http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serica#The_De...s_and_Ethnicity
Serica, the land of the Seres, was the name by which the Ancient Greco-Romans referred to a country in Eastern Asia. The Ancients' knowledge of this nation was indistinct and often distorted by the wildest fables and myths, though Ptolemy and Pliny the Elder present a description which is tolerable in its scope and detail. Serica was explained by Ptolemy as bordering Scythia extra Imaum or "India beyond the Himalayas" on the West, Terra Incognita to the North-East, the Sinae or Chinese to the East and by India to the South. India in Antiquity, as for all of Western history until the Early Twentieth Century, was a broad geographic toponym which embraced all of the Indian subcontinent, Indochina and the Malay Archipelago. Most modern geographers assert that the position of Serica would nowadays be situated in the North-Western section of the People's Republic of China in Xinjiang province.
Before we hear of the country Serica, many ancient authors mention the people the Seres, the manufacturers and distributors of the precious material silk. Some geographers believe that the Greco-Romans denominated the Chinese when approached from the Pacific Ocean as Sinae, whereas when reached from the Asiatic steppes they were called Seres. Others contend however, that the Sinae were the Ancient Chinese while the Seres were an assimilated melange of Indo-European and perhaps Turkic people who had formed a loose confederacy and dealt with the Indians, the Chinese and through the Parthians and later the Sassanid Persians, the Romans as well. The descriptive accounts inscribed by Pliny do intimate to us that the Seres were indeed a "Caucasoid" people and whereas some tribes did cohabit with them, they did not constitute the distinguishing strain of the nation. This opinion is substantiated by the portrayal of the Sericans written by Pausanias, which assorts them as being the mixed offspring of the Scythians and the Indians, both Indo-European peoples. Further, in the early 19th Century the celebrated German explorer, cosmographer and natural philosopher Alexander von Humboldt postulated from his researches that, as with the present (both his and ours), Central Asia contained a mixed population of doubtful origin. He specifically cited the Massegetae tribe north of the Oxus River as a Mongolic people cohabiting with the Indo-European Sogdians, Bactrians and Indians (See: Fragments de géologie et de climatologie asiatiques (2 vols. 8vo, 1831), and in central Asia (3 vols. 8vo, 1843). The Serican physiognomy is described as being of extraordinary size, with blue eyes, red hair, a rough voice and a body quite unfamiliar with infirmity or contagion. The final characteristic, most likely the wistful hyperbole of the Mediterranean writer, is probably drawn from the fame of the region's salubrious climate. Once again it is tempting for the modern geographer or ethnologist to correspond the Seres with any number of patently Indo-European tribes with fair complexion enumerated and described by the Ancient Chinese authors. That the description of the Mediterranean authors pertains to an Indo-European people is evident, though the precise extent of Mongolic admixture into the nation has yet to be satisfactorily ascertained or theorized.
Its interesting how the Romans described the Tocharians as a people of extrodinary size. I wonder how these people really looked like in the ancient days. Tocharians were not Iranic, its been proven over and over again. Their language was so far from any Iranian language that they had to form a new category for it. This thread is about Tocharians. Lets learn more about these people. They are a part of China just like the other ethnic groups.
Full Version: Romans described Tocharians as extraordinary size
China History Forum, Chinese History Forum > Chinese History Topics > Chinese Ethnic Groups and Peoples
QUOTE (GreyShades @ May 22 2008, 04:13 PM) 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serica#The_De...s_and_Ethnicity
Serica, the land of the Seres, was the name by which the Ancient Greco-Romans referred to a country in Eastern Asia. The Ancients' knowledge of this nation was indistinct and often distorted by the wildest fables and myths, though Ptolemy and Pliny the Elder present a description which is tolerable in its scope and detail. Serica was explained by Ptolemy as bordering Scythia extra Imaum or "India beyond the Himalayas" on the West, Terra Incognita to the North-East, the Sinae or Chinese to the East and by India to the South. India in Antiquity, as for all of Western history until the Early Twentieth Century, was a broad geographic toponym which embraced all of the Indian subcontinent, Indochina and the Malay Archipelago. Most modern geographers assert that the position of Serica would nowadays be situated in the North-Western section of the People's Republic of China in Xinjiang province.
