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English Pages 352 [354] Year 2008
:.^^':^
ALLORY
.
VICTOR
H.
MAI
pent China and the Mystery
of fie Earliest Peoples from the West
IMkv
Thames & Hudson
The Tarim Mummies
J.
p.
MALLORY
•
VICTOR
H.
MAIR
The Tarim
Mummies Ancient China and the Mystery of the EarUest Peoples from the West
With 190
illustrations, 13 in color
^^^y Thames & Hudson
© 2000 Thames &
Hudson
All Rights Reserved.
No
Ltd,
London
part of this publication
may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage
and retrieval system, without prior permission from the publisher. First published in
by Thames
&
hardcover
Hudson
Inc.,
in the
in
writing
United States of .\merica
500 Fifth Avenue,
New
York,
thamesandhudsonusa.com First
paperback edition 2008
Library of Congress Catalog Card
Number
99-66166
ISBN 978-0-500-28372-1 Printed and
bound
in
in
New
China by Hing Yip Printing Co. Ltd.
2000 York 101 10
CONTENTS
Introduction
Rediscovery
7
Chapter One
Beyond the Centres: Tarim Between East and West Chapter
34
Two
East Central Asia: Players at the Centre of the
Board
64
Chapter Three
The
Linguistic Landscape 102
Chapter four
Hoe
132
The Mummies Themselves
176
The Testimony
of the
Chapter
Chapter
Five
Six
Tartans in the Tarim
208
Chapter Seven Skulls,
Genes and Knights with Long Swords Chapter Eight
The Usual The
Suspects:
Indo-Iranians 252
Chapter Nine
Tocharian Trekkers
270
230
Chapter Ten
Who Were the Mummies?
298
Chapter Eleven
Legacy
319
Appendix One:
On
the Tocharian Problems
m
Appendix Two: Radiocarbon Dates From Selected
Sites 335
Bibliography 337 Sources of Illustrations 344
Acknowledgments Index
347
346
INTRODUCTION
The mummies
stalked into the world's pressrooms in 1994. London's
on Smniiiy could trumpet how the discovery of mummies in western China had stood 'history on its head'. Preserved in a state AL?/7
come out of ancient Egypt and decked in clothes gaudy even by 'New Age' standards, the mummies of Xinjiang, the westernmost and largest of the provinces of modern China, had clearly caught the public imagination. But it was also obvious from the popular that surpassed anything to
that were
accounts that journalists were going to have a hard go of
mummies were housed
in a
museum
it.
in Uriimchi. Where?
After
all,
these
They were more
ancient than the current population of the region, the Uyghur.
Who? And
what angle should one play? Although the mummies were certainly spectacular enough to fill a page or two of a colour supplement, they came from an area so far removed from the average reader's ken that it was difficult to find
common
short, the
ground, much less talk of revolutionary discoveries. In mummies looked very exciting; it just wasn't all that clear why they
shoulcl he so exciting.
What
lingered from the journalists' accounts
was
that the remains of
blond Europeans, possibly from northern Europe, had been found
tall,
in the
desert wastes of western China. Their earliest remains dated to about 2000
BC and they were found years ago.
to have survived in this region
And somehow
down
the Chinese historians had got
it all
to
about 1,700
wrong: China
had not developed its civilization in splendid isolation from the West but had been heavily influenced by prehistoric Europeans, so much so that it may have been Europeans who introduced both the wheel and bronze metallurgy, two of the primary technologies of civilization, to the Chinese. All of this was politically very sensitive and there were hints that the Chinese
As was
authorities were trying to keep these important discoveries under wraps. to
what ethnic or
linguistic label
might be assigned to the mummies,
it
suggested that they might have been the ancestors of the Tocharians.
Tocharians? The journalists tried their best: the Tocharians seemed to have
Rediscovery
What
did this mean? That prehistoric Irishmen had become lost in western China? But they also appeared to be tall blonds and looked more like Germans or Scandinavians. In short, remains of people closely related to those who read Western newspapers and magazines had somehow trekked their way across Eurasia to settle in the arid wastes between Qashqiir and Lopnur. Where? Before we move ahead we had better travel back a decade and recapture the excitement
been closely related to the Celts of western Europe.
of the recent rediscovery of the
New Friends Victor has visits to
in
made
mummies by
Victor
Main
Urumchi China
regular trips to
since 1981. Usually they have involved
archaeological sites in Xinjiang and Gansu, the far western portions
of the country, since his research speciality for the past two decades and
more has focused on early manuscripts found in that region. He had been to the Urumchi Museum many times in the past, but the summer of 1988 was different. As he walked through the old, familiar exhibition halls, he was totally unprepared for what he would encounter in a new gallery that had been opened at the end of the archaeological section. Parting the hanging curtains of the doorway, he entered another .world.
The room was
full
of
mummies!
Lifelike
mummies! These were not
wizened and eviscerated pharaohs wrapped
in
the
yards of dusty gauze that
one normally pictures when mummies are mentioned. Instead, they were everyday people dressed in their everyday clothes. Each one of the half-dozen bodies in the room, whether man,
woman
merely gone to sleep for a while and might
or child, looked as though sit
up
at
it
had
any moment and begin
whomever happened to be standing next to its glass case. Although he was supposed to be guiding an instructional tour
to talk to
for the
Smithsonian Institution, for the next three hours Victor totally forgot about all else in
the Uriimchi
of the
mummies
the world except the
Museum. For
in that dark, sequestered
the remainder of that day, he
community of ancient
souls in the
room
became
a
room of member
that, years later, he
would
return to visit again and again.
Although he
remembers as
best
swiftly
became
from that
'Charchan Man')
familiar with
initial
whom
all
of them, the
mummy Victor
encounter was the one (commonly
he came to
call
known
fondly 'Ur-David'. 'Ur' means
and 'David' refers to his second-eldest brother; the resemblance between the two gentlemen is startling. 'Ur-David' was sleeping peacefully in the far-right corner of the room (pis. I, II). He was lying on his back, his head propped up on a white pillow, his knees raised slightly, and his expressive hands - held together by a friendship bracelet twisted from 'primal' or 'earliest'
- placed
abdomen. 'Ur-David' was wearing trimmed with fine red pipmg and trousers of the same material. His knee-high socks of matted wool fibres (not quite felt) were as brightly coloured as a rainbow - with horizontal red and blue yarn
gently
upon
his
a brilliant reddish-purple woollen shirt
Rediscovery
Xinjiang The as
common IS
It
to be
political
found
in
designation of the far western territory of China
books
earlier
introduced the pinyin system of transcription, Sinkiang. The Territones', as they only
became
in
the 8th century ad, and the territory
Autonomous Region the province). The
often employ
miles, Isles,
one
1.
sixth of the entire
or,
in
1884. The main
who began
more properly known
more
47
as the
different ethnic
settling
Uyghur
groups
in
country of China.
which
we
600,000
sq,
neutral 'East Central Asia'
work. Xinjiang comprises a
Belgium, the Netherlands, France,
to spare bit
in this
or,
'Eastern Turkestan' or 'Chinese Turkestan' have also been
applied to this region, as has the politically will
is
of Xinjiang (altogether there are
names
Xinjiang
name means 'New
a province of the Chinese state
ethnic minority of the region are the Uyghurs, a Turkish people
there
is
than the Chinese spelling reform of 1956 which
Its
territory of over
area
Germany and
is
on the order of the
Italy
British
put together with room
from an American point of view, well over twice the
size of Texas
but a
smaller than Alaska.
Xinjiang, the
'New
stripes of flame red
most deliciously leather,
Territories', is
one of the most land-locked regions of the world.
and golden yellow, but occasionally alternating with the
faint blue imaginable.
Over the socks were boots of white
probably from a deer, that reached to his thighs. There was also a
mystifying leather thong wrapped around the middle finger of his
left
hand;
was secured by passing one end through a slot in the other end. Perhaps was a crop, signifying that he was a horserider, or merely a means of keeping the deceased from falling on his side.
it
it
Rediscovery
But
it
was the face that arrested Victor most. He
circleci
least a do/.en times, taking in
each tiny detail of this
whom
He wanted
he
felt
such an
affinity.
the glass case at
human
being with
to absorb everything
about
this
it was the face that kept drawing his attention. meaning of the spirals painted in ochre on his temples? Were they solar symbols? The horns of a sheep? Finally, he could do nothing but stare fixedly into those ancient eyes. They were blissfully closed, yet they spoke eloquently and powerfully. Then as his vision shifted to the top of the head he became conscious that the hair of 'Ur-David' was blond. His mind began to race wilcily, fillecl with a thousand insistent and unanswered
person from the past, yet
What was
the
questions:
What
is
this tall,
blond
man doing
here in the middle of Central
Asia where almost every person one sees today black hair? arrive?
How
did he get here?
What language
Where
did he
did he speak?
Victor looked at the label on the case. inside
his
remains dated to
It
said that the individual lying
Modern Standard Mandarin (MSM)) 1000 BC. He paced around the room, avidly
was from Charchan (Qiemo
and that
is much shorter and has come from? When did he
in
reading every single label - 1200 BC, 1800 BC, more individuals from 1000 BC.
The shock of
seeing these living fossils of Xinjiang
first led
him
to
question their authenticity. To be sure, at the turn of the century European explorers such as Sven Hedin of Sweden, Albert von Le Sir Aurel Stein
on behalf of Britain had
all
Coq
of
Germany and
recounted their cliscoveries of
desiccated bodies in their search for the artistic and literary relics of the
Buddhist shrines of Central Asia. In their magnificently illustrated accounts,
2,
A mummy of an
expeditions earlier
elderly this
man removed from
century
his coffin,
discovered by one of
ttie
Swedish
Rediscovery
they had even published drawings and photographs of these remains. In a
and time, these excited little interest and never prepared coming eye to eye with the prehistoric people of Xinjiang. With
different world
Victor for
many
questions
racing through his mind, he dashed off to recover his
still
Smithsonian charges.
Then
the Iceman
Came
On
the morning of 26 September 1991, Victor was sitting in the newspaper nook of the National Humanities Center in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. When he picked up the New York Times, he was stunned to see the headline announcing the ciiscovery of the frozen bocly of a Copper Age
hunter-herder high Italy.
Except where
of the
left
in the it
Otztaler Alps on the border between Austria and
had been damaged by
a
pneumatic
chisel in the area
buttock and thigh during recovery, the body of this 'Iceman' was
almost perfectly preserved.
As Victor read more reports about this remarkable event, he learned that Otzi (as the Iceman had come to be called) was 5,300 years old, that he was equipped with carefully
sewn
a
bow, arrows, axe, and other implements, that he wore
and leather garments, and that he bore presumably
fur
therapeutic tattoos at strategic spots on his body. For Victor, however, what
was most
striking
was that
Otzi's icy grave
Austrian village, Pfaffenhofen,
in
which
was amazingly near to the was born and grew up.
his father
While he was devouring the news about Otzi, almost instantaneously
mind an ineluctable connection between the Copper Age Iceman of the Austro-Italian Alps and the Bronze Age denizens of the Tiiklimakan Desert whom he had first seen in 1988. Somehow or other, he sensed a distinct relationship between these ancient human beings. He became possessed by the clesire to determine whether this were indeed true and, if so, in what way the Iceman and the desert people were linked. Within half an hour of learning of the discovery of Otzi, he resolved to organize a research project on the mummies of the Tarim Basin (throughout this book we will frequently use 'Tarim' as shorthand for both the Tarim Basin proper and the neighbouring regions to its north and east). He was aware that DNA tests would be carried out on Otzi. Consequently, he thought that it would be both simple and precise to do the same for the Taklimakanians. Once the DNA of the Iceman and the desert people were compared, it should be easy to decide if they were of the same stock. That very afternoon, he began to write letters in preparation for a scientific expedition to the Uyghur region of China. there formed in his
The Quest Begins There were three main aspects to the flurry of activity into which Victor immersed himself during the coming months: locating reliable scientific
11
Rediscovery
expertise, raising the necessary funds,
Chinese government to engage tasks as equally challenging. in all three areas of
The
first
He had
Much
He
viewed
met with
to his surprise, he
all
swift success
known
to solicit the guidance
of the outstanding
and help of
a qualified geneticist.
work on population
genetics of the
distinguished Stanford scholar. Professor Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza.
unprepared for the approachability of ideas.
Not only
happy
three
endeavour.
was
step
long
and obtaining the permission of the
in cooperative research.
this world-class scientist
He was
and man-of-
did Cavalli-Sforza enthusiastically declare that he would be
to participate personally in the research project, he also suggested
several possible funding agencies.
he had already
come
With one telephone
close to killing
call to Cavalli-Sforza,
two of the three birds required
to set
the enterprise in motion.
The
Alfred
research
P.
Sloan Foundation
on the mitochondrial
made
a substantia! grant to
undertake
DNA of the Tarim Basin mummies during the
1993 season and they generously doubled the size of their grant following two years. Funds were also obtained from Victor's
own
in the
University
of Pennsylvania, the Henry Luce Foundation, and numerous individual
who
to do their part to Tarim Basin. The signals he was receiving from various sources in China were sufficiently encouraging to assume that there was at least a chance that he would be able to proceed. In particular, Wang Binghua, Director of the Institute of Archaeology in Uriimchi, exerted himself on behalf of the project. And although there were bureaucratic hiccups enough along the
citizens
are interested in world history
clarify the mysteries
surrounding the
and wish
mummies
of the
way, permission to go ahead was obtained from the Chinese authorities at the eleventh hour.
By
this
time Cavalli-Sforza had had to abandon the idea
of travelling to Central Asia himself because of a heart condition, so he
provided a superb substitute
in
the person of Paolo Francalacci of the
University of Sassari in Sardinia. After meeting up in Beijing, Paolo and Victor flew to Uriimchi on 22 June. Lengthy negotiations were required to
main concerns of the Chinese. It was agreed that their geneticists and archaeologists would be directly involved in all phases of the work, that they would be listed as joint authors of any significant publications emanating from the project, and that technology transfer would occur in the form of training in the new, advanced analytical techniques the American allay the
side
would be
samples was
some of
using.
It
cannot be stressed too heavily that taking tissue
a highly sensitive matter.
their scholars to
of study, to raise
work, and to seek
The Chinese
go abroad for brief
visits
side
was
also eager for
or for extended periods
money from American foundations to support their assistance in building a special museum for the preser-
vation of the scores of corpses that had been excavated and will continue to be excavated in the
Uyghur
region. Victor readily acceded to the mission
of helping the Chinese build what might affectionately be called the
'Mummy Museum'.
Rediscovery
Bronze Age People
On
15 June,
Wang
in
Poplar Gully
Binghiia, Paolo and Victor travelled by car 490
(304 miles) eastwards across the searing desert to Qumiil.
Known
as
km
Khamil
in Mongolian, the name of this important Silk Roaci town is transcribed in Modern Standard Mandarin as Hami. It is famous for its succulent melons
amounts of cotton are also town. Nearby was one of the most
suffused with fragrance and sweetness. Large
grown
in irrigated fields
important
Approximately Qaradovva a
little
surrounding the
sites for the project. 1
km
(0.6 miles) to the
(MSM Wupu)
is
northwest of the oasis village of
a terrace of pebble-strewn desert that lies across
which separates
valley called 'Poplar Gully'
from the town. From
it
mound of reddish known as Qizilchoqa,
the terrace one can see at the town's edge a distinctive
earth which gives
its
name
to the area. In Uyghur,
which means 'Red Hillock'. been fenced Institute of
in for
A
tract of
protection and
Archaeology which
is
is
it is
about 5,000
m
sq.
(53,820 sq.
responsible for
its
was
his
('Celestial
its
Mountains', Tian Shan
hunch, based on the
has
ongoing excavation.
The Qizilchoqa cemetery was discovered by Wang Binghua following the stream in Poplar Gully from
Tangri Tagh
ft)
under the jurisdiction of the Xinjiang
many
in
1978 by
glacial source high in the in
MSM)
to the north.
