Kangju (;
Eastern Han Chinese: ''kʰɑŋ-kɨɑ'' < *''khâŋ-ka'' (c. 140 BCE)) was the Chinese name of a kingdom in
Central Asia
Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...
during the first half of the
first millennium CE. The name ''Kangju'' is now generally regarded as a variant or mutated form of the name
Sogdiana. According to contemporaneous Chinese sources, Kangju was the second most powerful state in
Transoxiana
Transoxiana or Transoxania (, now called the Amu Darya) is the Latin name for the region and civilization located in lower Central Asia roughly corresponding to eastern Uzbekistan, western Tajikistan, parts of southern Kazakhstan, parts of Tu ...
, after the
Yuezhi
The Yuezhi were an ancient people first described in China, Chinese histories as nomadic pastoralists living in an arid grassland area in the western part of the modern Chinese province of Gansu, during the 1st millennium BC. After a major defea ...
.
Its people, known in Chinese as the ''Kāng'' (康), were evidently of
Indo-European origins, spoke an
Eastern Iranian language, and had a semi-nomadic way of life. The
Sogdians may have been the same people as those of Kangju and closely related to the
Sakas,
[: "... the Sogdians, known as K'ang-chü to the Chinese..."] or other Iranian groups such as the
Asii
The Asii, Osii, Ossii, Asoi, Asioi, Asini or Aseni were an ancient Indo-European people of Central Asia, during the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE. Known only from Classical Greek and Roman sources, they were one of the peoples held to be responsibl ...
.
Name
According to John E. Hill, a historian specialising in ancient Central Asia, "Kangju (W-G: K'ang-chü) 康居" was in or near the "
Talas basin,
odernTashkent
Tashkent (), also known as Toshkent, is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uzbekistan, largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of more than 3 million people as of April 1, 2024. I ...
and Sogdiana".
[Hill (2015), Vol. 1, note 2.17, p. 183.] (According to
Edwin Pulleyblank, Beitian – the summer capital of Kangju – was in or near modern metropolitan Tashkent.)
It is not clear whether the Chinese name 康居 Kangju was intended to transcribe an ethnic name, or to be descriptive, or both. 居 ''ju'' can mean: 'seat', 'central place of activity or authority; 'to settle down,' 'residence,' or 'to occupy (militarily).'... The term, therefore, could simply mean "the abode of the Kang," or "territory occupied by the Kang." ... As ''kang'' 康 means 'well-being', 'peaceful,' 'happy;' 'settle', 'stability,' Kangju can be translated as the 'Peaceful Land,' or 'Abode of the Peaceful (People).' ... Even if the name Kangju was originally an attempt to transcribe the sounds of a foreign name, it would still have carried the sense of a peaceful place to Chinese speakers, and the name 'Kang' would have had overtones of a peaceful people.

Later Chinese sources, during the
Sui and
Tang dynasties, refer to Kangju as the State of Kang (). By that time it was part of the
Göktürk Khaganate.
Pulleyblank linked Kangju to the
Tocharian A
Tocharian A, also known as Tokharian A, Eastern Tocharian, Agnean (), Karashahrian or Turfanian is a dead language that was in use in the 1st millennium AD in the Karashahr and Turpan, Turfan region of the Tarim Basin, present-day Xinjiang, West ...
word ''kāṅka-'', probably meaning "stone" and proposed that the Kangju were originally
Tocharians who had migrated westward into Sogdia and established themselves in
Chach (modern
Tashkent
Tashkent (), also known as Toshkent, is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uzbekistan, largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of more than 3 million people as of April 1, 2024. I ...
). Pulleyblank also suggested that the
Jié (羯) tribe Qiāngqú (羌渠) might be Kangju people who had been incorporated into the Xiongnu tribal confederation. Pulleyblank further connected Kangju to Kànjié 瞰羯 (*''Kamkar''?) and the name ''Kankar'' given to the lower
Yaxartes by Persian geographer
ibn Khordadbeh.
Ünal (2022) instead reconstructs *''kaŋk-'' as the
underlying form of Chinese transcription 康居 EHC *''kʰɑŋ-kɨɑ'' > standard Chinese ''Kāngjū''), proposes that it was an
Iranian
Iranian () may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Iran
** Iranian diaspora, Iranians living outside Iran
** Iranian architecture, architecture of Iran and parts of the rest of West Asia
** Iranian cuisine, cooking traditions and practic ...
word meaning "stone", and compares it to
Pashto
Pashto ( , ; , ) is an eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family, natively spoken in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan. It has official status in Afghanistan and the Pakistani province of Khyb ...
