4 replies to this topic

[GreyShades]

Updated:

They did a DNA test on the Cherchen man (the 3800 year old 6'6 tall dark blonde mummy and the oldest mummy found), and the beauty of Loulan (the red hair mummy), and both of these mummies contained East Asian Mongoloid DNA. Even the Chinese scientist were astonished. The Mongoloid component of the Tocharians are not from Han Chinese or pre Han Chinese, but most likely from Altaic types of Mongoloids such as Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and Mongolians.

This obviously indicates that the Tocharians were already mixed for quite a few generations, since they looked mostly Caucasian. Very interesting. History books need to rewritten again, as intermingling between East and West occured at an even earlier date than conceived.

BTW, The Tocharians were not Iranic, its been proven over and over again. There language was so far from any Iranic language, that it needs its own seperate category: Tocharian.


New 2007 NG documentary on the mummies. It was released Nov 2007, and it aired on the National Geographic channel. It was very interesting It was again with Victor Mair, (the man whom brought the mummies into the Western World). The Chinese governement finally allowed more DNA test to go foward on just 12 mummies.

The conclusion on DNA test on all 12 samples of the Caucasoid mummies contained DNA from: Europe, Mesopotamia, Central Asia, Mongolia, India, and Siberia. So to make a long story short, the ending of the documentary concluded that Xinjiang was a crossroads town where people from all over came, traded, and mixed with each other. The documentary was incomplete but It was still good and informative. The documentary also stated that the test were not done and more information will be released once completed. They should have just finish the test before making this documentary as it was very vague but it was still informative.

Cherchen Man (dark blonde man that stood 6'6)



Beauty Of Loulan (red haired mummy)

Edited by GreyShades, 02 October 2009 - 09:05 AM.

[thirdgumi]

That's most interesting, thanks for posting. I guess it's true, ancient world is smaller than we thought.

[Gan]

If anyone lives in Southern California, I think some of the artifacts are showing at the Bowers Museum.

http://www.google.co...9wO_Czvc1kuv6gQ

http://www.latimes.c...,0,880911.story

The latest that I recalled, as mentioned in this thread, a lot of people concluded that it was crossroads of many different peoples not just European.

I find the articles a little bit awkward (maybe a little mis-leading but I won't say it fully is) as Dr. Mair's statements seems to be a bit too generalizing but no matter. One of the statements in the LA times article mentions that wheat, goat, sheep, bronze metallurgy, wheeled machines came from the West and the mummy people had them before it appeared in China. I don't understand as from what I recalled, most of these items made their great appearances around lands stretching from Iran to Turkey and the Levant which would have been Middle-Eastern. Wheeled machines seem to have existed everywhere and it does not mean it came from one place. Well West of China is accurate. Also, the Canadian press mentions all the items with designs of classical Western, Roman, Greek, Mediterranean details. The documentary I've seen mentioned sea shells and items existing from the Indian Subcontinent and designs common to people of Siberia. The articles seem to focused heavily on Europe in general.

I really hope that people don't misunderstand...well, it's fine. At least there's no "strict censorship" in the States, if you all know what I mean.

Most of us readers know that history of humanity has been quite fluid.

I've went to the Bowers Museum for another exhibition before and it is quite small. They don't really put out a lot of details but it's fine. For the general public, at least they get an eye opener but hopefully people don't try to get carry away with things. It seemed more like an art museum.

[Gan]

Sorry , this link might be better.

http://articles.lati...sqa27-2010mar27

[Gan]

This is more recent L.A. times news article, pretty much saying the same thing nearly 8 months ago.

http://www.latimes.c...story?track=rss

I think it's because the exhibit is closing soon. So, if anyone is still interested, go check it out.

I've already commented on the article, saying people shouldn't overlook the variety of heritages these mummies represent, not just "European". To touch up on what I said over half a year ago, I saw a video on Youtube saying how the neolithic areas in China, that's relatively distant from the areas where these mummies were, already had domesticated animals, methodological agriculture, complex metalworking and other activities pretty much before these mummies existed.

Actually, that wasn't necessary for me to mention. I just want to express it out of frustration I find seeing quite a few opinions around the net and in person who use these mummies as some sort of evidence to justify white supremacist views, questionable Euro-centric attitudes or any political game (like the one mentioned in the article concerning the Uighurs). It's just silly, and indeed quite exhausting whenever they appear, on the internet or in person.