Mummies Of Urumchi

Front Cover
W. W. Norton & Company, May 2, 2000 - Design - 256 pages
In 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
The Oasis Hoppers and Their Kin
147
Pulses in the Heart of a Continent
167
Sands of the Silk Road Sands of Time
195
Notes on Sources
213
Bibliography
225
Index
231
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About the author (2000)

Elizabeth Wayland Barber has authored Prehistoric Textiles, The Mummies of Ürümchi, and The Dancing Goddesses, among other works. Professor emerita of archaeology and linguistics at Occidental College, she now lives in Utah.

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