''kā́ṇay'' "stone".
Joseph Marquart,
Omeljan Pritsak and
Peter B. Golden have noted phonetic similarities between Kangju and Kengeres mentioned in the Orkhon inscriptions, the Kangarâyê in Transcaucasia, the city of Kengü Tarban, and the three
Pecheneg tribes collectively known as
Kangar
Kangar (Kedah Malay: ''Kangaq'') is the state capital and the largest town in Perlis, Malaysia. It has a population of 48,898 and an area of 2,619.4 ha. It is located next to the Thailand border, in the northernmost point of Peninsular Malaysi ...
mentioned by
Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus. Nevertheless, all those connections remain hypothetical.
Archaeological evidence suggests that the Kangju spoke an
Eastern Iranian language, which was probably identical to
Sogdian, or derived from it.
History
According to 2nd century BCE
Chinese sources, Kangju lay north of the
Dayuan and west of the
Wusun
The Wusun ( ) were an ancient semi-Eurasian nomads, nomadic Eurasian Steppe, steppe people of unknown origin mentioned in Chinese people, Chinese records from the 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD.
The Wusun originally l ...
, bordering the
Yuezhi
The Yuezhi were an ancient people first described in China, Chinese histories as nomadic pastoralists living in an arid grassland area in the western part of the modern Chinese province of Gansu, during the 1st millennium BC. After a major defea ...
in the south. Their territory covered the region of the
Ferghana Valley and the area between the
Amu Darya and
Syr Darya rivers, with the core territory along the middle Syr Darya.
Since historians of
Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...
do not mention the existence of any political power in the area except the
Khwarezmians, the Kangju must have appeared a little later.
It is likely that the state of the Kangju emerged during the great upheaval in
Central Asia
Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...
following the withdrawal of the
Yuezhi
The Yuezhi were an ancient people first described in China, Chinese histories as nomadic pastoralists living in an arid grassland area in the western part of the modern Chinese province of Gansu, during the 1st millennium BC. After a major defea ...
from
Gansu
Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...
and then the
Ili Valley after their defeat by the
Xiongnu
The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of Nomad, nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese historiography, Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, t ...
and Wusun respectively.
Chinese sources state that the Kangju were tributiaries of the Yuezhi in the south and the Xiongnu in the east.
Kangju was mentioned by the Chinese traveller and diplomat
Zhang Qian who visited the area c. 128 BCE, whose travels are documented in Chapter 123 of the ''
Shiji'' (whose author,
Sima Qian, died c. 90 BCE):
"Kangju is situated some 2,000 li 32 kilometersnorthwest of Dayuan. Its people are nomads and resemble the Yuezhi in their customs. They have 80,000 or 90,000 skilled archers. The country is small, and borders Dayuan ( Ferghana). It acknowledges sovereignty to the Yuezhi people in the South and the Xiongnu in the East.
Qian also visited a land known to the Chinese as
Yancai 奄蔡 (literally "vast steppe"), which lay north-west of the Kangju. The people of Yancai were said to resemble the Kangju in their customs:
Yancai lies some 2,000 '' li'' (832 km) northwest of Kangju (centered on Turkestan at Beitian). The people are nomads and their customs are generally similar to those of the people of Kangju. The country has over 100,000 archer warriors, and borders a great shoreless lake erhaps what is now known as the Northern Sea (Aral Sea, distance between Tashkent
Tashkent (), also known as Toshkent, is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uzbekistan, largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of more than 3 million people as of April 1, 2024. I ...
to Aralsk is about 866 km].
By the time of the ''Hanshu'' (which covers the period from 206 BCE to 23 CE), Kangju had expanded considerably to a nation of some 600,000 individuals, with 120,000 men able to bear arms. Kangju was clearly now a major power in its own right. By this time it had gained control of Dayuan and
Sogdiana in which it controlled “five lesser kings” (小王五).
In 101 BCE, the Kangju allied themselves with the Dayuan, helping them preserve their independence against the
Han.
The account on the '
Western Regions' in the
Han dynasty
The Han dynasty was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC ...
Chinese chronicle, the ''
Hou Hanshu'', 88 (covering the period 25–220 and completed in the 5th century), based on a report to the Chinese emperor c. 125 CE, mentions that, at that time, Liyi 栗弋 (= Suyi 粟弋) = Sogdiana, and both the "old" Yancai (which had changed its name to ''Alanliao'' and seems here to have expanded its territory to the
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, ...
