Tales of the Dead

Deciphering the Tarim Basin Mummies

The Tarim Basin is China’s largest inland basin covering an area of 530,000 square kilometers at an altitude of 800 to 1,300 meters.  Located south of Xinjiang Uyghur in an independent territory between the Tianshan Mountains, Kunlun Mountains and Arjin Mountains. With annual precipitation less than 100 millimeters, the climate is extremely dry and the rainfall is less than 50 millimeters for most of time. [1] Despite formidable conditions this area has been for thousands of years an important crossroad between the eastern and western parts of Eurasia known as the silk road. Through satellite images mapping the main routes of the Silk Road in this region it is evident that all three routes along the North rim and South rim circumvent the Taklimakan Desert, which is situated in the center of what is the Tarim River Basin. This indicates that this region would have experienced heavy traffic in trade and cultural exchanges. Trade must be determined as a factor in the unusual circumstances by which burial sites containing the remains of Caucasoid individuals arrived in China, however it does not account for the age of the mummies dated to the 1st and 2nd millennia BCE, nine hundred years before documented interaction with the east. The Tarim Basin mummies defy accepted assumptions giving evidence of western European contact with China at a much earlier period. Archeological evidence in artifacts located at the burial grounds further challenges historians and Chines history posing the possibility of entire European communities within China as early as four thousand years ago altering ideas of the origins of the original settlers. It is the purpose of this research through modern finds, known ancient trade routes and linguistic studies to investigate an initial time period of exchange and of greater interest the language development that connects Indo-Europeans to the Tarim Basin. It is the premise of this research that through collective overview of the DNA findings, archeological evidence and language studies a shared lineage between the Proto-Indo-Europeans and Proto-Tokharians will be identified within ancient Xianjaing, china.

In 1970 Wang Binghu China’ leading archeologist, Wang Binghua began a systematic search for ancient sites in the northeast corner of Xinjiang under the presumption that ancient peoples would have located settlements along a stream. As he travelled through communities Binghua would question the locales whether they had ever found any broken bowls, wooden artifacts, or the like. It wasn’t until 1978 that he was told of a place called Qizilchoqa, or ‘Red Hillock.’, the location where the first mummy was located. [2] Since the original discovery hundreds of other perfectly preserved three and four-thousand-year-old mummies have been excavated from four major burial sites dispersed between the arid foothills of the Tian Shan in the remote Taklimakan desert.

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Victor Maier, professor of Chinese at the University of Pennsylvania and a collaborative investigator with Chinese scientists excavating these sites elaborates in his journal “Ancient Mummies of the Tarim Basin” several unique mummies he encountered on expeditions of which six of these will be considered in this paper to emphasize the distinctly European culture of the Tarim Basin mummies.

One of the oldest of these discovered in 1980 is the Beauty of Loulan, dated to about 1800 B.C.E.  She was discovered in the northeastern corner of the Tarim Basin buried wearing a warm cloak or shroud, a hat, boots, a wooden comb, a basket, and a winnowing tray, the ancient agricultural tool for separating grain from chaff.

Approximately 120 kilometers to the west-south-west of Loulan in Ordek’s Necropolis, remotely located in the desert at Small River Cemetery excavators unearthed The Beauty of Xiaohe in a boat coffin. Archeologist estimate that she is from same period and culture as the Loulan Beauty. The Xiaohe tombs are a bit peculiar in that it seems as if all evidence of the society was contained within the coffins, clothes, jewelry wooden masks and other carvings. The graves give the appearance of being relocated to the burial ground from another area as archaeologists have searched for hundreds of kilometers around the tomb complex and have not found any other evidence that could relate to the Xiaohe people or their life style.

Further compounding the mystery of the Xiahoe tombs is variations in coffins. In addition to wooden coffins four clay covered coffins were found surrounded by six to eight wooden stakes. More strange however are the six coffins containing wooden male representations marked with a red X.[3]

One of the more well-known mummies in this paper is the Charchan Man recovered from a tomb near the vil­lage of Zaghunluq, in the central por­tion of the southern edge of the Tarim Basin.

This site according to Mair is considerably more recent than the two discussed above and dates to around 600 BCE. This is evidenced in Charchan man’s clothing and that of his family, two wives and an infant all buried in rich burgundy clothing signifying colorful dyes in use for textile production at this time.

Like the Charchan man, Yingpan man also was clothed in brightly colored clothing. He is an interesting case, unlike the aforementioned mummies he appears to have been very wealthy and his body is not nearly as pristinely preserved. Yingpan Man’s face is covered by a white mask with a strip of gold foil across the forehead. He is clothed in elaborately embroidered in Greco-Roman motifs and buried with rich trappings. This alongside his burial location along an ancient caravan trail indicates a well-connected merchant or noble status.

A Roman merchant is impressive and a bit out of place but not nearly as strange as the fourth and second century “witches” of Subeshi. These mummies were entombed with pointed black hats that resemble the iconic head- gear of their sisters in medieval Europe. [4] One of females exhumed had been buried wearing a heavy glove that may indicate that she hunted with a raptor.  The men were no less interesting, including a man whose head was encased in a felt helmet and another who may have been one of the world’s oldest surgery patients signified by the horsehair stitches creating a suture on his chest. [5]

Of all the Caucasoid mummies the man from Hami with a dozen hats divulges more artifacts that point to European ancestry than any other. Found at the Qizilchoqa cemetery near Wupu archeologist uncovered an eccentric corpse interned with a large collection of distinctive hats. Among the marvelous collection buried with him are a beret made of the world’s first nalebinding (a technique like crocheting) and a Phrygian-style cap made of thick brown felt with striking white ornamental stitching.

Also from this site are plaids employing the same weave (diagonal twill) as plaids from Celtic sites in Europe dating to around the same period 1000 BCE. [6]

The harsh climates of the Tarim Basin preserved each of these mummies naturally due to extreme aridity and the saline soils of the environment.  Combined with severely cold winters that prevented the processes of putrefaction and decomposition nature has allowed scientist and archeologists a clear view of these ancient peoples. A view that shares significant characteristics with European genetic and demands investigation into why and when western societies found their way to China through migration and trade.