It
years he had spent as a practising
archaeologist in the region, that ancient peoples would have located their settlements along the stream because
it
of water. As he followed the stream bed, as to
provided a relatively reliable source
Wang queried
the local inhabitants
whether they had come across any old broken pots, wooden
and so
forth.
An
old
man named
Imit
artifacts
came forward with some ancient 3. Sites
mentioned
in
the introduction.
Qaradowa Urumchi_^
"Subeshi Turpan
Gobi Desert
• ANCIENT SITE
t 1
50
-S
300 km
H 200
300 miles
13
REDISCOVERY
Wang was
objects that were exactly what
visited Qizilchoqa in 1993, Imit
During the were dug and, with a
first year,
in 1991,
fairly large
looking
was the guard
Victor initially
cemetery
29 graves were excavated. In 1986, 82 more graves
two additional graves were excavated
in
cooperation
team of Japanese archaeologists. Judging from the
and the number of obvious depressions
the tract
When
for.
at the
in the surface
size of
of the earth
(which indicate the existence of a grave beneath), there were probably at least
another hundred graves remaining to be dug at Qizilchoqa. But by June
when Victor returned to Qizilchoqa to make a film about the mummies Nova (WGBH-Boston) and Channel 4 (London), the entire cemetery had been hurriedly rummaged. Few graves remained untouched and litter from obviously hasty 'excavations' was strewn across the pebbly desert 1997,
for
surface. In
to
make
June 1998, Victor returned to Qizilchoqa once again,
a film for the Discovery
year's shallow scavenging still
this
time
Channel. The debris from the previous
had been cleared up and
it
appeared that
it
might
be possible someday to excavate the remaining graves properly
The Qizilchoqa
graves have been dated to approximately 1200
BC by
Chinese archaeologists because of the presence of bronze objects, the of painted pottery, and five radiocarbon dates. This puts the
style
site at a
key
point in the development of Chinese civilization, the height of the Shang
dynasty
It is
dated to essentially the same
moment as the
introduction of the
chariot and the rise of writing.
Aside from numerous well-preserved corpses, a wealth of artifacts was recovered from the graves. These were not luxury goods but simple items for
use in daily
(combs, mirrors, needles, bowls, pots, hooks, bridles,
life
spindles, bread, etc.).
Among
bells,
those that struck Victor most forcefully was
from an unexcavated grave. It was similar to another partial wheel that had been unearthed earlier from one of the other graves, which was kept in the Qumul Museum. These wheels, termed 'tripartite disc wheels', are of a peculiar construction which a part of a wheel that he spotted protruding
joins three thick planks (rounded at the edges) with tightly fitting dowels.
West Asia and throughout Europe a thousand years earlier. The spoked chariot wheel has not yet been found at such an early date in Xinjiang, but it has been found at a slightly earlier
The same
type of disc wheel
is
found
in
Nomhong, in Qinghai (Kokonor) province just to the east. The Qizilchoqa graves are relatively simple in their construction. About
site,
2
m
(6 ft
7
in)
deep, they are lined with large, unbaked bricks around the
The
were just big enough for the occupant(s) them on mats, lying on their sides or backs of the grave who were placed with their knees bent upwards. Above the buried individuals, about halfway down in the pit, was a ledge around all four sides. A layer of mats and reeds lower part of their sides.
pits
in
was placed here
to prevent the sandy soil
lined burial chamber. large,
rough-hewn
of sand.
14
The
from
falling
down
into the brick-
opening of the grave was covered by a row of
logs strewn with
mats and reeds over which was a
layer
4.
Mummified corpse on
the floor
of a bnck-lined tomb at Qizilctioqa
5.
Victor
Mair
witti a recently
exhumed corpse before
it
at Qizilchoqa
was returned
to
its
grave
REDISCOVERY
The most
impressive aspect of the Qizilchoqa graves
Due many of
is,
of course, the
unique combination of cHmatic
ancient corpses themselves.
to the
conditions
the bodies have been preserved intact
in the area,
through a process of natural desiccation. The corpses are marvellously coloured and patterned woollen fabrics,
and sometimes leather
coats.
They
felt
fully clothed in
and leather boots,
are clearly of Caucasoid/Europoid
extraction (long noses, deep-set eyes, blondish, light-brown or red hair,
and so
forth).
The men
are fully bearded
women
and the
have long, braided
hair.
In
and
company with about
his
a
dozen
crew spent the entire day
local archaeologists
at
and diggers, Victor
Qizilchoqa exhuming corpses from
had previously been excavated but, after preliminary examination and recovery of important artifacts, had been reinterred because of a lack of adequate storage facilities in Qumul or in Uriimchi. As one grave after another was opened, Victor was awed by the sight of bodies that had been graves that
lying there for over three millennia.
Paolo, wearing a face
surgical scalpels to
mask and rubber
own modern
the corpses with his
(and
gloves to avoid contamination of
much more
remove small samples of
tissue
potent)
DNA,
used
from unexposed areas
of the bodies (usually the inner thighs or underarms).
He
also took
fragments of a few bones (parts of ribs that were relatively easy to break
and teeth which preserve the tissue and skin.
The samples were placed
DNA
off)
perhaps even better than do the muscle
in collection jars, sealed
and
labelled.
While
Paolo was doing his work, Victor made a photographic and written record of the tissue collection. Altogether, they took double or triple samples from six corpses at
Qumul.
That evening the team feasted on an elaborate banquet held for them in the guest house where they were staying. Paolo was wearing his 'Ancient
DNA t-shirt and beaming broadly. The Trio From Charchan Although the 1993 expedition did not
Mandarin), which
in
lies
travel to the
town of Charchan (Qiemo
towards the eastern end of the southern branch of
the Silk Road, they were able to see half-a-dozen
important
site
of
Zaghunluq
mummies from
the very
that lay in the desert nearby Three of these
were the by-now world-famous 'Sunday supplement' family comprising 'UrDavid', the
woman who
is
thought to have been
his wife,
and the
with blue bonnet and blue stones over his eyes that was buried grave close by theirs. in the district /.
The temples of
'Ur-David'
were
designs
years.
16
at Korla
mummies from Zaghunluq were
which the 1993 team did
young woman of about 20 years old and
a
ochre.
museum
three
visit.
child
separate
While
kept
there,
they took tissue samples from two of the corpses that were best preserved,
ornamented with in
The other
little
in a
a
little
boy of approximately iVi
K
//.
'Charchan Man',
Victor Mair's 'Ur-David', reclines in tlie
UrCimchi
Museum.
III.
The
woman
from
Zaghunluq who
accompanied 'Ur-David'.
The 'Beauty of Kroran
IV.
with the wheat basket
and
(on the right)
winnowing the
left)
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b g d h
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> h
.Ol
J4
o
r
t
ih
T)
cna
major
theirs
over time and here are
of Estrangelo
(Es),
type employed
the
in
shown examples (Pa) and the
Palmyran
Manichean Sogdian
(MaSo) documents. The column at left
far
gives the transliteration of these
alphabets.
BC:
late as
to the lower
initially
proposed span, and perhaps more
burials in the flexed position that brick-lined pits
dated to
800-550 BC which could argue that the culture was closer
end of the
assigned to the Tort Erik (Sidaogou) culture.
63 The
initially
but a recent radiocarbon date from a textile places the
The
earliest graves
easily
were single
had been inserted into the base of
a pit
The
later
which was then covered with large logs smoothed on one
side.
from Qizilchoqa
graves comprised double burials in brick-lined pits; above was a second
comprised
chamber whose base was sealed by reed mats that protected the burial chamber from falling sand and the top of the chamber was covered with timbers. The two chambers were dug down to a depth of about 2 m (6 ft 7
layers of
buried remains and
covenngs
in).
This cemetery also yielded
we
mummies and
have more to say
extraordinarily well-preserved
and other organic remains, usually Euphrates poplar. The mummified remains here are of a Caucasoid type with light hair and large noses. The hands, arms and upper backs reveal
clothes (of which
will
later)
traces of tattoos, a trait again encountered slightly later
burials in the Altai Mountains.
tombs
142
Among
the
wooden
among the Pazyryk
objects found in the
there are also traces of wheeled vehicles such as three-piece disc wheels
The Testimony of the hoe
64. This disc
wheel
from Qizilchoqa reveals the tripartite
construction techniques
encountered across Eurasia
and hubs. There is no evidence to suggest that wheeled vehicles were independently developed in China and the general range of the earliest vehicles in Eurasia runs
from Southwest Asia northwards across the
Caucasus and then spans Eurasia from the Netherlands to the Yenisei Afanasevo culture
Andronovo
or,
cultures).
(the
more certainly, its successors, the Okunevo and The large disc wheels mark the initial horizon of
wheeled vehicles which persist alongside a
later
horizon of spoked-wheeled
2000-1600 BC), particularly the chariot. A number of other Age burials from Pazyryk, e.g. small wooden tables and trays, and a bronze mirror. Economic evidence comprises faunal remains from cattle, sheep, horse, donkey and camel, while flat cakes of millet and barley have been recovered. Timber remains of what is thought vehicles
(c".
features are reminiscent of the later Iron
some 90 cm (3 ft) long have also been recovered and among wood, bone and leather remains is harnessing equipment. As we will later see, Qizilchoqa was one of the cemeteries sampled for ancient DNA.
to be a plough
the
Cultures of the Gushi (Jushi)
Some 300 km
(186 miles) to the west of
Qumul
lie sites in
the vicinity of
Turpan oasis that have been assigned to the Ayding Lake (Aidinghu) culture. The lake itself occupies the lowest point in the Turpan region (at 156 m (512 ft) below sea level it is the lowest spot on earth after the Dead Sea). According to accounts of the historical period, this was later the territory of the Gushi, a people who 'lived in tents, followed the grasses and waters, and had considerable knowledge of agriculture. They owned cattle. the
143
The Testimony of the Hoe
They were proficient with bows and They were also noted for harassing travellers moving northwards along the Silk Road from Kroriin, and the territories of the Ciiishi and the kingdom of Kroriin were linked in the accoimt of Zhang Qian, presumably horses, camels, sheep and goats. arrows.'
because both were under the control of the Xiongnu.
60 (a
In the years around Chinese and was subsequently known as Jushi different transcription of the same name). IMl,
Gushi
fell
to the
There was variation among the different cemeteries of the region with some burials on wooden platforms or under timber beams and reed mats; other cemeteries revealed burials covered by small stone cairns. Burial was in the
extended position, head to the west, and might occur singly or as
a
double grave. Black-on-red painted handmade ware accompanied the burials
and there were also some wooden figures similar to those found Qawrighul culture. The Ayding culture itself is dated to c. 1400-700 part of the cemetery at Subeshi,
Ayding culture, must run
commonly regarded
later into the Iron
Age
the
but
to be related to the BC;. The portion of some 40 low stone
300
c.
in BC;
the Subeshi cemetery excavated in 1992 consisted of
on wooden beds. There were special entrances shafts and goods from later burials included iron.
cairns covering burials set into
some of
the burial
Evidence of diet was graphically preserved
in
such forms as a bowl
with millet and another containing the coccyx of a goat.
Among the
were seven very well-preserved
filled
burials
mummies
and the partial remains of some dozen more.
One
men wore
of the
leggings and
woollen underpants and was accompaniecl by a
bow
in a leather
case and a set of
arrows with wooden, bone, horn and iron tips,
apparently fashioned for different
intended prey
ment that
is
(ill.
66).
The archery equip-
reminiscent of that of the Scythians
we have
seen earlier. There was also the
mummy
superbly preserved
clad in a fur-lined cloak
of a
woman
and multi-coloured
woollen skirt which dated to about the 4th century BC. As the Subeshi cemetery provides us with our 'three witches',
have more to say about
it
in
we
will
the next chapters.
Settlements in Yengidala
About 200 km (124
V
in
miles) to the southwest
the vicinit\ of Lake Baghrash (Mongolian
Bostnur) are various
sites
of the Yengidala
(Xintala) culture which dates 65.
144
Double
burial
from a
pit at
Subeshi
c.
170O-1400 BC.
Here we have evidence of settlement mounds.
^ The Testimony of the hoe
one (492
at
Ycngidala 5 in
tt)
m
(16
and about 150
5 in) higli
ft
ni
diameter. Situated within the district of
Qarashahar (Yanqi), the Yengidala group affords us our earhest picture of sedentary communities in the vicinity of this important oasis centre, one of
the four garrison towns of the liistoncal period.
There was evidence for wheat, millet and stone sickles and querns; domestic animal hones were also recovered. The finds mclude painted potterv decorated with geometric and /oomorphic (bird or fish) motifs as well as incised
ware which
has been likened to that of the Andronovo culture of the steppe. Surface finds of bronze implements
such as
a
socketed axe have been retrieved.
Unfortunately burials of
this region
remain
unknown although some
disturbed
human
remains are reported from Chokkur (Quhui).
Kucha A
farther 250
km
(155 miles)
(Haladun) culture which
was the Qaradong
known almost
so far
is
entirely from surface finds except for a small
—
excavation at the settlement of Qarad()ng itself.
Here, near the major oasis town of
^
Kucha, archaeologists uncovered timber-postbuilt houses, traces of millet, sickles, grinding stones, a distinctive red-on-white
painted
pottery and about a hundred bone artifacts
(arrowheads, awls,
'%
198
The
Mummies Themselves
]]4.
A
I'/.i'-year-old
baby from Yanghe village in the
Gorge (near
Tuyuq Subeshi).
199
The Mummies Themselves
small bag were crushed plant remains, thought to be ephedra. These
Why
have been two of the medicines he was treating himself with. incisions in the chest region?
the autopsies of other
prompted the rather
We
may the
have no certain answer but, judging from
mummies, some form
of pulmonary disease
may have
drastic (and apparently unsuccessful) operation.
Related to the people and culture of Subeshi was a
little boy of 1 Vi years, Yanghe village in Pichan (Shanshan) County (ill. date from around the 3rd century BC.
whose body was found 114).
He
is
said to
in
Imammusakazim This
site
period
c.
which
lies
within the region of Khotan and which dates to the
AD 420-589 yielded two Buddhist
burials of
women. The
older of
two was about 30-35 years old, of Mongoloid extraction, and had brown hair with a black braid woven in. She wore a white patterned silk shroud. The younger individual was a girl of 10-12 years old who wore a red patterned silk shroud. Both women had silk bands to tie their mouths shut. the
Lopnur Region: Grave 7 Grave 7 was located 7.5
km
(4.7 miles)
Here Folke the best preserved of which was
southwest of Grave
5.
Bergman discovered three or four graves, numbered 7A. The coffin was half of a hollowed-out tree-trunk which was sealed by two long boards and mounted on four wooden legs. The mummified remains of 'an elderly, stately gentleman with a small white beard, a thin moustache and white hair' had apparently been tipped out by
plunderers (Bergman saw the hand of the ubiquitous Ordek
in this).
The
had been stopped by plugs of wool covered with silk, elaborate affair than the simple woollen stoppers found red a far more in the earlier cemeteries. Bergman was impressed with the non-Mongolian nostrils of the 'high nose'
features of the deceased
belonged to an Indian.
Silk
and suspected that the mummified remains was employed
in the clothing as well as the nose-
Bergman workshop about the 3rd century AD. Somewhat similar material, including woollen and silk nose-plugs, were found in the other graves and a series of low poles were found at the top of the mound in which the graves had been inserted. Among the graves excavated by Sven Hedin in the Lopnur region was Grave 35. Attracted by a standing tamarisk pole, Hedin's men dug down to plugs and there was a particularly elaborate collar which, conjectured, just might have been produced in a Persian
uncover a wooden coffin fashioned from half of a hollowed-out
log.
Upon
removal of the two boards that formed the lid, they found the remains of a young woman, 1.6 m (5 ft 3 in) in height. Her 'turban' and clothes were of silk and she was accompanied by a wooden drinking cup, a wooden foodtray, a sheep's skeleton and twigs of ephedra. Bergman conjectured that the
tomb might date
200
to the first centuries of our era.
