DNA Reveals Unexpected Origins Of Enigmatic Mummies Buried In East Turkestan's Taklamakan Desert

By Free Republic | Created at 2025-01-02 16:00:26 | Updated at 2025-01-05 02:47:19 2 days ago

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0:13	·	Though they died thousands of years ago, hundreds of bodies excavated in East Asia's Tarim
0:18	·	Basin look remarkably alive.
0:22	·	They retain the hairstyles, clothing, and accouterments of a long-past culture—one
0:29	·	that once seemed to suggest they were migrant Indo-Europeans who settled in what is now
0:33	·	China thousands of years ago.
0:41	·	But the mummies' seemingly perfect state of preservation wasn't their only surprise.
0:47	·	When modern DNA research revealed the preserved bodies were people indigenous to the Tarim
0:52	·	Basin—yet genetically distinct from other nearby populations—the Tarim Basin mummies
0:58	·	became even more enigmatic.
1:04	·	Today, researchers still ask questions about their cultural practices, their daily lives,
1:14	·	and their role in the spread of modern humanity across the globe.
1:25	·	Buried in a variety of cemeteries around the basin as long as 4,000 years ago, the naturally
1:30	·	mummified corpses were first unearthed by European explorers in the early 20th century.
1:37	·	Over time, more and more of the Tarim bodies were unearthed, along with their spectacular
1:42	·	cultural relics.
1:49	·	To date, hundreds have been found.
1:51	·	The earliest of the mummies date to about 2,100 B.C., while more recent mummies have
1:55	·	been dated to about 500 B.C.
2:00	·	At first, the mummies' Western-like attire and European-like appearance prompted hypotheses
2:08	·	that they were the remains of an Indo-European group of migrant people with roots in Europe,
2:13	·	perhaps related to Bronze-Age herders from Siberia or farmers in what is now Iran.
2:19	·	They had blond, brown, and red hair, and large noses, and wore bright, sometimes elaborate
2:25	·	clothing fashioned from wool, furs, or cowhide.
2:29	·	Some wore pointed, witch-like hats, and some of the clothing was made of felted or woven
2:34	·	cloth, suggesting ties to Western European culture.
2:43	·	Still others wore plaid reminiscent of the Celts—perhaps most notably one of the mummies
2:48	·	known as Chärchän Man, who stood over six feet tall, had red hair and a full beard,
2:53	·	and was buried over a thousand years ago in a tartan skirt.
3:05	·	Another of the most famous of the bodies is that of the so-called “Princess” or “Beauty”
3:11	·	of Xiaohe, a 3,800-year-old woman with light hair, high cheekbones, and long, still-preserved
3:17	·	eyelashes who seems to be smiling in death.
3:21	·	Though she wore a large felt hat fine clothing and even jewelry in death, it is unclear what
3:27	·	position she may have occupied in her society.
3:31	·	But the 2021 study of 13 of the mummies' ancient DNA led to the current consensus that
3:36	·	they belonged to an isolated group that lived throughout the now desert-like region during
3:40	·	the Bronze Age, adopting their neighbors' farming practices but remaining distinct in
3:45	·	culture and genetics.
3:48	·	Scientists concluded that the mummies were descendants of Ancient North Eurasians, a
3:52	·	relatively small group of ancient hunter-gatherers who migrated to Central Asia from West Asia
3:58	·	and who have genetic links to modern Europeans and Native Americans.
4:07	·	These bodies were not mummified intentionally as part of any burial ritual.
4:11	·	Rather, the dry, salty environment of the Tarim Basin—which contains the Taklamakan
4:17	·	Desert, one of the world's largest—allowed the bodies to decay slowly, and sometimes
4:22	·	minimally.
4:23	·	(The extreme winter cold of the area is also thought to have helped their preservation.)
4:34	·	Many bodies were interred in “boat-shaped wooden coffins covered with cattle hides and
4:39	·	marked by timber poles or oars,” according to researchers.
4:43	·	The discovery of the herb ephedra in the burial sites suggests it had either a medical or
4:47	·	religious significance—but what that religion might have been, or why some burials involve
4:52	·	concentric rings of wooden stakes, is still unclear.
4:55	·	Masks, twigs, possibly phallic objects, and animal bones found at the mummies' cemeteries
5:02	·	provide a tantalizing view of their daily lives and rituals.
5:06	·	Though most questions about their culture remain unanswered, the burials did point to
5:11	·	their diets and the fact that they were farmers.
5:14	·	The mummies were interred with barley, millet, and wheat, even necklaces featuring the oldest
5:19	·	cheese ever found.
5:21	·	This indicates that they not only farmed but raised ruminant animals.
5:32	·	The Tarim Basin dwellers were genetically distinct.
5:35	·	But their practices, from burial to cheesemaking, and their clothing, which reflects techniques
5:40	·	and artistry practiced in far-off places at the time, seem to show they mixed with and
5:45	·	learned from, other cultures, adopting their practices over time and incorporating them
5:51	·	into a distinct civilization.
5:54	·	Researchers now believe their daily lives involved everything from farming ruminant
5:58	·	animals to metalworking and basket making—helped along by the fact that the now-desolate desert
6:05	·	of the Tarim Basin region was once much greener and had abundant freshwater.
6:10	·	Researchers also believe that the Tarim Basin residents traded and interacted with other
6:14	·	people in what would eventually become a critical corridor on the Silk Road, linking East and
6:20	·	West in the arid desert.
6:24	·	However, archaeologists still have much to learn about what daily life was like for these
6:30	·	ancient humans, including who they traded with, what religious beliefs they adopted,
6:35	·	and whether their society was socially stratified.
6:45	·	The amazingly preserved mummies have long fascinated archaeologists.
6:49	·	But the Tarim Basin mummies have also become political flashpoints.
6:55	·	The Tarim Basin is located in the modern-day Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, land claimed
7:02	·	by China's Uyghur minority.
7:05	·	Uyghur nationalists claim the mummies are their forbears, but the Chinese government
7:09	·	refutes this and has been reluctant to allow scientists to study the mummies or look at
7:14	·	their ancient DNA.
7:17	·	In 2011, China withdrew a group of the mummies from a traveling exhibition, claiming they
7:25	·	were too fragile to transport.
7:27	·	Some research about the mummies' DNA has been criticized as downplaying the region's
7:32	·	distinctness in support of China's attempts to assimilate Uyghur people.
7:36	·	Just as more remains to be learned about the enigmatic mummies, their future as political
7:41	·	and national symbols remains disputed too.
7:57	·	In a new study in the Nature Journal, researchers analyzed the genetic data gathered from 13
8:02	·	of the earliest known Tarim Basin mummies.
8:04	·	They date back to 2,100 to 1,700 BCE and have revealed where the people came from.
8:19	·	The results showed the mummies were direct descendants of the Ancient North Eurasians
8:23	·	– a group of hunter-gatherers who occupied the North Eurasian steppe and Siberia.
8:28	·	They are a group that disappeared approximately 10,000 years ago despite being quite widespread
8:34	·	before that.
8:36	·	Genetics of Ancient North Eurasians can still be found in some populations of Indigenous
8:40	·	groups in Siberia and the Americas today.
8:44	·	The study contradicted theories that the group were herders from the Black Sea region of
8:48	·	southern Russia, Central Asians, or early farmers on the Iranian Plateau, and suggested
8:54	·	that they had been there for some time and had a clear local ancestry.