), and ''Yan'', a country to Yancai's north, as well as the strategic city of "Northern Wuyi" 北烏伊 (
Alexandria Eschate, or modern
Khujand), were all dependent on Kangju.
[ Hulsewé (1979) p. 129]
Y. A. Zadneprovskiy suggests that the Kangju subjection of Yancai occurred in the 1st century BCE.
Yancai is identified with the
Aorsi of
Roman records.
Scholars have connected name Alanliao to
Alans
The Alans () were an ancient and medieval Iranian peoples, Iranic Eurasian nomads, nomadic pastoral people who migrated to what is today North Caucasus – while some continued on to Europe and later North Africa. They are generally regarded ...
.
The Yan people of the
Urals, paid tribute to the Kangju in
furs.
The Kangju established close connections with the
Sarmatians
The Sarmatians (; ; Latin: ) were a large confederation of Ancient Iranian peoples, ancient Iranian Eurasian nomads, equestrian nomadic peoples who dominated the Pontic–Caspian steppe, Pontic steppe from about the 5th century BCE to the 4t ...
, their western neighbors. The westward expansion of the Kangju obliged many of the Sarmatians to migrate further west, and it may therefore be concluded that the Kangju played a major in the
great migrations of the time, which played a major role in world history.
Through this expansion the Kangju gained control over key parts of the
Silk Route.
The Kangju state came to unite a number of regions which had
sedentary,
agricultural
Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created f ...
and
nomadic populations.
Although their territory was small, the fertility of the land and their sophisticated civilization enabled the Kangju to maintain a large population, becoming a major military power.

The Kangju were in frequent struggles with the Wusun, during which they in the mid 1st century BCE allied themselves with the northern Xiongnu.
The Kangju ruler gave his daughter in marriage to the northern Xiongnu ruler Zhizhi, while the Kangju king married the daughter of the Xiongnu ruler. The Xiongnu and Kangju were initially successful, besieging the Wusun in 42 BCE. The Han however intervened, defeating and killing the northern Xiongnu ruler in at Talas in 36 BCE (
Battle of Zhizhi). The Kangju ruler was subsequently forced to send his son as a
hostage to the Han court.
Nevertheless, the Kangju continued to send embassies to the Han court and pursued an independent policy, which they were able to maintain until the 3rd century CE. Evidence of Kangju independence can be seen in the
coin
A coin is a small object, usually round and flat, used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order to facilitate trade. They are most often issued by ...
age issued in the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE, during which they issued their own
currency
A currency is a standardization of money in any form, in use or circulation as a medium of exchange, for example banknotes and coins. A more general definition is that a currency is a ''system of money'' in common use within a specific envi ...
which was similar to that of Khwarezm.
The biography of the Chinese General
Ban Chao in the ''
Hou Hanshu'' says in 94 CE that the Yuezhi were arranging a marriage of their king with a Kangju princess. The Chinese then sent "considerable presents of silks" to the Yuezhi successfully gaining their help in pressuring the Kangju to stop supporting the king of
Kashgar against them.
The 3rd century ''
Weilüe'' states that Kangju was among a number of countries that "had existed previously and neither grown nor shrunk." The Kangju subsequently declined. Around 270 CE they were subdued by the
Xionites.
Like other Central Asian peoples, the Kangju probably became subsumed into the
Hephthalites
The Hephthalites (), sometimes called the White Huns (also known as the White Hunas, in Iranian languages, Iranian as the ''Spet Xyon'' and in Sanskrit and Prakrit as the ''Sveta-huna''), were a people who lived in Central Asia during the 5th to ...
.
Kangju was later known as the State of Kang (康國) during the
Sui and
Tang dynasties. In the 8th century, some of them seem to have been adherents of
Manicheanism.
Culture
The
Book of Han describes the way of life of the Kangju elite. Its ruler spent his winter in the
capital city
A capital city, or just capital, is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state (polity), state, province, department (administrative division), department, or other administrative division, subnational division, usually as its ...
of Beitian, and his summers at his
steppe headquarters, which was a seven days' journey away on horseback.
The Kangju are regarded as an
Indo-European
The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...
people, and are generally held to have been an
Iranian
Iranian () may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Iran
** Iranian diaspora, Iranians living outside Iran
** Iranian architecture, architecture of Iran and parts of the rest of West Asia
** Iranian cuisine, cooking traditions and practic ...
people identical with the
Sogdians,
or the closely related
Asii
The Asii, Osii, Ossii, Asoi, Asioi, Asini or Aseni were an ancient Indo-European people of Central Asia, during the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE. Known only from Classical Greek and Roman sources, they were one of the peoples held to be responsibl ...