The
At Yarliq-kol, Bergman numbered as Grave 10 a burial that he
found near the southern bank of
Qum-darya. Here
a coffin, a hol-
lowed-out poplar trunk some 2 (6
7
ft
was found
long,
in)
m
dis-
lodged from a yardang, the ridges
formed from wind action across
The
the region.
coffin's interior
had apparently been lined with contained the
thick
felt. It
ified
body of an old man Behind the
(4 ft 10 in)).
mumm(1.48
left
m
ear his
grey hair had been twisted into a
knot. His teeth were generally in
poor shape - the incisors were well
worn and
the lower molars were
missing- although he upper
in his
still
had
13
jaw.
Among the grave goods
were the
charred bones of a sheep's foreleg that
of
had been
felt
coverecl by a piece
to imitate the flesh,
fish vertebrae.
Most unusual was
that below his right hip his coat
was
and two
and under
a felt doll, apparently
with feminine features painted on
and hair
in the
Bergman
pubic region, which
interpreted as 'a symbol
of a feminine companion'.
The only burial
silk that
measured 60.5 cm
wide, 10
cm
standard
in
iately it
/
/
5,
The Yingpan
clue to the date of the
was that the coat contained (4 in)
the
(2 ft)
wider than the
Han and immed-
post-Han period, thus setting
at the
end of the
floruit of the
Kroranian kingdom.
mummy.
Yingpan Finally,
we should add here notice of the most recent mummy The Chinese press announced in January 1998 that
discovereci.
mummy
had been uncovered
that has yielded over 30
in the
tombs and
Kroran region is
at
to be a
new
Yingpan, a cemetery
situated to the west of Lopnur.
The
Mummies Themselves
The
/ 1
Mummies Themselves
6 Mask of the
man
buried at Ytngpan.
remains belonged to a male, aged 25-30 years, 1
1
in) tall
and had been
laid
out
in a
wooden
who
stood some
red woollen robe with yellow embroidered designs
wound around goods included
was attached bow and arrows, a
his waist; to the sash a necklace, a
a
1.8
m
(5 ft
He was wrapped
in a
and
was
casket.
a satin sash
perfume
glass
satchel.
cup and
a
Grave
wooden
comb. He has been dated
to the Han-Jin period, i.e. probably about the 2nd—3rd centuries AD. The most striking feature of the new mummy is to be found on his head. Resting on a satin pillow (we are obviously talking about someone of considerable status, Chinese archaeologists suspect a rich merchant - Sogdian?), the deceased wears a mask over his face. The
newspaper reports indicate that the mask
202
is
made
of
nici
which can mean
The
Mummies Themselves
ramie, and/or sisal. The wet 'hemp' was apphed in layers wooden mould and allowed to dry; the mould was then removed and the hard cloth mask painted white. The forehead of the mask was
hemp,
jute, flax,
over a
a band of gold foil. This is not the only discovery of a masked individual, because in 1996 Wang Bo recovered from Zaghunluq a mummified head with a tightly fitting leather mask. The custom of masks, of course, may well derive from China, but we should not forget that one of the characteristics attributed to the population of Kucha was that dancers
adorned with
wore masks.
Pazyryk and Xinjiang
The spectacular remains from East Central Asia are not the only mummies known in Asia. The excavations of the royal tombs at Pazyryk in the Altai Mountains, some 960 km (600 miles) to the north of Turpan, also uncovered a series of mummified remains, attributed variously to Scythians, Yuezhi, Wusun, Xiongnu and the Arimaspians of Aristeas, to name but a few candidates. They date from about 300-250 BC and were found preserved in large timber chambers sealed by stone cairns. Unlike the Xinjiang mummies, preparation of the bodies for survival was deliberate, while the means by which
it
was achieved was accidental.
We
can partly thank the
activities of
ancient grave robbers for the preservation of the organic remains in the
tombs because they breached the chambers in their lust to recover anything of value. This permitted the tombs to flood with water which, in the high Altai Mountains, froze: the stone cairns served to reflect sunlight and
1 1
7 Plundered
antiquity, ttie
::0.
o
in
tombs
remains of their occupants.
^;.,;(..!>-^:.;i.K.;C:»
;•
U)
"'.
1
m
203
The Mummies Themselves
preserve the ground under
them as a primitive box of frozen ground. The excavation of the mummies, which required heating water and slowly thawing out the remains,
ice
recovered
artificially
human
prepared
which evisceration and removal of brains had been practised and the body
remains
in
cavities stuffed w'ith straw before being
sewn up with horsehair or tendon sutures. Like the mummies of the Tarim Basin, hair had been artificially augmented: a false beard was prepared one of the mummies of Mongoloid
Pazyryk
at
for
extraction,
who
apparently
required
socially what his genetic background was unable to provide. Tattooing was also
extremely important and the skin of one of the
mummies
provided an artistic tableau
of mythical and real animals executed
in
the
'animal style' of the Eurasian steppe.
That there
is
a
possible ethnic relationship
between the Pazyryk mummies and those of the Tarim region is a fair inference although we cannot be too precise as to which ethnic groups (probably
may have been
Iranian)
mummification found
origins of the
presumption that
helci
what of the Pazyryk? The
involved. But at
long ago by Grafton Elliot Smith
mummification was inwnted
solely in
diffused from there to wherever else
Egypt and
we encounter
it is
hardly tenable on a worldwide scale (for example,
Peruvian
mummies
are the oldest in the world),
and
connections between ancient Egypt and the Altai
Mountains
are very difficult to contemplate.
As
to the
origins of artificial mummification, there are (at least)
two approaches. Archaeologists
working
in
the
incredibly
rich
Minusinsk Basin region have suggested that mummification evolved slowly and out of the need to preserve
bodies for longer periods as the construction of
/
18.
Tattoos
man from
on a
Pazyryk
we
find the features
tombs became more elaborate and required more time. This, they suggest, can be seen in the Tagar culture, a contemporary of the Pazyryk tombs. Here of the deceased preserved in clay masks. The preparation
of the burials required the removal
t)f
the soft tissue from the skeleton, the
building of an interior mannikin with grass, the sculpting of a facial
204
mask
The
I
from
Mummies Themselves
'J
clay,
the fastening of the bones together to
form
a 'body' to
which the
head was then attached, and then the painting and dressing of the body.
While elaborate, artificial
this
is
a far cry
mummification:
from the
result achieved in natural or
7
79.
The preparation
of a mannikln from the Minusinsk Basin involved de fleshing the
it
provides an effigy, not a fully preserved body. skeleton, reconstructing
Those who regard mummification as a one-of-a-kind invention might ponder how these effigies are remarkably similar to the Chinchorro mummies (effigies) of southern Peru and northern Chile that date to c. 6000-2000
the figure with plant
remains and then dressing
it.
BC:.
205
The
120.
Mummies Themselves
The preparation
of a mannikin
in Peru,
which long antedates those found
in Asia.
The second approach
is
to return to Hgypt, not because the techniques of
mummification diffused from there but rather because
it
might well provide
one piece of the puzzle. Like the Tarim Basin, the arid sands of Kgypt created suitable conditions for natural
we do
tombs of
the dynastic period
buried
simple pits where their flesh has been
in
moisture-depriving sands. This
206
mummification and prior
may be
find well-preserved in direct
to the elaborate
human remains contact with the
satisfactory as long as you are content
The
to bury your
dead
Mummies Themselves
shallow pits inserted into the desert sands. But as
in
complex and hierarchical, there was a social more elaborate tombs, large brick chambers (ultimately pyramids) which separated the corpse from the dehydrating effects of sand and dry air. In some cases, we have mummies that were naturally desiccated and wrapped up without evisceration but, in general, society
became
increasingly
drive to prepare increasingly
if
you wanted to
retain the integrity of the deceased, artificial techniques
were often required and
it
was these which
resulted in our traditional concept
of mummification.
While we have no direct evidence at least conjecture that in East
The
for such a transition in Asia,
one can
Central Asia a similar process evolved.
naturally preserved remains that one
would
regularly encounter in the
Tarim Basin had existed for nearly 2,000 years before we find evidence for deliberate mummification in either Han China or among the Iron Age steppe peoples.
We
have seen that pastoralists were
in
continuous contact with the
populations of the Tarim Basin and could not have failed to observe the remarkable preservation of the local dead. Indeed, a distinction between
some
pastoral groups
resident in the
who wandered north of the Tangri Tagh and those itself may be unwarranted. In this way, popu-
Tarim Basin
lations already imbuecl with either an ancestor cult, such as obtained in
ancient China, or with a preoccupation with the integrity of the
form or clay
masks
to achieve
The The
first
began
in the
3rd millennium BC)
mummification of
Silence of the
their
own
human
steppelands where
facial features (for instance the inhabitants of the
may have
stimulated others
dead.
Mummies on their dissecting examined the integrity of her
forensic scientists have laid out the 'Beauty of Kroran'
table.
They have weighed her
skin, retrieved nits
internal organs,
from her body and tested her with
scientific techniques.
But she
still lies
a battery of other
there, silent as ever
and might
well have a tag about her big toe, inscribed 'Jane Doe'. She cannot
just as tell
us
where her ancestors originated, what language she spoke, what her settlement was like, nor who her descendants are. She is no longer articulate,
mean that she has ceased to inform us. She and the other mummies all come to us clothed and, while we may not find a designer label, we may still recover quite a few clues to their identity from their garments. but that does not
207
CHAPTER
The
Tarim and Turpan basins
textiles in the ancient world.
to
offer
SIX
one of the
hirgest collections of
Their study has been primarily confined
Western scholars such as Vivi Sylwan who made detailed
examinations of material uncovered
in the earlier
The more
excavations of Sven Hedin,
Folke Bergman and Aurcl Stein. enormous accumulations of new material in much better dated contexts and some useful descriptive work by Chinese specialists, but more detailed analysis has been limited to the work of Irene Good of the University of recent discoveries have seen
Pennsylvania and Hiizabeth Barber of Occidental College, California,
who
were given partial access to some of the material (which provided a basis for
book on the Xinjiang mummies and their textiles). Chinese archaeologists have been somewhat loath to surrender their material to foreigners for analysis. From their viewpoint, the archaeological treasures of China have been pillaged quite enough by Westerners and no one wants to defer to 'foreign experts' to interpret one's own heritage, especially when it Barber's fine
concerns is
textiles, a field in
understandable,
it is
which China has traditionally excelled. While
this
frustrating to find the scientific reports which could
place East Central Asia in the larger picture of the development of textiles in
Eurasia so slow
in
coming. Textile production
cultural arsenal of a people: the materials
is
nor a mere adjunct to the
employed and the technology
production can be used to trace the course of cultural influences, possibly even migrations, while the decorative patterns employed in textiles or the cut of the material has long been known to be one of the
involved in
more
its
sensitive expressions of a culture's self-identity
A
Brief History of
it
is
uncertain
Twine
when humans began
to clothe themselves although the
circumstantial evidence of the freezing temperatures of the Ice
with the discovery of
208
flint
Age coupled
scrapers for cleaning hides would suggest that
Tartans
among
clothing (skin wraps at least) existed
the Neanderthals,
in
the Tarim
even
i.e.
modern humans in Europe. By about what are interpreted as bone and antler
before the appearance ot anatomically
20,000 years ago
we
find in France
needles that indicate the sewing of animal skins or textiles manufactured
from plant and
woody
tree fibres, e.g. bast, a
from the linden
fibre derived
and willow. Even earlier we have some evidence for nets about 26,000 years ago (from the Czech Republic) and a twisted cord of three-plied strands of spun vegetable
(bast?) fibre that dates to
about 15,000 BC.
A
massive
amount
of circumstantial evidence such as pendants, bead necklaces, etc., indicates the widespread use of string or cord both during and after the last glaciation.
continue
Flint or other stone scrapers
and remind us that wrapping oneself
abundance through the Neolithic
in
in the skins
of animals has always
been an option. Textile finds across Eurasia from the earlier part of the Neolithic are almost uniformly of plant fibres, particularly flax and hemp.
was probably the most widespread plant employed for clothing and, while we have no evidence for its domestication until c. 5000 BC, we do have evidence for linen textiles that precede such a date. This suggests either that people had domesticated the plant earlier Flax, which provides linen,
than present evidence allows or that they used wild flax
They
also exploited
hemp
production of rope and
but, being coarser,
Hemp
sails.
in linen
manufacture.
was more often used
in the
appears with reference to textiles by
about the 5th millennium BC on Neolithic in
it
sites
of the Yangshao culture
northern China but does not appear certainly as a material of texti)e
production also be
West
in the
employed
in the
until
about the
production of
millennium BC. Nettles could
1st
textile fibres
although solid evidence
no earlier than the 1st millennium BC. what is most remarkable is that sheep and goat were already domesticated some 10,000 years ago, possibly earlier. In chronological terms, it means that across Eurasia for a period of several thousand years shepherds, for their use generally dates to
Now
themselves dressed
Not ruped
really
of plant fibres, stood about tending their flocks
in clothes
of sheep and goats.
Were they missing something obvious?
Although our image of a sheep may be that of
(or for those
who occasionally
a
woolly quad-
have to evict sheep from archaeological
excavations, an incredibly stupid woolly quadruped), early Neolithic sheep
were not at
all
The coat on woven
woolly but covered with short, thick, coarse hairs or kemps.
a sheep thus
looked about as inviting for the production of
textiles as that of a deer.
The replacement
of the coarse short
kemps
by a woolly coat was a process that apparently began about 5000 BC and
woolly sheep did not become widespread earliest
appearance of woolly sheep
and neighbouring to the shift
territories
is
in
Eurasia until
3500 BC. The
generally thought to have been in Iran
from which
it
diffused east and west. In addition
from kemps to wool, there was also a
would eventually
c.
loss of
pigmentation which
result in purely white sheep (and wool). This provides a
useful chronological
marker
in the history
of dress: before
c.
can normally expect and do encounter skins and plant-based
3500 BC we fibres,
and
209
Tartans
in
the Tarim
after this period vvc find increasingly greater quantities of
The
woollen
textiles.
archaeologist works to a three-age system: Stone, Bronze and Iron; for
the history of textiles
it is
the
same although
the periods
do not
correlate
with those of the archaeologist: Skin (?-5000 BC), Linen (6000-3500 BC)
and Wool (3500 BC; onwards). The production of woollen fabric may he achieved by a variety of methods. Technologically, the simplest way is by felting. This only requires that one take the animal fibres, such as wool, and lay them out in the shape desired.
Then you wet
the fibres with
warm
the ability of the scaly fibres to tangle with
water or whey, which enhances
one another. Then apply pressure:
repeated beatings, crushings, kneadings, whatever fibres together intt) a ct)herent shape.
If
takes to fuse the woollen
it
decoration
small pieces of coloured material and subject
it
is
required, you can add
to the
same rough treatment
What you get is a textile that is water resistant and well insulated. Felt had many uses such as rugs, wall-coverings and tents, and hence it is very much associated with the pastoral peoples of the Eurasian until
it
also has adhered.
steppelands. hi terms of clothing, facture of protective headgear
When one considers inevitability
was
about the whole thing. Our
Beycesultan
in
typically
the processes by which
2600 BC, the date assigned to at
felt
employed
a felt
felt is
earliest
made, there
would have only been a some of their wool
it
in sheets to
rugs, etc. Felt
evidence dates to about
Ml)
I?/-;-'.-!^
into a
was an almost
inevitable
^7T?y
acci-
form that could occasionally be
consequence of keeping woolly sheep.
122. Plan of
rv'-'-^^
their
be fashioned into coverings such as hats, caps, small
Plan of plain weave.
K--':'^
a striking
some of matter of time before they would
gathered
l3
is
Anatolia. Given the fact that sheep would have to be
dentally trample
727
manu-
rug discovered on the floor of a shrine
occasionally penned up and that they would naturally shed coats,
in the
and stockings.
(^•..'•T^
twill.
