Wooden artifacts excavated in Gansu are a precious heritage, reflecting the culture, history, and society along the ancient Silk Road in the Hexi corridor, and are very different in type and style from artifacts discovered at Wuwei and Gaotai. These artifacts with significantly wooden textures and structural characteristics should be categorized as rotten wood. The tree species and textural characteristics of these unearthed wooden artifacts were identified using biological methods. Identification of the wood types shows that they belong to several types of tree, including spruce, fir, Sabina chinensis, larch, Populus diversifolia, elm, cedrela sinensis. Microscopic fiber characteristics and structure were observed by scanning electron microscopy and Xray diffraction, which indicated that the wood structure of these artifacts are degraded and decayed. Furthermore, the wood structure and characteristics may change according to the preservation environment and other factors. Relevant physical parameters such as crystallinity and degradability of unearthed artifacts were measured with the result that the cellulose crystallinity is about 58% and the cellulose degradability is up to 40%. Taking all these results together, it can be concluded as that:1) the texture of the wooden artifacts indicates that many species were used, with spruce (Picea crassifolia), which is widely distributed in the Qilian Mountains, being the main species; 2) these wooden artifacts are mostly decayed and degraded as manifested by a decrease of fiber (cellulose and hemicelluloses) and an increase in lignin which is a significant cause of wood darkening; 3) the wood structures are characterized by instability and vulnerability to damage; 4) the crystallinity and degradability of cellulose are critical parameters that need to be measured to assess the physical condition of such rotted wooden artifacts.