Recently, the "2025 Xinjiang Archaeological Work Report Conference", sponsored by the Department of Culture and Tourism the Bureau of Cultural Relics of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and organized by the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Institute of Cultural Relics Archaeology, the National Archaeological Research Center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Guchen Research Institute, was held Beijing.
During the report meeting, more than 20 scholars reviewed the latest achievements in archaeological excavation and research in Xinjiang over the past year, and made reports around the four modules of "Research on the Historical Development Process of Xinjiang under the System of a Unified Multi-ethnic Country", "Archaeological Research on Development of Multiple Religions in Ancient Xinjiang and Their Sinicization", "Comprehensive Research on the Early Civilization of the Xinjiang Region", andSpecial Topic on Science and Technology Archaeology in Xinjiang" in the two-day report meeting.

It is reported that in 2025, the Xjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, in conjunction with more than 10 units inside and outside the region, implemented 12 active excavation projects, and continued to explore the important value of Xinjiang in the study of Chinese civilization history; it undertook 205 archaeological survey, exploration and excav projects (including 37 archaeological excavation projects) in cooperation with basic construction and cultural relics protection projects, effectively guaranteeing the construction of key national projects and the Xin Uygur Autonomous Region, supplementing and improving the spatiotemporal framework of Xinjiang archaeological culture, further strengthening the interpretation and effective utilization of cultural relics, and contributing to the implementation of the cultural work.

Unified multiethnic governance in practice: showcasing the central government’s effective jurisdiction over Xinjiang
China’s central government successive dynasties has always adhered to the concept of great unification, governing the Xinjiang region within the framework of national unification. The archaeological discoveries of keybs and city sites from historical periods in 2025 reveal the evolution of material remains, the sublimation of cultural identity, and the state of economic and social development in Xinjiang region since the Han and Jin dynasties, fully demonstrating the unity of Chinese civilization.
The archaeological excavations of the Badamu Dong Tomb under the Flame Mountain and the Kucha City Friendship Road Tomb Group in the southern Tianshan Mountains have opened up a new window for understanding the governance system of central government in the Tang Dynasty in Xinjiang.
The Badamu Dong Tomb Group is an important public cemetery of the Gaochang ancestors in the Jin and periods. From 2022 to 2025, a total of 27 tombs from the Jin and Tang periods were cleared, successively discovering thebs of Cheng Huan (M11) and Li Zhonghui (M16). The tombs excavated in this year, M19—22, belong to a family cemetery. It is worth mentioning that the combination of the original objects of the tomb furnishings layout unearthed in M20 consists of five parts a wooden couch, a wooden coffin, a wooden bone screen, and wooden boxes and frames on the east and west sides, with paintings of winged divine beasts
Referring to other tombs of the same period and based on Mr. Su Bai's research on the system of Tang Dynastybs in Chang'an, the size of the tomb for officials of the first to third grade is mostly 4 meters square, which leads to the conclusion that the owner of T M20 should be a high-ranking official above the third grade. The image of the "tiger capturing sheep" on the lintel of the coffin bed further suggests military official identity. This is highly consistent with the attribute of the Anxi Duhu as a frontier military institution. The above judgments are in line with the established historical conclusion that " mainstream organization of the Anxi Duhu is at the third grade", and provide physical references for exploring the adaptability of the local official system of Xizhou and the central system. "The strict correspondence between this tomb type and the central official system is not an accidental coincidence, but a vivid reflection of the principle of "the same source of the system in the governance of the frontier in the Tang Dynasty," said Shen Ruiwen, Dean of the School of Archaeology and Cultural Relics of Peking University. In, the burial form and murals of M20 are full of traces of the blending of Central Plains culture, Western Regions native culture and foreign cultures, which are vivid samples the multi-ethnic and integrated civilization pattern of the Tang Dynasty, and are also the pattern of "harmony but difference" formed under the context of common political identity and blending.

In 2025, during the fifth archaeological excavation of the Kucha Friendship Road, the discovery of the Tang Dynasty Yin Public Tomb (M138) was also unexpected. Yin Public Tomb is currently the only Tang Dynasty brick in the southern Xinjiang region, and it is the first tomb to discover a tombstone and a warrior clay figurine, filling the archaeological blank of the tombs of the of the Anxi Duhu Prefecture in the middle and late Tang Dynasty in the Kucha area. According to Ali Fujiang Niyaz, a research cur at the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, the tombstone records that the owner of the tomb served in two official positions in Tang Anxi Four Towns – "Zhi Du Pan Guan" and "Shi Yi Shi", and finally held the official position of "Anxi Deputy Duhu. Yin Gong passed away in the "Zhenyuan Seven Years", which is solid evidence that the Anxi Duhu Prefecture was still functioning normally at time. It is also recorded that Yin Gong "moved his grave to the east of the Duhu Prefecture City on the Wulei Plain". The is located 100 meters east of the old city of Kucha, which confirms that the present old city of Kucha is the site of the Tang Anxihu Prefecture.
"I was very excited when I saw the published Yin Public Tombstone!" said Rong Xinjian, a professor of the class of liberal arts at Peking University. He explained: "The tombstone records that Yin Gong passed away in the seventh year of Zhenyuan, and asxi Deputy Duhu, he once went to the Black-robed Great Food. In the first year of Zhenyuan, the Tang Dynasty sent the eunuch Liangyao from Chang'an to the Black-robed Great Food. He went by sea. From the tombstone, we know that Yin Gong was also to the Black-robed Great Food in a similar period, but he started from Anxi and took the land route. This shows that the Anxi Beiting generals and soldiers have made remarkable contributions to consolidating the frontier."
Qitai County's Tang Dynasty Dun Ancient City and Urumqi City's Wulabu City were both built in the Tang Dynasty and used until the Yuan Dynasty. Since 2018, the east gate of the ancient city of Dun and the of courtyards, baths, temples, Nestorian Christian temples and other relics inside the city have been cleared. Ren Guan, a professor at the School of History Renmin University, said: "In 2025, we confirmed the location of the west gate of the city site. The confirmation of the west gate is very important the study of the entire city site's shape and layout, and even the establishment of the city site at that time. Another important discovery is the clearing of a courtyard site, is speculated to be a religious relic related to Zoroastrianism. Previously, Buddhist temples and Nestorian Christian temples and other religious relics have been discovered. This, Zoroastrian relics have also been discovered, reflecting the historical scene of multi-religious coexistence in the city site at that time." Ren Guan said that new round of archaeological excavations has proved the important role of the city site in the Tang Dynasty Silk Road New North Road, and deepened the understanding of the historical process the city site continuing to develop from the 9th to the 13th century, and then gradually declining in the Yuan Dynasty.
The Wulabu Ancient City is mostly considered to be the former site of the Tang Luancheng City. The formal excavation in 2025 clarified the sequence of the construction of the subsidiary city, the west subsidiary city and the south subsidiary city of the ancient city, clarified the construction and renovation of the east gate of the west subsidiary city, and provided new materials the study of the construction history of Urumqi City and the construction of the military defense system of the Baishui Gully Road from the Tang to the Yuan Dynasty