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Europeans in Western China, 1200 B.C.
beijing_coder writes: "Caucasian-looking mummies have been discovered in the deserts in Western China since late 1800s. Now DNA tests showed they "belonged to the same genetic lineage as most modern-day Swedes, Finns, Tuscans...". I'd like to add that although the mummies were found in what's Western China today, in recorded history (after the mummies' time) that region were inhabited mostly by nomadic people, not Chinese."
Also, if these have been turning up since the 1800s, is there a major archaeological relevance to that area? What was there at the time, anyone know?
You thought that this sig was what you think that I thought you wanted me to think. I think.
AFAIK, the Finns and Swedes are not at all related. They just happen to have turned out neighbors. Linguistically, at least, the Finn's language is not at all related to any other European language. The exact orgins of the Finn's was, at least as I can remember, unknown.
On the subject of the Finnish...our favorite Finn is actually of the Swedish ethnicity, and just happened to be living in Finland.
Hopefully I didn't put any [] around my words.
Yes, there are (Indo-) Europeans in Western China right now. They're called Uighurs and they've been there forever so far as I know.
"Reactionaries must be deprived of the right to voice their opinions; only the people have that right." - Mao
The 12th century European mummies have their own Linux community.
"Reactionaries must be deprived of the right to voice their opinions; only the people have that right." - Mao
I guess the DNA study is a recent development. P revious researchers think they may have been related to the Celts. The Weegas (God knows how many English spelling variations ther are) probably have some ancestry from these peoples. Some of them have blue eyes, which can be seen in other shows about Western China. They do share some cultural characteristics with the mummies. Over time the caucasoid gene pool was replaced by the mongoloid gene pool.
Check out PBS 1998 Nova's Mysterious Mummies of China and for 1999 the Discovery Channel's Riddle of the Desert Mummies
Why oh why is it that all the cool stuff about the history of mankind... er ah humanity is in countries that aren't friendly to America? China, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, etc.
If you think the international politics are bad. Just check out our very own domestic Graves Act. It allowed aboriginal Americans to claim the 9,000 year old bones of the Kennewick Man as their direct ancestor. Nova also covered this issue with Mystery of the First Americans. His genes show that he's most closely related to the Ainu.
The peopling of the Earth is a contentious issue and probably will be until all our genes are thoroughly mixed and we become a uniform gray with no outward sexual differentiation.
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
Homo Sap began leaving Africa while the last Ice Age was in progress and North Africa through Arabia was verdant grasslands.
The first to leave spread east through India on to China.
The glaciers retreated and later leavers of Africa could find new land to the north and follow the glacial retreat into Europe and Siberia. Genetic studies show something like 13 men and 6 women fostered all of Europe. Maybe they didn't like speaking Arabic ;)
15,000 years after that, Egyptians built the first pyramid.
We know so little about this subject to date that speculative revisions can be made almost yearly such is the rate of discovery.
Check out: this link
It took some searching. Apparently, their search engine sucks.
Óli
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WinDOS, you can't live with it, and you can live without it.
Working link to mummy article
There were a number of lerge migrant populations in western china at the time. Over the next 2000 years, they migrated west across the countries of Russia, and eventually sacked Rome. At that time they were collectively called the Hunns. According to most accounts, they had a vary materialistic culture, but also a vary open one, accepting of anyone willing to travel with them. This was the primary reason their population grew so large and their armies were vast enough when approaching Rome.
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Read more about it in the June '94 issue of Discover magazine. There are many pages of content covering these discoveries. It was shortly after the development of the 'bit' that goes into horses mouths, enabling them to pull carts over thousands of miles. This technology spurred the Aryan invasions all over the world, including Turkey where they became known as the Hitites--the first known to have invented steel. And northern India, where they eventually intermarried. The northerners are still known as "Aryans" in the south, as the upper classes are sometimes referred to as "Aryans" in the noth, if I am not mistaken. Over two hundred such mummies were fund in a few sites by '94 (I think from '91 or '92?). Since there were accidental, it indicates that perhaps 100,000 may have actually there. The Aryan Empire was very similar to the Viking Empire. In fact, I think the Vikings were their direct ancestors. --Matthew