The cemetery lies on top of a small sand dune.
Her body has survived even down to herdelicate eyelashes.
The cemetery was discovered in the early 20th century by a local hunter named Ordek.
Believing the place to be haunted, he hurried away never to return again.
Ordek explained to Bergman how to find the cemetery but refused to go with him.
Bergman managed to find the site anyhow and named it Ordeks Necropolis.
Bergman excavated about a dozen bodies, and recovered some 200 artifacts.
He left a fairly detailed account of his findings in the bookArchaeological Researches in Sinkiang Especially the Lop-nor Region.
The entire book can beread onlinenow in the digital format.
Bergman noted the unusual shape of the coffins, which looked like overturned boats.
Wooden stakes were then driven into the ground.
The entire site, Bergman wrote, was littered with oar-shaped wooden monuments and wooden human figures.
The cemetery was nearly forgotten until the early 2000s, when Chinese archeologists conducted an expedition to the site.
They found that Bergmans discovery was far more remarkable than initially thought.
All these led us into a mysterious world permeated with an original, religious atmosphere, said Idelisi.
The rich cultural connotation of the XiaoheTombs is unparalleled among Chinese and foreign archaeological discoveries.
The Ordeks Necropolis was now called the Xiaohe Cemetery, after a dry river nearby.
But archeologist prefer to call it the Small River Cemetery No.
Archeologists believe that the European and Siberian populationsprobably intermarriedbefore entering the Tarim Basin some 4,000 years ago.
