Uncle Toban in my novel is from Loulan (China). Here is a discussion of digging up graves there, from his grandfather’s time period.
BEIJING, Mar. 18 — About 330 ancient tombs have now been discovered at the Xiaohe Mausoleum compound in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. They contain dried corpses still preserved inside their coffins.
    The site is located in the Luobu Desert about 150 kilometers away from the famous ruins of ancient Loulan city.
    Excavated from inside a raised sand hill, the graves are estimated to have existed for over 3,000 years.