.
Sinologist Edwin G. Pulleyblank has however suggested that the Kangju could have been
Tocharians.
[ "On the basis of both linguistic and historical evidence , Pulleyblank has identified the ]Yuezhi
The Yuezhi were an ancient people first described in China, Chinese histories as nomadic pastoralists living in an arid grassland area in the western part of the modern Chinese province of Gansu, during the 1st millennium BC. After a major defea ...
, the Wusun
The Wusun ( ) were an ancient semi-Eurasian nomads, nomadic Eurasian Steppe, steppe people of unknown origin mentioned in Chinese people, Chinese records from the 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD.
The Wusun originally l ...
, the Dayuan, Kangju, and the people of Yanqi, all names occurring in the Chinese historical sources for the Han dynasty, as Tocharian speakers."
The ruling elite of the Kangju consisted of
nomadic tribes whose customs were very similar to those of the Yuezhi. Kangju burials of the early period have been excavated at Berk-kara and Tamdî, in which the dead were placed in pit-graves, often covered with logs, under
kurgan mounds. These graves often contain hand-made pots, iron swords, arrow-heads and jewellery. The burials show that the traditional culture of the Kangju resembled characteristics of the
Saka
The Saka, Old Chinese, old , Pinyin, mod. , ), Shaka (Sanskrit (Brāhmī): , , ; Sanskrit (Devanāgarī): , ), or Sacae (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: were a group of nomadic Iranian peoples, Eastern Iranian peoples who lived in the Eurasian ...
.
From the beginning of the Christian era "catacomb graves" (in shaft and chamber tombs) became widespread. This is seen from the burials of the Kaunchi and Dzhun cultures of the 1st to the 4th centuries CE, which are generally accepted as having belonged to the Kangju.
The Kangju regarded the
ram as a noble animal.
References from written sources and archaeological finds show that the Kangju reached a considerable level of agricultural sophistication. Much of the population consisted of a sedentary farming population.
Wide canals from the Kangju period have been discovered, with the land area under
irrigation
Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has bee ...
of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya being four times greater than today.
The irrigation systems of Central Asia reached their highest levels of development under the Kangju-
Kushans and was in fact superior to those fully developed in the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
.
Archaeology
Kaunchi culture

Kangju appears to be a civilisation known to
Soviet
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
archaeologists as the "Kaunchi Culture", dating from the 2nd century BCE to the early 8th century CE, and centred on the middle course of the Syr Darya and its tributaries: the
Angren,
Chirchik, and
Keles. The culture was named after an ancient townsite now known as Kaunchi-Tepe, which was first studied by G. V. Grigoriev in 1934–37.
Settlements of the Kaunchi culture were typically located in proximity to water and usually have monumental oval buildings in the center, at times with a defensive wall. The largest settlement was a 150 hectare city known apparently as Kang (
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
''Kanka''), south of modern
Tashkent
Tashkent (), also known as Toshkent, is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uzbekistan, largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of more than 3 million people as of April 1, 2024. I ...
and founded in the 1st century CE. Kang had a square layout, encircled by a wall with inner passages.
The settlements were surrounded by
kurgan burials of a catacomb type with long
dromoses, crypts, and burial vaults, with horse bone trappings and rites typical of nomads.
[Masson V.M., ''Pre-Islamic Central Asia'', http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/archeology-v]
The people predominantly practiced cattle husbandry and nonirrigated agriculture (grain cultures of millet, barley, wheat, and rice, cotton, melons, and fruits).
Materials typical of the culture are typical hand-formed pottery: ''khums'' (large bowls for water and produce), pots, pitchers, and cups adorned with ram's head on the handles. In the 1st century CE ceramics made on a
potter's wheel became more common. A
ram's head motif at first common was replaced by a
bull
A bull is an intact (i.e., not Castration, castrated) adult male of the species ''Bos taurus'' (cattle). More muscular and aggressive than the females of the same species (i.e. cows proper), bulls have long been an important symbol cattle in r ...
's head during the late 3rd and early 4th centuries. At that period weapons started appearing in the kurgans.
Kaunchi-type sites apparently spread from the
Otrar region along Syr Darya to the south of Tashkent. The Kaunchi culture significantly impacted the archeological cultures in the vast territories of the
Middle Asia.
Inscriptions
Some important inscriptions were discovered recently that provide information about Kangju and its contacts with China.