Tartans
The main weaver to
alternative to felting
is
weaving on
a
loom. This requires the
of combinations, would run
in a variety
Among the enormous
the Tarim
forming the warp of the
set the threads into a fixed grid, thus
loom. Over and under these threads,
in
weaving patterns, ii'cft. two that we must pay particular attention to. The simplest form of weaving, plcun weave, or tabby, requires one only to pass the thread of the weft over and under each strand of the warp. Such a pattern is as old as the earliest evidence for the weaving of (plant-made) textiles around 7000 BC. A more complicated pattern can he obtained in the
the threads of the
varieties of
there are
production of
This involves,
twill.
itleally (there are
variations
on the theme),
running the weft over two and under two of the strands of the warp but alternating the pattern in each in a
row so that
it is
diagonal rib or alignment of the weave.
different
off-set
The
one
fabric
is
place. This results
not simply visually
from plain weave but because the weft hops over two
rows of the warp,
it
yields a denser fabric. Twill
The
associated with wool and not with linen.
is
(or
more)
almost invariably found
earliest
evidence for twill
is
from Anatolia and dates to the 4th millennium BC. This is followed by evidence from the Caucasus of the early 3rd millennium BC and then, after a considerable chronological gap,
Hallstatt culture in Austria
(c.
we
recover evidence for twill in the
1100-450 BC) and about the same time
in
Ferghana, the land of the 'blood-sweating horses', one of the western
approaches to the Tarim Basin.
Silk
and Cotton
The fabric synonymous with China, silk, derives from the silk worm (Bombyx mori), which is killed by heat within its cocoon so that the silk threads may be extracted before the moth breaks through the strands as it emerges from the cocoon. The earliest remains of such cocoons in an archaeological context come from the Yangshao, the north Chinese Neolithic culture,
5000 BC, but the
c.
2250 BC.
When
silk
is first
of the Shang dynasty
{c.
well developed that one
The Chinese
earliest actual
evidence for
silk
dates to
mentioned on an oracle bone from the
1200 BC)
it
c.
3300-
later part
seems to have become so abundant and
must presume
a long tradition of prior evolution.
aristocracy kept the technique of
its
manufacture secret under
Age contexts Mountains by about 300-250 BC. We have already seen how Han imperial policy employed silk as a bribe to hold off the depredations of the Xiongnu in the first centuries BC. The technique of boiling the cocoons to obtain the unbroken silk fibre from domesticated moths did not reach the West until the 6th century AD and the earlier discoveries of silk in the West, especially those prior to the penalty of death, yet silk
dating to
c.
encountered
in the
600-500 BC and from Pazyryk
opening of the
Silk
wild silkworms. in India,
is
A
West
in Iron
in the Altai
Road, can perhaps be explained by the exploitation of possible exception to
all this is
the development of silk
which may predate any putative contacts between
it
and China.
211
Tartans
in
the Tarim
Finally, brief
earliest in India
mention should be made of cotton which was domesticated
sometime
in the
3rd millennium
according to more recent evidence).
Harappan
civilization
It
is
found
possibly the 4th
BC; (or
Indus Valley or
in the
which maintained trading links
all
over Central Asia
and also with Mesopotamia. Nevertheless, the appearance of cotton outside India seems to be relatively late and it does not generally appear on archaeological sites or 1st
in literary
references beyond
Armed with some rudimentary knowledge to the evidence of the 123.
Baby from
Qawnghul.
its
homeland
until the
millennium BC.
for textiles
also derives
is
Tarim Basin.
not limited to the
We
of textiles,
we can now
turn
might emphasize that the evidence
mummies
but that
much
of our evidence
from burials where only the skeletons have survived.
Second Millennium BC: Qiiwrighul The
earliest attested textile
Xinjiang were discovered
2nd millennium at
BC;
remains
in
at sites of the
such as the cemetery
Qawrighul. As might be expected, the
textiles
from
primitive.
this
There
is
period are the most
no evidence
for seams,
piping, sleeves or trouser legs; dyeing is
limited to very small areas of cloth.
Generally,
all
woollen
textiles are of felt
or employ plain weave.
The 'Beauty
of Kroran' from the Towiin
hood contwo pieces of
River cemetery wore a woollen sisting of an underlay of
dark-brown woollen cloth covered by weather-resistant felt overlay.
a
Her mid-
was made of leather with the warmth and her cloak, which reached to her knees, was plain woven (with extra weft looped in) sheep's wool. Her boots were ankle-high moccasins. The other woman from the same period {c. 1800 BC;) and the Konchi River region wore a similar felt hood and her cloak was a golden-brown woollen length skirt
fur turned to the inside for
wrap consisting of two weave that had (the
strips of plain
been stitched together
loom employed seems
to have been
incapable of producing a piece of cloth
wide enough to cover the woman). The child from the same graveyard was
212
Tartans
in
the Tarim
in a brown and beige woollen The proud mother or grandmother who wove this blanket could
wrapped blanket.
almost be accused of showing off as
it is
a
tour-de-force sampler of different weaves
which changed every few inches.
The
textiles
from Qawrighul are more
We may
than a fashion statement.
recall
that the range of the wild sheep does
not extend as far east as China and the earliest
evidence for sheep
2nd millennium
to the
of woollen textiles
in
China dates
in
BC:.
The presence
the
Tarim Basin
indicates that by the early 2nd millennium
BC domestic sheep from the west (along with domestic wheat, possibly barley)
had been introduced
Whether
it
to the
was introduced by the
ancestors of the Qawrighul
not
is
Tarim Basin. direct
mummies
or
impossible to determine, although
the association of a western physical
humans with
type of
a (more) westerly
domestic livestock suggests
just
such a
conclusion.
While we cannot be certain of the date of a
number
of other
mummies, some
from the same general region may also be discussed here.
The
by Bergman at a
site
mummy
discovered
near Lopnur, which
he numbered Cirave 36, also haci a double-
two feathers and with ear-flaps that could be tied under the chin. The old woman in this grave was enveloped in a large dark brown woollen cloak trimmed with a yellow and red border and fastened layered
felt
on the
left
cap, pegged with side
together with skirt of red
wooden (and one bone)
and undyed woollen
pins.
fringes.
Around her waist was
a string
Her shoes were of rawhide with an
T24.
Hat from Grave 36
near Lopnur.
inner sole of lambskin.
more difficult to discuss unless we presume Bergman at Ordek's necropolis date to approximately the same period on the basis of similar ritual and finds (they may actually be much later). Even here we will not get very far. The mummified young man from Grave 5A, the best preserved of the burials, wore a white felt cap with ear-flaps and five feathers mounted on pegs; it was
Male
dress of this period
is
that the burials excavated by
21.5
Tartans
in
the Tarim
fastened around his chin with a cord. This at least indicates that the 'Robin
Hood' style of headgear was worn by both males and females; whether there was a more subtle 'gender statement' being made in these hats we cannot tell without a greater sample. Certainly unsubtle was the fact that around his waist he wore a narrow loin-cloth (only 5
anchored to
cm
was made out of wool
(2 in)
wide) which had been
was also the large mantle (2.1 m b\ 1.55 m (6 ft 10 in by 5 ft in)) which was wrapped around him. This unfortunately is the only piece of male outer clothing from the area. As such a mantle may have served equally as a shroud, it is difficult to his penis.
It
as
1
be certain
how males
Bergman
actually dressed during this earlier period.
did observe that the young
man was shod
with brand new moccasins of
ox hide.
The
Millennium BC: Zaghuniuq
1st
The recently excavated mummies from Zaghuniuq (near Charchan) indicate new techniques that had appeared in East Central Asia by the 1st millennium BC. The quality of the weaving had improved and now included not only plain weave but twill. The quality of the wool was also superior: it was a fine wool with
To
fit
little
evidence of kemps.
out 'Ur-Da\id\ the gentleman from Zaghuniuq, we can start with
his array of caps
and hats
brown hat was made by in
(he
had ten altogether).
very stylish beret-like
known as nalbinding ('needle binding' made from a single piece of yarn), which knitting. This is one of the earliest known examples the technique
the Scandinavian languages,
gives the
appearance of
of nalbinding in the world. Another
analyzed by Chinese
brown
felt
and
a
mid-seam had
beret
from Qizilchoqa has been
having been knitted;
textile specialists as
be the earliest example of that technique 125 Beret-type hat
A
in the
this
too would
world. Another hat of white
a rolled piece of felt in the front to
form two 'horns'
cartoon viking) and there were two flaps with braided strings
recovered from
(like a
Zaghuniuq.
for fastening the hat to the chin. Still
another hat was made by sewing
together two pieces of thick brown
felt
stitches of white thread to
high (32.7
cm
peak with is
(1
a
ft)),
with neat
form
a very
rakishly tilted
turned-up brim that
also edged with the white
decorative stitches. shirt
His
was crudely form-
fitted:
it
consisted of
two rectangular
bolts of
burgundy coloured wool that were draped over
each shoulder to which were attached tubes to serve as sleeves; the fabric here
214
was plain
Tartans
weave with red piping
m
Also discovered
his
in
the Tarim
alont^ the seams.
tomb was
a bulky,
double-faced twill-weave sweater
made
of
heavy cream-coloured threads; the sleeves
would only have come down
man's
to the
elbows and the low-cut, open neck was tied together
Below
with thread.
his waist the
pair of woollen trousers
man wore and
it
a
might
be noted that a pair of unaccompanied trousers were also recovered from else-
where on the piping were
site.
in
Seams
evidence.
as well as red
He
also
wore
a
multicoloured belt (red, brown, blue, green and yellow) fashioned from
woollen yarn. The
concept of a five-coloured belt
wore and
practice in India whereby brahmins
still
[pjuca-vupj) thread over their shoulder. This
is
reminiscent of the
wear belt,
a five-coloureci
however, did not
126 Homed' hat made of white felt with chin strap: from
Zaghunluq
hold his trousers up but merely fastened the two sides of his upper it was his They were double layered
garment. Deerskin boots rose to his knees but stockings that really caught the eye.
with robin-egg-blue red
felt
underneath for insulation and bright-
and yellow woollen
wound around the outsicle to known in the prehistoric world,
strips
create the loudest socks
although they would have been entirely covered by his bot)ts.
One more garment
is
to be associated with his
- an enormous outer coat made of extremely thick brown thread which was set about 80 cm
dress
(2 ft
7
in)
from the surface of the grave and
served to protect the lower
tomb
(ill.
felt
128).
On
chamber of the it was a white
top of
blanker on which
turn were
in
placed a leather sacldle and a simple,
round-based black
jar.
The
saddle
and trousers go together while Westerners
may look
ancient Greece or the
home
well:
Rome
to for
of their philosophies,
laws and literature they have aciopted the costume of horseriding barbarians
who,
for practical
(and obvious) reasons, developed trousers. It
might be noted that the ancient Greeks mocked the concept of trousers,
suggesting that close-fitting pants repressed the sexual abilities of their
127. Tall
peaked hat
of brown
felt
with
white stitching, from
northern neighbours!
Zaghunluq.
215
Tartans
in
the Tarim
i
128 The coat of Vr-David'.
The woman accompanying 'Ur-David' wore
a finely
dark red that reached to her calves. This was perfect that
it
a
woven
twill
almost had a sheen and would no doubt fetch a large sum
produced today. Under her knee-high boots of white deerskin her
was wrapped
in red
wool
flannel
possible fashion statement that
and her
now
right in yellow
legs
One
of the other
were covered with
spirals.
The excavator
weave with red
The
women
in
left
if
foot
and sky blue,
a
escapes us (of course, textiles were
'women's work' so we must presume she had quite worn).
robe of
marvellous garment, so
the
tomb wore
a yellow- (or white?-)
a bit of say in a
what was
dark-red dress and her
dyed woollen cloth with red
also recovered a blue shawl of loosely spaced plain
stripes.
infant buried next to this tomb, 'Baby Blue', with the fluffy blue
bonnet and blue stones over
its
eyes,
wore
a
red-brown plain-weaxe shroud
or baby blanket which was then wrapped in a white
felt
was found on the man's
dress.
Moreover, the same kinds of thick strings of
twisted blue and red strands that
bound
the hands of 'Ur-David' to his chest
were used to bind up the baby's wraps. This seems to be clothing was
made
The same brown wool,
blanket.
beautiful, rich shade, probably achieved by applying red dye to
by the same
woman who,
a family
whose
not unexpectedly, produced
colour-coordinated textiles for members of the same family In the
more
recently excavated 'sacrificial' burials at
the tripartite mature
woman,
woman),
woman wore
the mature
Zaghunluq (with
the 'Scream Baby' and the mutilated younger a beautiful violet-purple
upper garment
and a coarsely woven greyish lower garment. The baby was dressed
amazing brown shroud decorated with
216
red strips
in
an
on which were tie-dyed
a
Tartans
scries of yellow circles.
baby's
mouth shut
A
Irene Ck)od analyzed burials.
The extremely
the site and
Good
yellow woollen headh>\nd u.is
(the family of 'Ur-David' used a
employed
burgundy
in
the tarim
to tie the
strap).
one additional piece of fabric from the Zaghunluc] fine thread suggests the possibility of
cashmere on
points out that goat skulls are associated with one of the
Zaghunluq burials. To this we might add a large quantity of spindlewhorls, some of which were ornamented with interlocking spirals.
Tartans at Qizilchoqa Although dating to about the same period as Zaghunluq, the cemetery Qizilchoqa to the northeast near
Hami
far-reaching historical connections have been suggested. of the Qizilchoqa cemetery
is
at
yielded different weaves for which
problematic: the
initial
The
precise date
dates placed
it
at
about
1200 BC, contemporary with the later period of the Yanbulaq culture, but a
new radiocarbon date of
c".
8(){)-530 Bc; suggests that
Tort Erik (Sidaogou) culture. The abundant evidence a variety of clothes, including
it
woollen robes with coloured belt bands and
fur coats (the fur turned inside) with integrated gloves,
wooden buttons
(ill.
130).
belongs to the later
for dress here revealed
But our main story
lies
which fastened with
with the woollen
textiles.
729 Robe from Qizilchoqa with a
belt.
217
Tartans
in
the Tarim
Irene Ciood
made 6
examination of
a detailed
fragment (15
a textile
hy 4
in
em
The main weave
cm
by 10 the
frt)m
in))
site.
here was
normal diagonal
twill (pi.
X) bur the decoration
in-
voked the production of plaid, the same type of technique
decorative
one might expect on Scottish tartan
(pi.
a
XI). This
mvolved the weaving of wide and narrow colour-strips on both
warp and
the weft
and here the
employed were threads of
urs
blue,
te
and brown, each thread made
of
some
to 40 fibres.
,•>()
The white
d brown thread are natural while e blue
thread
dyed. This small
is
has been invested with
trip of cloth
iea\y historical implications.
As we have seen, the twills
known
region between Turkey
Caucasus where
and
the\'
130. Fur coat (with the fur
turned inwards) and
integral gloves
arly at the site of Hallstatt.
occasionally themselves)
from ,^^i,^^.^_
Qizilchoqa.
^^
^,^^.
Here miners
in
left
Bc; in
the
millennium
are
abundance from the millennium
the
^n^.\
the\ are dated
to the late 4th-3rd 1)C\
earliest
derive from
found late
m
2nd
Europe, particul-
residues of their clothing (and,
the protective environment of Austrian salt
Hallstatt culture occupied a territorv which classical authors
would associate with Celts only
a
few centuries
later,
it is
generally
presumed
that the miners here (and the warriors and others buried in the neighbouring
cemetery) were also Celts or Proto-Ck'lts. The easternmost finds of
dating from the centuries around 1000 B(
(or
fragment from Qizilchoqa and many others
like
(some very Scottish looking); true into the
1st
millennium
Al).
twills are
The Qi/ilchoqa
somewhat it
from the same cemetery
unknown twill
twill,
later), are the
is
in
China
until well
\irtuall\ identical to
the textile fragments recovered from Hallstatt with respect to both style and
technique (hence one of the arguments employed by the tabloid press for placing kilted Celts
in
the
Tarim
Basin).
We
are not talking simply of the
diffusion of a particular weaving and colour pattern. As Hiizabeth Barber writes: 'the regular
combination of plaids and
twills in the
the similar pla\ of wides and narrows in the plaids
218
move
same
cloth and
us into a border
Tartans
^
/one where
sum
ir's
total as aeeidentaP.