Before we hear of the country Serica, many ancient authors mention the people the Seres, the manufacturers and distributors of the precious material silk. Some geographers believe that the Greco-Romans denominated the Chinese when approached from the Pacific Ocean as Sinae, whereas when reached from the Asiatic steppes they were called Seres. Others contend however, that the Sinae were the Ancient Chinese while the Seres were an assimilated melange of Indo-European and perhaps Turkic people who had formed a loose confederacy and dealt with the Indians, the Chinese and through the Parthians and later the Sassanid Persians, the Romans as well. The descriptive accounts inscribed by Pliny do intimate to us that the Seres were indeed a "Caucasoid" people and whereas some tribes did cohabit with them, they did not constitute the distinguishing strain of the nation. This opinion is substantiated by the portrayal of the Sericans written by Pausanias, which assorts them as being the mixed offspring of the Scythians and the Indians, both Indo-European peoples. Further, in the early 19th Century the celebrated German explorer, cosmographer and natural philosopher Alexander von Humboldt postulated from his researches that, as with the present (both his and ours), Central Asia contained a mixed population of doubtful origin. He specifically cited the Massegetae tribe north of the Oxus River as a Mongolic people cohabiting with the Indo-European Sogdians, Bactrians and Indians (See: Fragments de géologie et de climatologie asiatiques (2 vols. 8vo, 1831), and in central Asia (3 vols. 8vo, 1843). The Serican physiognomy is described as being of extraordinary size, with blue eyes, red hair, a rough voice and a body quite unfamiliar with infirmity or contagion. The final characteristic, most likely the wistful hyperbole of the Mediterranean writer, is probably drawn from the fame of the region's salubrious climate. Once again it is tempting for the modern geographer or ethnologist to correspond the Seres with any number of patently Indo-European tribes with fair complexion enumerated and described by the Ancient Chinese authors. That the description of the Mediterranean authors pertains to an Indo-European people is evident, though the precise extent of Mongolic admixture into the nation has yet to be satisfactorily ascertained or theorized.
Its interesting how the Romans described the Tocharians as a people of extrodinary size. I wonder how these people really looked like in the ancient days. Tocharians were not Iranic, its been proven over and over again. Their language was so far from any Iranian language that they had to form a new category for it. This thread is about Tocharians. Lets learn more about these people. They are a part of China just like the other ethnic groups.
Serica, the land of the Seres, was the name by which the Ancient Greco-Romans referred to a country in Eastern Asia. The Ancients' knowledge of this nation was indistinct and often distorted by the wildest fables and myths, though Ptolemy and Pliny the Elder present a description which is tolerable in its scope and detail. Serica was explained by Ptolemy as bordering Scythia extra Imaum or "India beyond the Himalayas" on the West, Terra Incognita to the North-East, the Sinae or Chinese to the East and by India to the South. India in Antiquity, as for all of Western history until the Early Twentieth Century, was a broad geographic toponym which embraced all of the Indian subcontinent, Indochina and the Malay Archipelago. Most modern geographers assert that the position of Serica would nowadays be situated in the North-Western section of the People's Republic of China in Xinjiang province.
Before we hear of the country Serica, many ancient authors mention the people the Seres, the manufacturers and distributors of the precious material silk. Some geographers believe that the Greco-Romans denominated the Chinese when approached from the Pacific Ocean as Sinae, whereas when reached from the Asiatic steppes they were called Seres. Others contend however, that the Sinae were the Ancient Chinese while the Seres were an assimilated melange of Indo-European and perhaps Turkic people who had formed a loose confederacy and dealt with the Indians, the Chinese and through the Parthians and later the Sassanid Persians, the Romans as well. The descriptive accounts inscribed by Pliny do intimate to us that the Seres were indeed a "Caucasoid" people and whereas some tribes did cohabit with them, they did not constitute the distinguishing strain of the nation. This opinion is substantiated by the portrayal of the Sericans written by Pausanias, which assorts them as being the mixed offspring of the Scythians and the Indians, both Indo-European peoples. Further, in the early 19th Century the celebrated German explorer, cosmographer and natural philosopher Alexander von Humboldt postulated from his researches that, as with the present (both his and ours), Central Asia contained a mixed population of doubtful origin. He specifically cited the Massegetae tribe north of the Oxus River as a Mongolic people cohabiting with the Indo-European Sogdians, Bactrians and Indians (See: Fragments de géologie et de climatologie asiatiques (2 vols. 8vo, 1831), and in central Asia (3 vols. 8vo, 1843). The Serican physiognomy is described as being of extraordinary size, with blue eyes, red hair, a rough voice and a body quite unfamiliar with infirmity or contagion. The final characteristic, most likely the wistful hyperbole of the Mediterranean writer, is probably drawn from the fame of the region's salubrious climate. Once again it is tempting for the modern geographer or ethnologist to correspond the Seres with any number of patently Indo-European tribes with fair complexion enumerated and described by the Ancient Chinese authors. That the description of the Mediterranean authors pertains to an Indo-European people is evident, though the precise extent of Mongolic admixture into the nation has yet to be satisfactorily ascertained or theorized.
Its interesting how the Romans described the Tocharians as a people of extrodinary size. I wonder how these people really looked like in the ancient days. Tocharians were not Iranic, its been proven over and over again. Their language was so far from any Iranian language that they had to form a new category for it. This thread is about Tocharians. Lets learn more about these people. They are a part of China just like the other ethnic groups.
There are already a couple of threads on Tocharians, and I suggest you look at these first.
As for the commentaries of Ptolemy, they are some 100 years later than those of Strabo, who was himself of Georgian descent. I would be careful about placing too much reliance on such descriptions. Compare them with the rather more colourful comments about men with heads in their stomachs, and so on, which populate these books. Once taken in this context, one has to be a little careful about accepting such descriptions at face value.
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