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The Dead Tell A Tale China Doesn't Care To Listen To (Red Haired Mummies)

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Author Topic: The Dead Tell A Tale China Doesn't Care To Listen To (Red Haired Mummies)  (Read 11165 times)
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Bianca
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« on: November 19, 2008, 04:34:04 pm »



A Tarim Basin mummy

photographed by
Aurel Stein circa
1910.








Archeological record



At the beginning of the 20th century European explorers such as Sven Hedin, Albert von Le Coq and
Sir Aurel Stein all recounted their discoveries of desiccated bodies in their search for antiquities in Central Asia.

Since then many other mummies have been found and analysed, most of them now displayed in the museums of Xinjiang. Most of these mummies were found on the eastern (around the area of Lopnur, Subeshi near Turfan, Kroran, Kumul) and southern (Khotan, Niya, Qiemo) edge of the Tarim Basin.

The earliest Tarim mummies, found at Qäwrighul and dated to 1800 BCE, are of a Caucasoid physical type whose closest affiliation is to the Bronze Age populations of southern Siberia, Kazakhstan, Central Asia, and Lower Volga.

The cemetery at Yanbulaq contained 29 mummies which date from 1100–500 BCE, 21 of which are Caucasoid—the earliest Caucasoid mummies found in the Tarim basin—and 8 of which are of the same Caucasoid physical type found at Qäwrighul.

Notable mummies are the tall, red-haired "Chärchän man" or the "Ur-David" (1000 BCE); his son (1000 BCE), a small 1-year-old baby with blond hair protruding from under a red and blue felt cap, and blue stones in place of the eyes; the "Hami Mummy" (c. 1400–800 BCE), a "red-headed beauty" found in Qizilchoqa; and the "Witches of Subeshi" (4th or 3rd century BCE), who wore tall pointed hats.

Many of the mummies have been found in very good condition, owing to the dryness of the desert, and the desiccation of the corpses it induced.

The mummies share many typical Caucasoid body features (elongated bodies, angular faces, recessed eyes), and many of them have their hair physically intact, ranging in color from blond to red to deep brown, and generally long, curly and braided.

It is not known whether their hair has been bleached by internment in salt.

Their costumes, and especially textiles, may indicate a common origin with Indo-European neolithic clothing techniques or a common low-level textile technology.

Chärchän man wore a red twill tunic and tartan leggings.

Textile expert Elizabeth Wayland Barber, who examined the tartan-style cloth, claims it can be traced back to Anatolia, the Caucasus and the steppe area north of the Black Sea.
« Last Edit: November 19, 2008, 05:03:23 pm by Bianca » Report Spam   Logged

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