There
is
also a
similarity in the weight of eloth.
and
Qi7.ilchoc]a materials, for
;
;
colours while the Qizilchocja
used
six colours. In addition,
there are even differences
Tarim
plaicls
plaids. Irene
Good
among
the
has noted that
the weaving traditions of
Zaghunluq
$
i
*
-Vt^ \
•
S5«.\ \
>.
•
. >.
^
J.,.:-
*
'
»•,
•*• .-
* i
.
a different '
'
'^
5 s :*.
.
warp rather two as found at
over three stems of the
than the more typical
.-^^
** -
".
;
V
> N > s s
>\
';
k
,
*
*•
*.
*
^
•*'N*W-
-,•''* .•:->.
«
••
•-
••..
V
-
i
5
;
^;
s •-
^.
.
S
•*
•
s s
between the Huropean and East Central
•.
«•
VI
:-
>
s ^
\
•;
>«.fc»r"^
?
"•-'::
Qizilchoqa. in weighing the similarities
«»
^ N
^
'•
.,
"
^
.
i*.
•.
•v^,.
r/yy y/fy//// /yyyyy yyyyy /A
%«»^.»»^>>>>;»!«
nryyyryyyyy^
Yyf^^a^^
163.
A
pot
(A)
footed bowl
and
(B)
from Keremchi, and a typical pot (C)
and censer
(D)
from
the Afanasevo culture.
307
Who Were
the
Mummies?
Nevertheless,
if
the similarities with the Afanasevo and subsequent cultures
can he translated into dates, the evidence provides additional support for the expansion of a steppe-derived culture into East Central Asia by the
2nd millennium and
Bt;.
Keremchi burials are found also
as far south as Uriuiichi
and the Yanbulaq
in the
southern Altai
culture.
Splitting the Differences
We
must reconcile ourselves
to the fact that the earliest
Bronze Age culture,
possibly the earliest farmers, in East Central Asia were representatives neither
of the Afanasevo culture nor of the
Afanasevo boasts
earlier dates
BMAC
per
se.
Of
the
two
cultures, the
and more mobile antecedents. So
far
it
reflects
the earliest evidence for the exploitation of domestic animals in the
steppelands far east of the Urals. To connect the earliest Bronze Age settlement of East Central Asia with the Afanasevo culture would seem to require one of the following models.
One might propose
that there
was an
earlier
common
source for both
the Afanasevo and Qawrighul cultures that spread across Kazakhstan
eastwards to the Yenisei and southeastwards into the Tarim Basin. early such a
phenomenon might be
Afanasevo dates would carry rassingly early given
its
is
constrained by the fact that the earliest
this culture
back to
supposed antecedents
in
c.
3500
B(;
(already embar-
the west) and so
have to envisage a spread of stockkeepers eastwards during the the 4th millennium BC. This agricultural expansion
is
is
1
64. Hypothesis of a
source for
both the Afanasevo
and Qawrighul The
common
would
cultures
source
ultimately
lie
west of the Urals but a staging area for both cultures in Kazakhstan IS
purely conjectural.
308
we would
first
half of
not impossible but evidence for such an
not supported by archaeological data and
of cultures east of the Urals that date to the 4th millennium
common
How
we know
BC; that are
Who Were
clearly ;zon-agricultural. Unless the archaeological picture of alters radically (a possibility since there
common source for both
is still
so
the
Mummies?
Kazakhstan
much unknown) an
the Afanasevo and Qawrighul cultures
is
earlier
probably
not the preferred option.
and stockbreeding
Alternatively, the spread of agriculture
which
is
indicated by the Afanasevo culture
movement south
into East Central Asia.
lations such as the
may have
If
this
to the east
also seen a subsequent
were the case, then popu-
Qawrighul culture would either have had
to have
abandoned the deposition of pottery in graves (as is well known in the Afanasevo and later Andronovo cultures) or possibly to have neglected the manufacture of pottery altogether and replaced it by organic containers (basketry
highly developed at Qawrighul). This latter situation
is
unheard of and
Age
in Ireland
is
is
not
encountered, for example, at the transition to the Iron
and western
Britain.
But neither settlement of the steppelands
of the Minusinsk Basin nor the uplands of the Altai should have prepared
such newcomers for the environmental regime of the Tarim Basin:
how
could
mixed stockkeepers and farmers from the north have successfully developed the irrigation agriculture required to exploit the oases of East Central Asia? It is
this
need to develop an irrigation-based economy that turns our
attention westwards back to West Central Asia, specifically Bactria and
Margiana, where we have seen that developed by
c.
2000
BC".
of a direct import of the
a very successful oasis
But we have also seen that so far there
economy was is
no question
BMAC into the Tarim Basin and the parallels tend
to be general rather than specific.
The
case for external influences improves
markedly between the Tarim Basin and the west, specifically between the
Tarim Basin and Ferghana, in the later 2nd millennium BC, a time after the initial settlement of the Tarim by Bronze Age farmers. For this reason we have an incongruity between a burial rite and material culture that may be derived from the steppelands and an irrigation
from the agricultural oases of Central Asia.
economy
that should derive
How can these two very different
components be reconciled? Our most obvious recourse is the structure of relationships between the steppe populations and those of the oasis communities. We have already seen in West Central Asia that steppe tribes could settle and adopt irrigation agriculture. But in West Central Asia, where we witness such phenomena, this symbiosis always occurs where we have prior agricultural settlement. This is not a model that we can easily transfer to East Central Asia since we have no substantial evidence for agricultural settlements prior to the establishment of the Bronze Age, nor can
we demonstrate
that the physical
type associated with such an intrusion of farmers predates those from the
northern steppelands. To prepare a 'northern steppe culture' for life in the Tarim Basin, we might expect that it first came into contact with one of the existing West Central Asian oasis-based cultures before it arrived in East Central Asia.
Some
linguistic evidence
may support
just
such a hypothesis.
i09
Who
Were the Mummies?
The
We
Linguistic Stratigraphy of Tocharian
have seen in the preceding sections that one of the
correct ordering of our evidence, be influences.
The problem
it
now
before us
critical issues
is
the
that of populations or archaeological is
arranging
in correct
chronological
order the different prehistoric languages spoken in the Tarim Basin. Various
accompany such an
degrees of difficulty the primary goal
exercise but from our perspective
to arrange correctly the relationship
is
between the
Tocharian and Iranian languages as these are the languages most have served as the vernaculars of
its
As we have already seen, every language contains something of cultural history in
vocabulary.
its
likely to
prehistoric populations.
Some
its
own
of the vocabulary will be inherited
from Proto-Indo-European, some will be new words created from older inherited elements. These do not hold the same interest for us here that loanwords do, since borrowed vocabulary, particularly diacritic cultural
may point to the time and place of foreign contacts. As we have remarked before, Chinese appears to have had a very minimal impact on the Tocharian language. To be sure, we have the odd loanword,
vocabulary,
e.g.
Tocharian klu
names
for units of
toil'), all
'rice'
from Old
measurement,
Sinitic e.g.
'"ghw (modern Chinese dao) and
tow
sank,
{- 10 sank) and cak (= 10
transparently from Chinese. But the impact here
culturally predictable
and comparatively
is
minimal,
recent. Otherwise, there
is
no
evidence that the Tocharians gained their vocabulary for the native flora
and fauna of the Tarim Basin from
earlier
Chinese inhabitants, nor do they
appear to have gained their agricultural vocabulary from
this source.
This
lends additional support to the argument that the Chinese were both
latecomers into the Tarim Basin and did not have a significant impact until relatively late in the
Now many
easternmost regions.
of the other loanwords found in Tocharian are connected
with the religious and social
life
associated with
Buddhism and hence
the
sources here are Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, Prakrits and other Indie languages, occasionally perhaps filtered through Iranian intermediaries.
These may be
enough associated with the
easily
relatively late spread of
Buddhism among already established populations, both Tocharian and Iranian-speaking.
number of loanwords in Tocharian would appear to derive from Saka or some other East Iranian language and these fill out a larger semantic range. In some instances they appear to have been loanwords associated with exchange, e.g. Tocharian B pito 'price' may derive from Saka plha- 'price', and Tocharian A pare, Tocharian B peri 'debt' would be derived By
far the greatest
from Saka
plra- 'that
which
is
to be paid'.
There are other words which
might also be assigned to the general realm of commerce, e.g. units of weight and measure. Iranian military terms also had an impact on Tocharian and
when one considers
depictions
in
Buddhist temples of Tocharian knights
kitted out like Sassanians with long swords,
310
one might
recall that the
Who
Tocharian B word for sword, kerttc, language, filling
our similar political contexts,
A
kJkmiirtik
Tocharian word for related in
'iron'
some way
'ruler'.
e.g.
It
is
kamirdo
'head', 'chief (god) gives
also important to note that the
(Tocharian enctiivo or ancii) would appear to be
to Iranian (Ossetic). In
some
instances the loanwords
are connected with exotic animals, e.g. Tocharian
Saka mitya-
some East Iranian
derived from
Avestan karata- 'dagger'. Bactrian also supplied loanwords
e.g.
Tocharian
is
Were the Mummies?
'tiger',
B mewiyo
'tiger'
from
or Tocharian B eksinek- 'pigeon' which seems related
to Saka assanaka- 'pigeon'. By difficult linguistically to
and
make any
large, however,
it
would be exceedingly
case for the temporal priority of Saka in
Tarim Basin with respect to Tocharian. Of the approximately 25 or 30 loanwords, most could be easily explained as later borrowings passed between communities along the Silk Road connected with the rise of urban or Buddhist institutions. Most importantly, there is no evidence that the vocabulary of agriculture in the Tarim Basin specifically derives from Saka. the
Asses, Canals and Bricks
Although Saka and Sogdian are the attested in the
earliest of the Iranian
languages directly
Tarim Basin, there are some Iranian loanwords
in
Tocharian
that may derive from a still earlier period. Two of these have only come to light in the form of a Tocharian B text that documents the
of an estate. Within the text there canal'
and the
arte^
boundary. Douglas are early loans
is
that can serve as an estate
has recently suggested that both of these words
from an East Iranian language
(or proto-language) and, while
how
these loans could have taken
there are a
number of ways
place, only
one
is
to explain
not problematic. As irrigation agriculture
of agriculture that one can practise
how
transfer
reference to the orotsa newiya 'great
some form of watercourse
Adams
recently
in the
Tarim Basin,
is
it is
the only type
difficult to see
the Tocharians could have eked out a living there before they
knew
of
and Tocharians both arrived same time, the Iranians passing onto the Tocharians the technology of agriculture before the latter had starved to death. The simplest explanation would be to place the Iranians in position first and then have the Tocharians, largely pastoralists, wander in and adopt agriculture; this is precisely the type of pattern we have earlier encountered in West Central Asia where steppe pastoralists moved into the oases and adopted the irrigation.
It is
also unlikely that the Iranians
at precisely the
agricultural techniques of the earlier inhabitants. But, as
seen,
we do not
really have typically
West Central Asian
we have
already
BMAC
farmers
occupying the Tarim Basin, nor does our review of the physical evidence suggest that populations from West Central Asia arrived
Turpan basins
earlier
than those from the north.
None
in the
Tarim and
of our usual models
will do.
Adams
suggests that the most convenient explanation would involve
the adoption of irrigation techniques and East Iranian terminology by the
311
Who Were
the
Mummies?
Tocharians en route to their historical those archaeologists
BMAC
in
who
This model would
seats.
have noted that while there
fit
nicely for
no evidence
is
for the
East Central Asia, certain similarities between the Yanbulaq
culture and that of the
BMAC do suggest some form of
mediating culture,
Andronovo type. We may moved from the steppe, through the Altai and Tangri Tagh, and south into the Jungghar, Tarim and Turpan basins, settling in the oases of the latter two to engage in irrigation presumably
a
more mobile pastoral
culture of the
suggest then that Tocharian populations
agriculture. It
might be objected that no one entering the Tarim and Turpan basins
who had likely to
make
to
way through
the surrounding
mountain passes
is
have carried the techniques and vocabulary of irrigation agriculture
with them. This
word
their
is
not a serious objection as the underlying East Iranian
we find borrowed into Tocharian may also mountainous regions where it is known in Sarikoli, one of the
for 'irrigation canal' that
be found
in
Pamir languages related northwest of India
words connected with
and cognates are also known
to Saka,
in the
Nuristani and Dardic languages. That
irrigation can be
approaches to East Central Asia
Of
problem before us but
if
perhaps present
common
found on the western mountainous
at least suggests the possibility that
Tocharian speakers passing through terms and techniques.
in the far
this region
course, a western entry
East Iranians were
in the Altai as well,
it
in
could have adopted such
would not
occupation
might provide
really solve the
in
Ferghana and
a plausible route for
northern steppe peoples southwards into East Central Asia.
Another
instructive piece of evidence
Tocharian B kercapo which gardahha-.
If
this
is
a
is
is
the Tocharian
word
for the ass,
universally agreed to be related to
borrowing,
it is
a very early
Old
Indie
one when the underlying
Proto-Indic and Proto-Tocharian was something like "'gordebhos.
form
in
Now
such a form could just as well be Proto-Indo-European and so
we
are
not dealing with some word borrowed from the period of Buddhist
word ''gordebhos should have been 2nd millennium BC or earlier. We are uncertain as to whether the original word referred to the domestic ass or the wild onager, and was then transferred to the domestic ass. The ass was originally domesticated in North Africa and then expanded into Mesopotamia by the 4th millennium BC, spreading from there both northwards and eastwards; its first appearance in northwest India is around 2000
expansion
in
circulating
among
BC.
On
East Central Asia; a
peoples
in the
the other hand, the so-called 'half-ass' or onager ranged across the
and south into Central Asia and northern India. Whatever the meaning of the word, the linguistic evidence suggests some form of contact between Tocharians and Indo-lranians long before the opening of the Silk Road and the spread of Buddhism. We have already seen that one of the cultural features that tends to link the prehistory of East Central Asia with that of West Central Asia is to be seen in the use of mud bricks in domestic and funerary architecture. Of
entire steppe
original
312
Who
interest then
the fact that Tocharian iscem 'clay'
is
would appear
Old
to Avestan istyam 'brick', zamoistva- 'clay-tile'.
and Khowar
Were the Mummies?
to be related
Indie istakd 'brick',
northeast hido-Aryan language) ustu 'sun-dried brick', 'large
(a
clod of earth'. This would again point to either a loan from a very early stage of hido-lranian or the mutual inheritance by both language stocks of a
common So
eastern hido-European proto-form
far the linguistic evidence
is
'''isti-
'clay', 'brick'.
hardly overwhelming, but
it
does hint at
contacts between Tocharians and Indo-Iranians prior to the spread of
Buddhism
East (Central Asia. These contacts need not have been
in
particularly intense
we were
and we would be giving
to portray the Proto-Tocharians as
a very mistaken impression
if
wandering nomads who only
learned their agriculture from settled Proto-Indo-Iranians. To be sure, they entered the Tarim Basin with their livestock whose Indo-European
were retained,
Tocharian B
e.g.
ke^^,
okso,
a^^
names
and stnvo are cognate with the
English words 'cow', 'ox', 'ewe' and 'sow' respectively.
They
also retained at
B and words for the basic agricultural pursuits of ploughing, sowing, threshing and grinding. The ancestors of the Tocharians were already mixed farmers (agropastoralists) and were not ignorant of cereals before they entered the Tarim Basin, nor did they require contact with Indo-Iranians to learn about least
one of the inherited Indo-European words
tano from a
farming.
late
One
Proto-Indo-European
for 'grain' (Tocharian
''dhoh-j^neh^j-),
curious word, Tocharian B kanti 'some form of bread'
possibly related to Indo-lranian words for 'wheat'
(e.g.
Khotanese Saka ganama) and Hittite kant- 'wheat'. Although
common word
been a
in the eastern
is
Avestan gantuma-,
Indo-European world,
this it is
may have generally
taken to be a loanword from some Near Eastern language that spread
through Asia.
