Sites of beacon towers and walls of frontier fortress, the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD)

Location: Jinta County, Gansu Province, and Erjina Banner, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region

Period: 119 BC - 91 AD

Excavated in 1930

Significance: It has supplied important materials to the study of the history and culture of the Han Dynasty, as well as that of the features of military institutions located in the remote areas.

 Introduction

Juyan is the sites of beacon towers and walls of frontier fortress of the Han Dynasty. The total length of the frontier fortress is about 250 kilometers. Archeologists have already discovered the ruins of 3 beacon towers so far. 

Silk fabrics written with six characters: token of delivering command or passing fortress (bottom, length 21 cm); Bamboo and wooden strips: (up)

Archeologists began their excavation in 1979 at the beacon-fire tower ruins in Juyan in northwest China's Gansu Province. Nearly 40,000 wooden slips and bamboo strips have been unearthed, together with a large quantity of bows and arrows, cuirass pieces, and iron tools, etc. The content of the strips are extensive, covering politics, military, economy, culture, technology, law, philosophy, religion, and people, etc. Some of the wooden slips and bamboo strips were not pure official documents, but newspapers issued by the central and local governments. At least 100 such newspapers were discovered; part of them were abstracts of imperial edicts and others, memorials presented by local officials to the central government.