due to drought, water scarcity, booming population, rivers changing course, and residents abandoning the ancient city.
Researchers disagreeing with this theory believe the Loulan Ancient City had an 800-year history, which means it had 800 years of experience resisting land desertification. Loulan was the first country in the world to promulgate environmental protection laws; claiming Loulan perished due to environmental destruction is akin to being pecked in the eyes by the eagle you play with.
Some researchers believe Loulan’s disappearance relates to the north-south migration of Lop Nur. Sven Hedin’s studies showed that Lop Nur changes course every 1500 years, and 3000 years ago, primitive Europeans lived in the Loulan area, while 1500 years ago the Ancient Loulan Kingdom flourished, consistent with Lop Nur’s migration pattern.
Opposing researchers argue that because nomadic tribes follow the water, after the drying up of Lop Nur, the residents of the Ancient Loulan Kingdom should have moved to other water-abundant areas to rebuild their city, but up till now, no relics of Loulan civilization have been found, the Ancient Loulan Kingdom became an empty city, and its residents completely vanished. freewёbnoνel.com
Moreover, there are even more outrageous theories like the plague theory, biological invasion theory, and cultural invasion theory.
The mystery of the Loulan people’s origins is even more elusive, with their script academically called "Tocharian", belonging to the Indo-European language family, indicating the Loulan people were an Indo-European ancient race; however, some maliciously motivated racial research claims Loulan people were Aryans, while Chinese researchers have sought evidence from genetics, object studies, and multiple other fields, concluding the Loulan people were closer to Ancient Afghans.
This research conclusion also adds credibility to the biological invasion theory of the Ancient Loulan Kingdom’s disappearance, with Ancient Afghans from Mesopotamia migrating to the banks of Lop Nur Lake, and the mole cricket following in human footsteps disrupted the local ecosystem in Loulan, leading to its ultimate demise.
The complete female corpse discovered in Loulan, with a high nose bridge and light-colored hair, shows obvious Caucasian race features. During the Han Dynasty, Loulan’s people were more ethnically diverse, with Caucasians, Mongolian people, and Han people all gathered in this desert oasis to survive, until AD 630 when the Loulan Ancient City suddenly became a dead city, its buildings intact but the city abandoned.
What happened in AD 630?