Finally,
one other feature should be noted: there
is
no evidence
of the Indo-lranian languages adopting Tocharian words; our loanwords
only seem to go
So
far then
in
one direction.
we have found recurring evidence
(?)Proto-Europoid
one follows the typological school)
(if
= steppe = = Tocharian; and
that north
west = oasis = Indo-Afghan/Pamir-Ferghanoid (or Hemphill's Bactrian-
Alwighul-Kroran group) = Indo-lranian. Before we pat ourselves on the back
it is
The
about time we get a grip on things and have an 'assumption
alert'.
as Proto-Tocharians
hangs on our identification of the northern intruders and not some form of Indo-Iranians. But we have
already seen that the
BMAC
logic of
all this
is
early Indo-lranian identity; the
not the only culture to which
Andronovo
culture and
we
some of
assign an
its
western
neighbours on the European steppe are also widely regarded as Indo-lranian. Indeed,
we have
given strong reasons to believe that the Indo-Iranians were
originally steppe peoples themselves
of West Central Asia.
And we
who came
dominate the oasis culture
have also seen that the Qiiwrighul physical
type might he related to that of the liberty to
to
Andronovo
culture.
One
is
at perfect
propose the equation: north = steppe (Andronovo) = Proto-
Europoid = Indo-lranian. The Occam's razor we employed
earlier to
313
Who
Were the Mummies?
separate Tocharians and Indo-Iranians has suddenly
instrument indeed.
It is
time
we played
become
a very dull
the Afanasevo card.
The Afanasevo Card: The Short Trek
We
have worked our way into a logical corner but at least we have some
notion of what type of device
We
predicament.
it
is
going to take to extract us from our
have the Tocharians
in
the northern and, accepting the
Kroranian evidence, southeastern part of the Tarim Basin by the of the
We
millennium AD.
1st
should have been there at least by the of Buddhism) and
first
half
have set out arguments to indicate that they 1st
we have seen why
millennium BC (before the spread
it is
easier to derive
them from the
north than from any other direction (although we must admit that Iranians
might also have come from
this
same
direction). Furthermore,
we know
from our examination of the separation of the various Indo-European stocks that there are
no particular reasons
to associate Tocharian genetically
We
closely with Indo-Iranian than with any other stock.
reviewed the linguistic evidence and seen that opinion tends to be
between assigning Tocharian
its
among
closest relations
and arguing that
more
have already split
various European
separated from the other
stocks (Germanic, Greek,
etc.)
Indo-European stocks
such an early date that there are no grounds to
presume
it
was
a large part of
a close
at
it
neighbour of any other Indo-European group during
early development. Either way, the Tocharians are clearly
its
not part of the greater Indo-Iranian superstock and so, for linguistic reasons,
we
will prefer
any model that keeps some distance between them and the
other stocks throughout a considerable part of their early evolution.
come
On
the
when they had already emerged as an independent stock, presumably sometime after 2500-2000 BC. It is most likely that it was during the early part of the 2nd millennium BC that Proto-Tocharians came into contact with already settled other hand, they did
into contact with the Indo-Iranians
Indo-Iranians and borrowed a few terms and techniques relating to irrigation agriculture, brickwork
From demands
and possibly the domestic
an archaeological perspective, one is
way
ass.
to
accommodate
all
these
to regard the Proto-Tocharians as an offshoot of the Afanasevo
culture of the Altai-Yenisei region. As
we have already
seen,
it
displays
genetic connections with the cultures of the European steppelands (and
hence might represent the eastern extreme of an Indo-European linguistic
continuum) but
it
was also
isolated
from the other steppe cultures with the
European steppe and and then replacing it. If an offshoot of the Afanasevo culture moved southwards into East Central Asia in the centuries around 2000 BC, it could hardly have avoided contact with Indo-Iranians of some sort just to its west and it may thus have adopted the rudiments and some of the vocabulary of irrigation agriculture from them. It would then have moved into the northern and southeastern Tarim Basins where it established later
Andronovo
the Yenisei River
314
culture filling the gap between the
Who Were
itself,
the
Mummies?
with marked cultural change and adaptations, and continued until
the historical expansion of the Uyghurs.
model the Proto-Tocharians moved south from the Altai region in about 2000 Bc: to settle in the northern Tarmi and the southeast (Kroriinian). Subsequent movements of populations from the north may have carried Iranian speakers into the Tarim Basin as well but they never achieved linguistic ascendancy in the north and east. The Saka, however, entered the In this
Tarim from the west during the 1st millennium BC and established themselves in the northwest of the Tarim and in the south at Khotan. How does such a model work geographically?
165. Northern
approaches
to East Central Asia lead
at the map of the approaches to the Tarim Basin then the would be from the northwest towards the southeast, i.e. from territories that may have once been part of the Indo-Iranian chain of languages of West Central Asia to the Altai southeast into the land of our If
we look
natural route
earliest
mummies. To
this day, the best passes for entering the
Jungghar
one
into the eastern
end of the
its
northwest side where one can skirt the
forbidding centre of the basin and move along the southwestern mountain slopes to the south. This
>^^'
would bring northern immigrants through
a funnel
from the
Afanasevo culture would carry
one through lands
occupied
Basin from the north are along
Tarim Basin.
A movement
(later)
Andronovo
by the
culture
before arriving
in
the
Tanm region
vaSevDl
(r=^
^m
a? ^/
I
y\ua"^
O c \n the Kroranian document). According to him this con-
Agnean
firms that the source of the
preted as a 'Kuchean
woman"
(if
related to Sanskrit istlkJ) or a
member first
of
a
Brahmin family
isciike
is
has been regarded as equivalent to
ktisitirie
'Kuchean" thus securing,
Kuchean language
itself,
in the
the equation
between Sanskrit tokharika, i.e. a 'real" Tocharian (of Bactria), and a Kuchean. We also have a Tocharian B text that glosses 'Tocharian' with 'Kuchean', thus
that they both regarded them-
Tocharian (KA) and as Chinese historical
selves as 'Tocharian'.
To (1)
these equations
word was
we may add
that
'Tocharian' was widely used before
tradition derives
Buddhism from the
Yuezhi (Kushans), this further secures the
= Kushan = Tocharian
text
this
equation
us only
tells
is
what the
Turks (Uyghurs) called the language of it
(or themselves).
It
possible, for
is
example, that the Indie original of the Maitreyasamiti was
first
translated into
"toxri (some Iranian language)
and
only then translated into Tocharian
A
and Turkic (Winter, pers. com). 3. As for the St Petersburg document, kucatine reveals an a where we would expect
;,
i.e.
k"sinne 'Kuchean', there-
fore, there are
the
kucanne
grounds to doubt that = Kuchean (Winter
suggests that the referent here
may
be 'Kushan' although this requires one
and after our Kuchean-Agnean (KA) documents for peoples and places in East Central Asia (and not just Bactria), and (2) if we follow the Chinese equation and
equation Yuezhi
usage of
as 'the four Tuyaristan' (e.g. Persian
'Tocharian woman', and yet the Toch-
cahar tuyaristan, Sogdian
arian equivalent iscake
Yuezhi
Bactria), there
is
for
Tocharian
(of
persistent evidence for
(KA) language.
We
should note here the issue of the
political entity of the
to explain
why
the L'yghurs were inter-
ested in a people
Tarim Basin known (adj.)
ctfi'r
who had
existed a
millennium before). More importantly, the Sanskrit
word
clearly refers to a
is
either a
333
On
the Tocharian Problems
masculine or neuter noun,
i.e.
It
frus-
any attempt to translate the word
trates
'woman". While we cannot be absolutely certain what 'the four Tuyaristan' refers
both Sanskrit "white",
as
brilliant
4.
family
to, there
is
some evidence
that
it
may
be equated with the 'Four Garrisons' of
Tang dynasty and
the
as these
sviti-
and Avestan
'brilliant",
ones",
Iranian
the
cf.
who were
sfnti-
=
k"ci
i.e.
'the
royal
expected to possess
solar brilliance, the Avestan x'-'argnah-.
The equation
phonologically possible
is
but there are serious problems: 'kwiti-
not attested
is
in the
1 )
(
a root
Tocharian
mendicant' and when modiit refers to Sanskrit and not Tocharian A. According to D. Q. Adams, it is more 'religious
fying a language
Agneans called themselves what all our other sources call them, something like "akhi which could derive from a Proto-Tocharian \jke 'end', likely that the
included Qashqiir and Khotan, both of
languages although there are several
'limit", i.e.
which would have spoken an Iranian rather than a KA language, it is
other words for 'white' or
of Qarashahar were the 'borderers',
difficult
how
see
to
reference
this
the genitive of Kuci
word
that the
supports the equation of Tocharian -
plural,
KA
bright ones';
Tarim Basin. The argument of many of the objections concerns either the rejection of in the
phonological equations as spurious, or imprecision of any ethnic term
the
regarding Kushan, Yuezhi,
etc.,
because
these words were regularly re-applied
\n other
'gold"
example,
For
Kucheans were Buddhists and Buddhism the Tocharians/ Kushans, therefore the Kucheans were Tocharians/ Kushans, or Kushans in East Central Asia adopted the name 'Yuezhi' because this equation already existed in Chinese tradition (and not because the Kushans
came from
felt
themselves ethnically or linguistically
'Yuezhi', whatever that meant).
A
doc-
ument from Dunhuang, dating to AD 966, indicates, for example, that the state between Khocho and Kucha, i.e. the state centred on the town of Yanqi (Agni), was known also as Yuezhi. One
Kuci cannot refer to 'the
i.e.
(3)
while 'the brilliant ones"
makes sense as an ethnonym, it does not name; and (4) although the Chinese referred to the royal house of Kucha as 'Bo', the recurrent element of the Kuchean royal names was Sanskrit Suvarna 'gold", i.e. Tocharian B Ysasse.
and may have made any number of interpositions.
Kuciii indicating
singular rather than
is
words, the
and not
tie-in
should be with
'white".
What did the Agneans call themselves? Some propose that the native name for Agni (Chinese Yanqi), the region of Qarashahar where Tocharian
A
been recovered,
texts have
that this ones'.
A
word
Arsi and
is
also indicates 'shining
A
Tocharian
text refers to arsi-
kiintw-d, literally 'in the Arsi-tongue'.
Some
from an earlier on the same root that provides Sanskrit drjuna- and Latin jrgentum 'silver'. Two Old Turkish inscriptions from Mongolia (Kiil-Tegin and Bilga Qayan) from stelae that date to the period around ad 732-735 both linguists derive arsi
''argeyes
which
built
is
refer to the
to this territory even after the departure
which, the stelae suggest, were located
and thereby
Greater Yuezhi
the
associate the Yuezhi with territory in
which we
Or this
later recover
could merely
KA
manuscripts.
reflect the
tendency
of the Chinese to label ethnic minorities
whose cultures had been heavily influenced by Buddhism as Yuezhi. The claims and counter-claims concerning the equation Tocharian
= KA continue
with no clear sign of major agreement.
Two
additional problems, the
designation
of
the
Agneans, require comment as
What selves?
state
We have seen
=
MSM
''kuw-dzi.
well.
did the Kucheans call them-
was Kuci
k^ci)
self-
and
Kucheans
The
that the
name
of the
Tocharian B Qiuci = early medieval
(or '"Kusi, in
adjective
is
kiisinrie, e.g.
kusinn oroccepi lante yaitkorsa 'by the order of the great king of Kucha'. As the
Chinese name for the royal house of the
Kucheans was Bo sought to derive plural
334
'white", linguists have
fe"c';
from
kuitcyes which
is
a
nominative
cognate with
'marchers", the type of
we
ethnonym which
find elsewhere in Europe, e.g. Ukraine
('beyond the borders") or Old English Mercia ('the Marches').
toquz
tirsin 'the
nine Arsin'
where we would expect the Arsi,
just
in
the vicinity of Qarashahar.
Although
equation
this
logically possible,
almost
all
is
phono-
the points
proposed can be challenged because (1) the underlying form is not attested in either Tocharian language (although extensions of the same root underlie
Tocharian
B arkwi);
A
arki 'white' and Tocharian
Tocharian word
possible that the
is
it
(2)
is
singular rather than
plural as the interpretation seems to
demand and,
if
so,
it
fails for
the
same
reasons given in our discussion of Kucha; (3) all
external references to the
Agnean
kingdom show
a hard velar (kig) (i.e. Khotanese Argi, Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Agnidesa) and never the s demanded by the proposed equation with J«;; and (4) the assumption that the jr5(-tongue refers to Tocharian A is rejected by most Tocharian specialists
who
see
it
as a translation of Buddhist
Hybrid Sanskrit Jrxa-
Further Reading H. W., 1970 'Tokharika", /oi(r>M/ of the Royal Asnitic Society, 121-122. Bailey, H. w!, 1936 'Ttaugara', BSOS 8, Bailey,
883-921.
Haloun, G.
can then argue that the Yuezhi held on of
the people occupying the area
as a place
exocentrically by the Chinese and Turks,
logical
is
'brilliant'; (2)
in
the
meaning of
19^"^
'Zur Ue-tsi-Frage',
ZDMG 91, 243-318. Henning, W.
B., 1938 'Argi and the "Tocharians"", BSOS 9, 3, 545-571. Henning, W. B., 1949 'The name of the
"Tokharian" language'.
Asm Major
1,
158-163.
Henning, W. B., 1978 'The first hidoEuropeans in history', In Society and History, Essays in Honor of Karl August Wittfogel, ed. G. L. Ulmen, 215-230. The Hague, Mouton. Konow, S., 1933 'War "Tocharisch" die Sprache der Tocharer?', Asia Major 9, 455-466. Miiller, ¥. W. K., 1918 'Toxri und Kuisan (Kiisan)",
SBAW,
566-586.
K W. K. and E. Sieg., 1916 'Maitrisimit und "Tocharisch"",
Mtiller,
.S'BAVV,
395-417. Narain, A. K., 198^ 'On the "first" IndoEuropeans: The Tokhanan-Yuczhi and their Chinese homeland". Papers on Inner Asia, No. 2, Bloomington, Indian, 1-28. P., 1934 'Tokharien et koutcheen", Journal Asiatujue 224, 23-106. Sieg, E., 1918 'F'lii einheimischer Name fur Toxn", SBAW, 560-565. Sieg, E., 1937 'Und dcnnoch
Pelliot,
"Tocharisch"", Sieg, E.
and W.
SBAW,
130-139.
Siegling., 1908
'Tocharisch, die Sprache der
Indoskythcn",
Thomas, W.,
SBAW,
915-932.
1981 'Zu skt. tokharika
seiner Entsprcchung
ini
und
Tocharischen",
/CZ95, 126-133. W, 1984 'Zur tocharischen Entsprcchung von skt. tokharika'
Winter,
.
KZ
97, 131-1.53.
Wylie, T.
v.,
1962 The Geography of
Tibet according to the 'Dzam-GlindRgyas-Bshad. Serie Orientate Roma 25, Rome, Istituto Italiano per il medio ed cstremc) oriente.
Xu Wcnkan 19% 'The Tocharians and Buddhism", Studies in Central and East Asian Religions 9: 1-1^.
TWO
APPENDIX
All d.itcs .irc i.,ilibr,uc-2.?(); aiiJ h.lscJ
to 'H",. proh.tliilit> oni|ilo\
LolMiou
l.jh.
No.
int;
Mjtcrnil
on d.ua
sets
of
C^.ilihr.itioii
Stiiivcr,
a laboratory error factor ot
Rcimcr
l'ioi;r.im Ri.\ lt
.il.
4.1.2, Stiiuir.
.\1.
.iiul
I',
j.
KcimLr,
I44S, RjdiiH.irhon 40: l041-l()Si. D.itis
\'->'->'\,
.irc i.,ilihi\UcJ
1.
Date HP
Cal liC
l.()i\ili(»i
i.ah.
No.