* A dozen wooden slips with Chinese writing were found at the Xuanquan site in
Dunhuang, China. They are dated to the late Western Han dynasty (206 BCE – 24 CE).
* A set of Sogdian inscriptions discovered by A. N. Podushkin in his excavations at Kultobe in
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...
; they were analyzed and deciphered by
Nicholas Sims-Williams
Nicholas Sims-Williams, FBA (born 11 April 1949, Chatham, Kent) is a British professor of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, where he is the Research Professor of Iranian
Iranian () may refer to:
* Somethi ...
. They complement the existing Chinese historical records about Kangju. Sims-Williams also assigned a likely date to these inscriptions.
Genetics
A genetic study published in ''
Nature
Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...
'' in May 2018 examined the remains of 6 Kangju buried between ca. 200 CE and 300 CE. The 2 samples of
Y-DNA extracted belonged to the paternal haplogroups
R1a1a1b2a and
R1a1a1b2a2b, while the 6 samples
mtDNA extracted belonged to the maternal haplogroups
H6a1a,
C4a1,
U2e2a1,
HV13b,
U2e1h and
A8a1. The authors of the study found that the Kangju and
Wusun
The Wusun ( ) were an ancient semi-Eurasian nomads, nomadic Eurasian Steppe, steppe people of unknown origin mentioned in Chinese people, Chinese records from the 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD.
The Wusun originally l ...
had less
East Asian admixture than the
Xiongnu
The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of Nomad, nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese historiography, Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, t ...
and
Saka
The Saka, Old Chinese, old , Pinyin, mod. , ), Shaka (Sanskrit (Brāhmī): , , ; Sanskrit (Devanāgarī): , ), or Sacae (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: were a group of nomadic Iranian peoples, Eastern Iranian peoples who lived in the Eurasian ...
s. Both the Kangju and Wusun were suggested to be descended from
Western Steppe Herders (WSHs) of the Late Bronze Age who admixed with
Siberian hunter-gatherers and peoples related to the
Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex.
A 2021 study reconstructed the genetic profile of the Kangju as derived from the
Sarmatians
The Sarmatians (; ; Latin: ) were a large confederation of Ancient Iranian peoples, ancient Iranian Eurasian nomads, equestrian nomadic peoples who dominated the Pontic–Caspian steppe, Pontic steppe from about the 5th century BCE to the 4t ...
for 90%, with the rest (10%) being derived from
BMAC ancestry.
Notes and References
Footnotes
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
Hulsewé, ''China in Central Asia: The Early Stage: 125 BC - AD 23 ; an Annotated Transl. of Chapters 61 and 96 of the History of the Former Han Dynasty''. A.F.P. Hulsewé, with an Introd. by M.A.N.Loewe.
*
* Hill, John E. 2004. ''The Peoples of the West from the Weilüe'' 魏略 ''by Yu Huan'' 魚豢'': A Third Century Chinese Account Composed between 239 and 265 CE.'' Draft annotated English translatio
* Hill, John E. (2015) ''Through the Jade Gate - China to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes 1st to 2nd centuries CE''. CreateSpace, North Charleston, South Carolina. .
*
*
*
* The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West. J. P. Mallory and Victor H. Mair. Thames & Hudson. London. (2000),
*
* Schuessler, Axel. 2007. ''An Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese''. University of Hawaii Press.
*
*
Xinru Liu, Liu, Xinru: Migration and Settlement of the Yuezhi-Kushan. Interaction and Interdependence of Nomadic and Sedentary Societies in: ''
Journal of World History'', 12 (No. 2) 2001, p. 261-292. Se
*
*
*
*
* ''Drevnosti Chardary'', Alma-Ata, 1968 (''In Russian'')
* Grigoriev G.V., ''Kaunchi-Tepe (excavations of 1935), Tashkent, 1940 (''In Russian'')
* Isamiddin M.,Suleymanov R.Kh., ''Yerkurgan (stratigraphy and periodization)'', Tashkent, 1984 (''In Russian'')
* Levina L.M. ''Ceramics of lower and middle Syrdarya''//Works of Khorezm Archeological & Ethnographic Expedition, Vol 17, Moscow, 1971 (''In Russian'')
* The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition, 1970-1979 (''In Russian'')
{{Refend
Historical Iranian peoples
Ancient Central Asia
Indo-European peoples
Sogdians
Tocharians
Archaeological cultures of Central Asia
Archaeology of Kazakhstan
Archaeology of Uzbekistan
Former countries in Central Asia
Historical Chinese exonyms