Origin of the Alans

[Alanus]

Hi, Jan

Adrienne Mayor was referring to Baifu grave M2, dated to about 1120BC (give or take 90 years). The date places it to within a few generations after Fu Hao; and Baifu is actually a northern suburb of Beijing. The grave has all the hallmarks of a "barbarian" buried in Chinese context, replete with a planked-wall chamber.

As you noted Fu Hao was not the only female warrior within the Shang army, with lesser women warriors involved. Katheryn Linduff also gives us info on Lady Jing, the first wife of King Wu-ding. She was buried with a helmet and a halberd, indicating war experience. Her tomb is in the Anyang royal complex, and has a ramp leading to it. Fu Hao, the third wife, was buried across the river and her tomb has no (royal) ramp. The difference, of course, is Fu Hao had an entire arsenal buried with her; and her tomb was sprinkled with 7,000 cowries tossed by her mourning admirers. She was a very capable general, the first commander in recorded history to use the "ambush technique." After she died, King Wu-ding's military fortunes waned. Oracle bone inscriptions note his frequent sacrifices to her in the hope she could turn the tide.

There was a heavy steppe culture presence, not only north of Beijing but also far south in Hebei. Artifacts include recumbent horses almost identical to those found at Arzhan 2, and numbers of Scythian-styled short swords. Later, the state of Yan had a large contingent of Loufan as their cavalry, and the Loufan presence continued into the Han era. Rightly or wrongly, Prof. A.A. Kovalev states that the Loufan were part of the Pazyryk culture and migrated into northern China where they continued Scytho-Siberian customs and commissioned Pazyryk-styled art from local Chinese artists. It would appear that my bridle set (in the above posts) was a Chinese product designed to "barbarian taste." I'll dig up the info on Baifu M2 and neighboring graves, but presently I'm in the middle of corresponding with Dr. Argent.