Miitcrhil
D.ite
HP
Cat
BC
ALWIGHUL (ALAGOU) M13
ZK-2045
wood
1890±70
41-AD321
M14
ZK-2046
wood
1830±70
AD 27-384
111
M15B
ZK-2047
wood
1870±90
46-AD 383
111
M16
ZK-2048
wood
1800±70
AD 68-409
111
M19
ZK-2049
wood
2050±95
360-AD 131
Ml
WB77-14
wood
2410±80
792-262
111
M3
WB78-24
wood
2360+90
782-202
111
M4
WB77-21
wood
2260±65
406-169
M21
WB77-27
wood
2140±80
391 -AD 47
M28
WB77-26
wood
2490±130
900-234
M30
WB77-25
wood
2260±65
406-169
M32
WB77-24
wood
2350±80
762-204
CHONG BAGH 1
CHARWIGHUL (CHAWUHUGOUKOU) M4 1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
ZK-1328
wood
2600±80
903-414
M6 M20
ZK-1329
wood
2610±75
903-522
ZK-1330
wood
2580±75
894-412
M25
ZK-1331
wood
2750±80
1125-796
M29
ZK-1332
wood
2670±75
995-672
M31
ZK-1333
wood
2690±90
1015-600
M32
ZK-1334
wood
2550±90
894-403
M59
ZK-1335
wood
2530±75
827-404
II
1
1
1
(QUNBAKE)
Ml
ZK-2113
wood
2500±70
804-401
M2
ZK-2114
wood
2720+100
1185-673
M3
ZK-2115
reed
2600±90
919-411
M3
ZK-2116
wood
2620±75
913-541
M4
ZK-2117
wood
2420±80
794-264
M9
ZK-2143
wood
2190±80
400-2
M10
ZK-2144
wood
2480±95
824-386
1M27
ZK-2145
wood
255O±80
833-406
M34A
ZK-2146
wood
2380±75
765-233
M4
ZK-2288
wood
2570±80
894-409
M7
ZK-2289
wood
2600±75
900-519
1
1
1
M60
ZK-1336
wood
2450+80
799-386
11
1M06B
ZK-2031
wood
2150±75
391-AD 17
11
M10
ZK-2290
wood
2440±75
796-386
IM09
ZK-2033
wood
2740±90
1185-788
11
M12
ZK-2291
wood
2530±75
827-404
IM025
ZK-2036
wood
2460±75
799-392
M18
ZK-2292
wood
2230±90
410-45
IM030
ZK-2037
wood
2720±90
1108-765
1
11
LOPNUR (LUOBUBO)
1
M035
ZK-2038
wood
2930±80
1
M043
ZK-2039
wood
2550±70
829-409
MA2
WB80-24
wood
2010±75
199-AD 131
1
M045
ZK-2040
wood
2640±70
919-562
MB1
WB80-25
wood
1870±80
41-AD 376
M2
ZK-2110
wood
2510±80
824-400
ZK-2111
wood
2380±70
764-259
NURASAY COPPER MINE (NULASAI)
ZK-2112
wood
2330±75
759-202
Mine
BK77001
charcoal
2580±170
1185-260
M13
ZK-2043
wood
1870±75
38-AD 339
Mine
WB82-51
wood
2340+70
759-206
II1M12
ZK-2044
wood
2090±70
357-AD 64
11
11
11
111
M6 Ml
5
1
389-904
.3.?5
Radiocarbon Dates from Selected
Location
Lab.
No.
Sites
Materiiil
Date BP
CalBC
QAWRIGHUL (GUMUGOU)
Location
i.ah.
No.
Material
Date BP
CalBC
TORT ERIK (SIDAOGOU)
M38
BK81042
wool
3390±100
1939-1441
T5(3)H50 WB77-29
charcoal
2260±80
480-112
M38
BK81043
sheepskin 351 0±1 70
2295-1431
T4(3)
WB77-30
charcoal
2400±65
775-379
M38
BK81044
wood
3430±70
1918-1596
T3(3)
WB77-31
charcoal
2270±80
504-119
M4
BK81045
wood
3560±80
2137-1688
T1(4)
WB77-32
charcoal
2360±65
760-233
Ml 2
WB81-28
wood
4140±80
2902-2471
T1(4)H44 WB77-33
charcoal
2320±65
537-203
IIM23
ZK-1 003(1)
wood
3550±60
2106-1694
T2(5)
WB77-34
charcoal
2800±70
1206-810
IIM23
ZK-1 003(2) wool
2120±105
397-AD116
H4
WB77-35
charcoal
2510±80
824-400
T6
WB78-27
charcoal
1990±60
M2
ZK-1 052
wood
1480±70
II
II
II
QIZILCHOQA (WUPU)
64-AD
1
30
Ml 9
WB79-12
wood
2990±65
1408-1004
(2)M4
WB79-13
wood
2760±80
1185-797
M26
WB79-14
wood
3010±85
1436-999
'Beauty'
ZK-1 001
sheepskin
3480±70
2009-1621
M101
WB79-15
wood
3030±85
1491-1004
F4
WB80-23
wood
1860±75
36- AD 376
TOWAN RIVER
(TIEBANHE)
YANBULAQ (YANBULAKE)
SAMPUL (SHANPULA) M02
WB84-11
reed
2780±90
1210-797
M64
ZK-2186
wood
2970±55
1386-1004
M6
WB84-12
reed
1720±95
AD 81-540
M70
ZK-2187
wood
3300±75
1743-1413
M01
WB84-14
reed
2050±65
345-AD 80
M45
ZK-2188
wood
3130±65
1521-1219
M02
WB84-15
wood
1940±75
105-AD241
M54
ZK-2189
wood
2580±55
829-541
M2
WB84-17
wood
2140±75
388-AD 22
M20
ZK-2194
wood
3610±55
2137-1777
M02
WB84-19
charcoal
2230±65
402-111
M14
ZK-2195
reed
2410±80
792-262
M7
ZK-2196
wood
3250±90
1739-1319
M64
ZK-2197
wood
2600±85
910-412
SHAMBABAY (XIANGBAOBAO) M13
BK 77002 wood
2370±70
762-233
Ml 3
WB77-19
wood
2400±70
783-263
M40
WB78-01
wood
4270±90
3096-2584
YEWIRGHUL (YU'ERGOU) = ALWIGHUL CULTURE
M17
WB78-12
wood
2539±65
824-409
M67
WB78-21
wood
2580±85
898-408
M21
WB78-13
wood
2670±65
969-765
M37
WB78-14 wood
2570±65
831-414
M42
WB78-20
wood
2370±85
782-206
M58
WB78-40
wood
2300±130
789-4
M3
WB81-61
wood
2160±70
391-1
M55
WB78-19
wood
2100±65
357-AD51
MB
WB82-05
wood
3060±75
1495-1053
M81
WB78-23
wood
2060±80
355-AD123
M30
WB78-02
wood
2010±80
201-AD133
M47
WB78-22
wood
1890±60
36-AD316
SUBESHI (SUBASHI)
TOMURLUK
(TIEMULIKE)
M2
BK82107
wood
2470±60
796-399
M4
BK82108
wood
2140±60
378-1
ZAGHUNLUQ (ZAHONGLUKE) No published dates but He Dexiu dates
336
1
AD 424-670
in
the range
c.
3200-2700
indicates there are five BP, i.e.,
c.
1
500-850
BC.
,1990 IIh- Cainhridi:.e History
Abbreviations
of harh' Inner .Asli.
llhS-
hhio
loiiin.il of
hiii()l)i\in
(Cambridge Tikh\nisk\, eds.,
General
amhridgc:
C
and Southeast Asian
and B. A. I it\nisk\ Vostochny I iirkestaii r
19,S.S
Drernosti
1
Hudson,
of Vniuiihi. N'ortdii;
onJon; M.ieinillan.
I
C. W2
Ir.mk, A.
I
Ccntr.il Asi.i.
U
\
I
Cardlity of AmstcrJ.im: //.
1. 46: .After Stein, Aurel,
1.
V.uijiusuo, 1992,
miidi nui/aiig," Xin/iaii'i
199?, 'Shanshan Subcixi iiun.|un
16.41: 1996), table
(
larendon Press, plate CXIll,
12, fig. 2.
1994),
|.,
1961), 6",
Press, ?49. 47: After
Wnpu
luhitaii Di(.|U
Stem, Aurel, 1921, Seriiidu,
Oxford, N.
Maura (
l.uiii
'\m|i.iiig Sh.insh.ui Subashi gu
?8:
Klio, Beiheft 41, taf.
von Ciabain
'I
Xiii|iaiig Weiiv\
fig.
and Hicbert
2". 6?: .After Xm|iaiig
?, tig.
mu/.mg,"
40,
.\ni.\
fig.
uer Zi/hii|u Weiihuating
Pringle. 40: .After
48.2. 42: Junge,
Stiidien
VX'eivN
Pringle. ?9:
After Daniels and Bright
"1,
York, (tovmi
to xiikyii
62: After Xin|iaiig
Beaiitv) (1992), 1()\
linvj,jrn\i "1.1, 14.
Drawing by Maura vondabain (1961),
Publishing, 214-215. 20: After Harlcv (
I
fig. ".
1995), 258,
Kingdom
der
Dr.iwiiigb\ Victor M.iir.
?7:
1921, Seriiidhi, Oxford,
Anil, 196", Ihc Art of i:hme,
After
16, fig. \5. 78:
Dchamc-
Francfort (1989), 194, fig
14. 79:
Xinjiang Shehui Kcxueyuan Kaogu 'Xinjiang Alagou
"laniiiisuo, 1981,
mu
shu.xiic niiiguo
Weiufii
I, fig.
jianhao,"
faiiic
Photo Victor
5. 80:
Mair. 81: After Dehaine-lrancfort, (19S8),201,fig. 21.82: After Zlimiin, i99S,
ulniral
"C
An
complexes of
Age ni the larim Basin,' The Bronze Age dnd h.iily IvDti /Aye
in
Peoples of F.iistern Central Ayjkh Srednego Yeiiiseyii.
Q., 1984, 'The position of Tochariaii
Lm^iu's iiido-ctiroftceniies. 1
V V
135, fig. 8.7.
Drawing b\ .Maura Prmgle. Drawing by Maura Priitgle.
Pringle. table p. 288: .After
90. 168: After
fig.
:
1997, 'The epicentre of the Indo-
'Kin tocharischcr
19S6!, 66,
Temple 1986), 86, fig. T. 169: After Temple 1986), 72, fig. 46. 170: After Lu Liancheng (1993), 827, fig. 4. 171: After Ciening, V. K, (i. Zdanovich .\nd
m
site:
.Xinjiang archaeology: Idris .Abdursul, Sabit
Israfel Yusuf,
He Dexui, .Abdulka\um Hoja, Lii Wang Binghua, Wang Bo, Yu Zhang C^huan, Zhang Yuzhong and
Ping; for providing essential research materials: Flileen
Murphy, Xu Wenkan; for generous aid: James Buchanan, and for moral support and encouragement: Finiear Mallorv, Liching Chang and Thomas Krishna Mair.
,,
Niimlicrs to
att-r
it.ilicf
111
1
1
illiistr.itioiis; tluiM-
111
bold refer to coldiir pl.itcs.
Ahu
~S Ach.K-niciikU -/J Ad.inis, n. g. 22!, 2-?. 2''5, 2S4, 2SS-9, ill, li.ikr
14v
?9, I4>,
A\ kh.miiin 9s,
I4~.
15S,2,>6, 24S,252,
A/o\
260-1.263-^.294-5.
A/tecs }^
lil,ick-.\iiJ-\vliitL-
306-", i09. 312-13. 516-lS, !2i; ^"6, I4S.
luhj 14"
/s;.
B.ihvlon
;6>
;5,v,
Anglo-S.ixon 300
?
Bergm.in, h.lke 29,6?, lSO-2. 180. 185-".
19,
?2 -2 I
Anxi
{ii'c .ilsii I'.irilii.ins
51, s9
IS.ictr.i
Any.uig /70
46-", 51, 5\ SS-60. 69-"(), 94-8.
146. 236. 241-2, 24.S.
Aorsi
5S
104. 108. 125. 131.
294-6. >()6-9, ?14. ?16-1S; /vV, ;^9. I hi,
Ap.ir\t.le 46; /6
141.244.253.255,
95; ;9, ;2 14i.
Afnii.iscvo culture
41,46, 94,
Affih.inist.in
lOS,
9,S,
Apollo ?9, 44, 146 Al]su 6S.~2-3, 112; 2~, J2. ;5
;9,
160
5,
Ar.ib 44, 2S?, 321, ?2?
?>
I
li.ictri.i
li.ictri.i-M.ir.ui.in.i
Afne.i 246
Ar.ibie ^l.Sl, 111
Arch,ieoloj;ic,il
Ajinc.m 29. 2~4, 2S()-
Ar.ilSe.i
41,46,96, 10\ 131,262.264 Ar.tm.ue 102-5. UP-S,
Complex
1
VV^. V?4
v?V5
2'"4. 2S().
Aiini
2Sl.VVi—t
Ajinidcs.i
1
Aielinghu (sci' .il,isi.|i]e
-i;r
be.id
141, 152.
274. 276;
333 bicycle 323-t Bh.iruk.i
160,209
204;
255. 279, 300.
116, 122-3. 132. 165, 170-2, 193,200.
248-9, 252-+. 270-2.
Budim
163,239,287.
?16-|7; S4, 55
Btsan-po ???
Bl.i-ni.i
140, 154-5, 182,
bl.mket
213,215-16.229 Blood tvpe C) 245 blouse 220 Blumenb.ich, |. K 2?2 BMAC 131,262-3. 26S-", 269. 304-5. ?08-9, ?| 1-1 ?; j>l),
116, ?10
Bolton, |. n. 44-5, 146
)
;
Bugur "2; 27 Bukhara 100.254 Buku khan 101 Bulgarian 120 Burrow, Thomas 2"8-9 1", 299 Burushaski button 21" 1
By/ainine
C;ad()ta 68
P.
40, 42,
(^almadan.i 68
t^ambridge camel 41, 8", 9s,
1
159,
144 25, !", "5, 89,
I,
92, 126, 144. Is8, 196,
202,222; // liower, H.imilton 62 bowls 14 I'.r.ice. C:. L. 236 br.ichyceph.ilic 2?? lU.ihmi 15. 122, 2S4. 2"2; 49 1
?12-14
brick
120 14,
141-2, 14",
ri.
Bedouins 283
bridles
Behistun
Bnndisi 39 British I'lritish
51,
"?,"6, 85,
16. 123,
l?8-9, 143-+, 147,
i
269, 2"8
1
llni\ersit\
28
Bosh.m "4
bow
100
B\/ainium 99
Bore.is 44
IV
120,271; /9
?8
Bui; ?-
Caesar 272
l>l. 161
306;
92,
.S'9,
;44
Bishkent V.dlev 1?S Bi.ick Se.i 10.99. 106.
160,
105
???-(
Buddhist 10, "?,"s', ""-8,80, 82, 111-12,
Buddhist H\brid
212, 2?0, 245; 96, 9";
68,26
5.
Bishkein culture 265;
lUeton
Beilii
1
?21-2, 3??;2.S',
of Kror.in 140, 181, 18 5,20",
Beiim.u
1
?10, ?1?,314,
Bilg;i
bird
16, 9?,
4s"
"(s,
2^6,284,311-12.
100 (.J.n.m ??4 126, 1?9, 145
r>e.uit\
?04;
62, "0,
"9,9", 101, 104, 110.
Biig;i k.ijihan
be.ird
132, 14?-+, 147-8.
102, 1"0
1~5,222, 249, ,V J. \44
I5e/,;iklik
Bostiuir
68,92
18\ ?20;6O;
182,
1""',
S,V
192
135, 143. 146-^.
b.iskets
r9, ?00
i9
II.
2",
21?, 266, 269
Assyri.ius 259 132.
I'.uii
B.irkol (L.ike.i b.irlev
104
Bessemer process 321 Bevcesult.m 210
bonnet 216 boot 9, 16. 182, 189, 196,212.215-16,222,
r", 193.208.218-19, 228-9 B.irber,
^5. Ss.-S".
