Mummies Of UrumchiIn the museums of Ürümchi, the windswept regional capital of the Uyghur Autonomous Region (also known as Chinese Turkestan), a collection of ancient mummies lies at the center of an enormous mystery. Some of Ürümchi's mummies date back as far as 4,000 years—contemporary with the famous Egyptian mummies but even more beautifully preserved. Surprisingly, these prehistoric people are not Asian but Caucasoid—tall, large-nosed and blond with thick beards and round eyes. What were these blond Caucasians doing in the heart of Asia? What language did they speak? Might they be related to a "lost tribe" known from later inscriptions? Few clues are offered by their pottery or tools, but their clothes—woolens that rarely survive more than a few centuries—have been preserved as brightly hued as the day they were woven. Elizabeth Wayland Barber describes these remarkable mummies and their clothing, and deduces their path to this remote, forbidding place. The result is a book like no other—a fascinating unveiling of an ancient, exotic, nearly forgotten world. A finalist for the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize. |
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Contents
Preface | 11 |
Mystery Mummies | 17 |
A Man with Ten Hats | 23 |
Plus Three Women and a Baby | 47 |
The Beauty of Loulan | 69 |
The Early Explorers | 87 |
Hami and Hallstatt | 129 |
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Anatolia ancient archaeological archaeologists Asian band Bergman blue body Bronze Age brown burial Celts cemetery Central Asia century B.C. Cherchen Cherchen Man's China Chinese cloth color cord culture desert Dolkun Dunhuang early east edge Egyptians ephedra Eurasian Europe excavations feet felt Fergana FIGURE graves Greek Hallstatt Hami Hedin horse Indo-European Indo-Iranian Iranian Kamberi Khotan Kopet Dagh Kucha kumihimo lake language linguistic look loom Loulan Mair Mesopotamia miles millennium B.C. Mongol mountains mummies nomadic northern oases oasis Pamirs Pazyryk Photo plaid twills plain weave plaited plate Prehistoric Textiles proto-Indo-Europeans Qäwrighul Qizilchoqa River Russian Turkestan salt sand selvedge sheep spread Stein steppe stripes Taklamakan tapestry Tarim Basin threads Tien Shan Tokharian tomb Turfan Turkestan Turkic twill Ürümchi Uyghur warp weavers weft wool woolen words woven Xinjiang Xiongnu yarn yellow Yuezhi Zhang Qian zone