Assyri.t
s7i
69 B.m Ch.io 69,^9, 86, 95-6
r>.irher, Kli/.ibeth
5s
Asii
Avdinn L.ike culture 1?
1
/
1"4, ids
I'j.ilucliist.in
95 B.m'c.u 69 B.ui Vong S6 B.in Zh.U) 69
104
Avest.in
55
294; 52
B.in.u..iMi
if>
Buddhism
129.
299 B.iltic 120-1,285,288, 291-?; SO, s2 B.ilto-Sl.ivic 28S-6. 289,
h.imhoo
?3
>2,
88
222;
.i\e
Ainxim.tnder Andir 27S
2?
1
120-1, 129,
5s
259,266, 288; h.iluchi 256
10?, 120-1
1"1, 1"?,
Sanskrit 144
l?.\lts
AulusCelluis ?9 Av.ir 42,99,321 AirsLi 105, r, 25",
An.itolui 45. 129.
J
n
222, 299; ;oo, lOl Berlin Fthnologic.il
330-1,333;
?22. 328.
Buddh.i 2"0-|
14
1
B.in Bi.io
,itsehi
104
4
;
1
BMAC)
10,256,
U.uiev, H.irold
Athens 36
Darv.i 41, 5S-9. 100,'
li.ii
1
Ast.in.i
?cS
1
1,~4, S6. 88.94, 126, 144-5, 152. 154. 158-9, 162. IS", 196,
,lss
Altun 59 AKvighul 159, 16?. 2 r. 2?9. 243-4. 26H. ?l?,
?
B.iik.il
>l)
Ary.iiis
57,60. 164, oVi Alpine 2?2-i,2>6 Alt.u 29, 44-S. 99, 142, 146, iSK, 160, 20i-+. 2ll.2Vi-7, 241-2, 260. 294-5. ?06-9.
;
11)
Annhi
Am
9",
U.ictri.in
B.inhd.id
Aristotle 4~
Alnnorsi 5S Al.ins 106. 2?9, 260 Alb.inian 120-1; S2 Albert P. Slo.in Found.ition 12 Alc\.\ilder the dre.u 4"^, 59, 94-S. 100.
?I2.
15; 4/
I
Arim.ispMiis 42-1, 54. 203; 9, 12 Ariste.is M), 1 9-42, 44, 203
j/>o
!«('('
10,
(.•.((•
1
200-1.208.213-14,
Museum
262-3. 26S-9. 280-3, ?0I.304. 306-". 309. ?3?-l; /{, 24
broii/e ", 14, ss, ?6, ?9, 141, 14", 158-9,
162-4. 189. 196.269. >29; /"6
belt-pl.H|ues
2"4
1"0
brocide ~s |
?21; ;29
10,281
1
Museum
liritish
120
38
Ik-lsk
li.Kon, hr.incis
"9
"?,"8
/i,7>7./
BeiortissMii
belt 75, 21s. 21", 228,
l'..icliu
160, 162;
•iiiim.il style
1114
106
Se,i
>(14-S.
14
109 Libr.ir\
1"4
167,260.266.
cannibal 45 cannibalism 40
cannon
''ill
cap "5, 108, 18s"-6, 193, 210.213-14, ?()6;42, 11(1
C;ape Verde 47
card l(yH carpet 70,80, 137. (iarpini. (iiovanni da Plan del "I c.ishmere 2I~ C.ispian Sea 45-6. 48.
58.69.84. 107, 131. 164,239.256.259, 262-3. 304. 3 17; 4 5.54 (Catacomb culture 239. 294
.M7
1
'
1
Index
41-2, ~?,76. 87,
c.ittlc
lU,
92, 126,
143,
l,?S,
154, 158-9, 184,249,
260, 262, 266, 33
Caucasian {see iilso Caucasoid) 232, 237, 246,249,251; 147 Caucasoid 16,25,36, 44-5, 55, 63, 70, 92-3, 95, 136-7, 141-2, 147, 156, 158-9, 161^, 173, 190,229-31, 236-7, 239-40, 243-4, 248-50, 256, 258, 279, 295, 299-300, 306, 326, 329; 143
Caucasus 84, 106, 14?. 211,218-19,229,256, 281; 37
331,333; /,S', ,S',V, I4\ t7S, 177 C^hinchorro 205 Chinese 30,44,71,86, 109-11, 118, 120-1,
164-5,236,252,
123,
C^hiou-I'eiiii, T/elnie\
329
Chokkur
145
ChongBauh
158, 163,
6"
335;
Choresnna
113,'
Cavalli-Sfor/a, L. L.
(acero 272
Chu
76. 126, 134, 159, 162
254
331
1,
31^
288, 289-92, 331; 50,
coat 16, 138, 196,201.
censers 294
centum 121,233,285;
no
110, 12H,
Dog Roiig s3 dolichocephalic 233 doll 187,201,222; /33 Don 37-8, 106,241,292 Dongxiang 249-50; 145 donkey
ceramics {see pottcrv)
Dravidian 259; /47 dress 48 Duldur Aqur 274 Dunhuang 51-2,58-9,
Cockburn, Aidan 32 coins 59,62,74,78,
260, 282, 306
283,322,334; U, 67, S3
s,
61,91
Four Fwgr VV?
Mahdv, Christine
Frisian
Hao
Fu
P.
1
{see also
Khocho) 101 garrison town {see also Four Garrisons) 155-6 Gaulish 299 Geloni 38
Gelonus 38 German 120,279
Germanic 41,99,
120,
Germans
8, 109, 155,
266,288-9,291; ;56 Getae 99 ghee rGimhutas, Mania 128 girdle 79,88 glass 202 goat 126, 138, 140, 144, 159-60, 209. 2 r, 224, 260. 262, 266 Gobi 84 gold 43-5, 53, 62, 64,
74,89,92,97, 126, 158, 160, 178-9,203; 79
Gomati 79 Good, Irene
27, 208,
217-19 goose 126, 181 Gothic 119-20 Goths 99 gourd 155, 164; 74
gown
155, 196
Graeco-Scythian 171 grain {see also cereal)
36-7, 56, 173 grape 57, 164, 169,333 Great Scribe's Records {see also Shi/i) 56 Great Wall 58,-1,84-5,
Greece 129,215,224; 10 Greek 30,36,43,45,55, 94-5,97, 102, 104, 107-8, 119-20, 146,
233,286,288-9,291,
120 14"
314, 333; 50, 52, /55
36, 80, 88-9,
r,
144,
Gaochang
89, 113 12, 16,
Fukang 68 fur
158,242,250,
147,
254,281,283,304-5, 328, 333; 57
181-2,212,217;
IM) Further Beilu 68 Further Jushi 68 Further Pulei 68
Greeks 34,37,48,53, 96, 106,259,266,288; 9,
;56
griffm 43-5,53; ;2, /5 grinding stones 159
Griinwedel, A. 63, 171, 173
Guchung 68
331
elephant 4^,53. 81,
/6
foodtray 200 Four (iarrisons 70, 80, 14\ r,4
25,246-7; 141 France 209, 232 French 109,284
EclcLi
112
76
flute
147, 155, 169,207-8,
Ebi-nor 68
Daiidan-Uifiq
159,203,209
flax
Francalacci,
330,
>9, 17:;,
262,327
41, 126, 145,201
122-3, 131-2, 134-7.
214,230,236-7,240,
Cvrus the Great 46, 108 Czech 120
1
fire altar
fish
Fleure, Herbert 259
102
133
139, 141, 144,
Finns 247
{see j/so
jungghar Basin and Yarish Basm) 146, Mr D/iingarian Gate 44-s
cup 200,202 Cyclops 43
dagger 126, 248 Dahe/hiiang
figurine
152; 62, 7/
D/ungana
cowrie 141 crane 126 cranial index 2? 1-2; 139 craniometries /36 Ctesiphon 14
Dacian 99. 299; 50 Dadicae 46
181,
8,
94, 100, 133-5, 142,
glove 217; /30.
185-7,213 16,44,70,74,80,
feather
333
165,212,222
152, 155,
175,248-9;
;4J
3 12; 24, 161
earring 189, 192 tast Central Asia 9, 29-30, 33-5, 63-4, 66,
128; 53
IX
eye colour 49, 70, 93, 125, 156,
Gansu 56,60,80,92,
124,284,286,288-9, 291-3,314, 331; 50, 52
142, 147, 164, 169,
Corded Ware
Dadiwan
Ksarhaddon 91 Eshek-bashi Ola 74 Kstrangelo 41 F.truscan 102, 124,299
211,255,304,309,
Dzjni-filin^-r^Yds-hshjJ
Cyrillic
Kriitou 328
dve 212.218,225 1
269, 2X4, 296, 303-4,
348
/9, 2?.
322Constantinople 14 Conway, R. S. 234 copper 74, 126, 136, 139,295,327-8; I7.i copper oxide 74 Coptic 110 3 9,
1
170, 171
Kratosthenes 47-8
Dushanbe 107 Dutch 120
1
Chaghan-tungge 68
302;
s4,
1
225
compass
126,313 Chadir 72
cereals
Chang'an
14, 140, 152,
F.pidauros 95
99, 111, 113, 174,254,
95-7, 193,254, 283;
comb
enihalming 29 Hndere 112 Kngland 300,319 Faighsh 120,236,279, 284, 300 ephedra 138, 152, 185-7,200,262.269, 305-6
62-3,68,81,86,92,
Columbus 48
iilso
142, 146-7,
134, 143, 147,
266, 328
Colosseum 48
5/
81,
1
215,217,220,248;
Celts 8,32, 155,218-19, 222,235,266; (56
Dnieper 106, 129,241. 263, 325 Dniester 106
119-20, 124,286-",
52
?4, \^9,
dog
Claudius 49 Cleopatra 48 cloak 75, 144.212-13, 222, 225, 229
Celtic languages 41,
1
Vacher 233 Delphi 34 Devoto, Giacomo /56 DhjiiuujpJilj 253 Dian 329; 20 Dionysius 108 Discovery Channel 14 DNA 11-12, 16,28.32, 143,230,245-8;
114
Cimmerians 28 170, 172-4;
KP
96. 1()\
('horesmi.ins 46,256; ;6, 4) ChristianitN ~0, 101,
no,
9, 126,
209,215-16 de Guignes, Joseph 62 de Lapouge, Georges
141
C^hristians
28 cave shrmc 93, 94
299,
310,333-4; ;47 Chinese Turkestan 9
cauldron 45, 162-3,331; i77 12,
283^,
262, 272,
deer
ri 52
Gaelic 233
Guhu
Galcha
Can
2V-,
Gallo-Roman Ciamkrelid/e,
2M-,
lomas
68; 26
0\us)
{see also
53,
58-9, 95 (iitizi
322
Guishuang 95 Gandaridae 46; 16 Gandhara 80,97,
ri-2
Gumo
68, 73; 26
Gunuigou
{see also
Qiiwrighul)
Gandhari 285
gun 322
Cianfu 56 Ciangcs 4^-8, 94, 96; ]9
gunptmder Giishi
136,336
il9, i22
S8.60, 99. 143-4
^
.
Index
Hephthahte "9-80,
GiitLMibi.Ti;, loh.iniK--.
^S-^;
.522
Guti
Herodotus M). 35. 3--9. 40-1.44-5.47,88,92,
W, 2S1-2
Hai ^^\
98, 102, 106, 108, 163,
colour ~, 10, 16, 49,93, 125-6, 141-2,
h.iir,
156, 159,
17.?,
260,328; 12. I\2I Himal.ivas 4''. 281,
r^.
200-1,204, 230-1,
Hindu Kush 36,4", 268;
145,304 211,218-19, 229, 235 Ha mam "4 Q.ir.iJoug)
hook
328. 329;
Mummy
Han,
(Jviiastv
188; 10
55-7.60-1.69.73. 75-6. 84. 87, 89-95, 126, 128-9, 134, 138, 143-4, 147, 152, 154, 157-60, 162, 167, 169.
i
30, 55, 57,
59-6 66,69-70, 72, 75-6,78,81,85,87, 9(K?,96, 99, 118, 1
,
177.211,223,257,
136-", 152, 163^,
260, 262, 264, 266,
ro, r~,
i6~, 169,
201,20-, 211,230, 243.253,283,300,
303,318,329,331,
My,
V
horse 25,37,41-2.45.
16,92, 140, 14'^, 217, 219, 237, 300; 5.S' 13.
Hami
10, 14
horn 153-5, 192,22s,
Qumul)
{sec ^iho
68; 26 H.wshii 5^, 6~, 68, 69, "2, -4, —-8, 88, 91, 95, 152
haotiui
262
138,
Harappan
culture 212,
259, 304; /47
hat (see dlso cap) 25, 32, 88, 162, 182, 196,210,
9. 41
65, 133
Huaiigniangniangtai 134"
—
Hubei Hui 249-50; Huisheng 82
Hunan P" Huns 30, 55,
>5, 4';
Hecataeus
Ching
Iberia
'
10
92, 155
99 124
Iberian 299 Icelandic 120
(62
Hemphill, Brian 244. 268.313 henna 248 Henning. W. B. 281-2 Henrv luce Foundation 12'
Indo-Scvthian 171 Indra 257 Indus 59,96,244 Indus civilization 33,
174,212,259
1
ls4, 21s"
lar
jaxartes 41,49, jiaugbin 75 jianshi 95
s'S,
j in
dynasty -?, 202; IX
in Vallev
55,91-2.94,
lllynan 299; 50
Imammusakazim 200 Imaus 47,281. r>? Imit
13. 14
Incas 33 India 31,45,47.53.70,
-5,^8,80,82-3,97-8, 103, 109, 114-15, 118. 122. 125, 131, 165,
1~, 180,211-12,215, 224, 255, 25", 259, 262, 26-, 2^8-9,
iilsi)
Kum.irajiva) 75, 81
liuquan 60 Jones, William
119-20,
123
of IndoEuropean Studies 27 10 lud.usm jumi 68; 26 jungghar Basin
315;
14,
lute
also
?()-,
?12,
20?
262-3,282,331, 111
Iranians 41,91,96-7, 10(1, 104, 106-9,
Kamberi, Dolkiin 2~
Kangiu 58-9 Kaniska 96-7
Kasia 51
299,302,310-11,
Kazakh 249- s'O; ;45 Kazakhstan 135, 139,
Ireland 50.309 8.
120,236.2-6,
288 iron 74,91, 141-2, 144,
147-8, 152, 158-9,
162^, 167, 196,311, 319,321,328 irrigation
135, 142, 169,
262-4, 266, 269, 304,
309,311-12.314, 317-18 River 41 Islam 41,62,^0,81,
Iset
110,2-3 Issedones 40-?, 84,92; 9, 12
Issedon Scvthica 41
147, 158,
263,
U Museum
246; 6
Kroraina (see also Kror;in) 65,81,278 Kroran 30,58,60,63, 65,68,79,81,84-7, 99, 116, 132, 1?7, 140,
184-5,201,222,237, 239, 244, 253, 268.
2-8,299,301,313,
314-15 81
Khan
81
Kucha 30, 52, 60, 63-4, 69,72-5,77, 122, 145,
146
282-3, 285, 288, 294,
174.263
19,
Kror;in)
Kashgar (see also Qashqar) 64 Kashmir 96, 304
114.
K6k-turaq 160;67, .VO Konchi River 137,212 Koiigque River (see Konchi River) Korea 99 KorLi 16,25,52,68; 5,
Kublai
124-5,204,253,256, 259-62, 266-8, 277-9,
?14-16, 318, 326. 331. r,?-l;-/3. 50. 52. ;55
248, 270; XII
Kror.iyina (see also
153; I4h
K.irasuk
knights with long swords 171-2, 175,
Kror;inian 29. 123, 2-8-9, 300, 302,
125, 131, 139, 1-4,
209, 220, 248, 259,
IM
?30;
318; 19.24. 2(y,SS, S3. 95. i33. I.iS. ;53. ;60
5,V
144, 16-; 26
jushi
158-9,325,328,
knife
144, 164-5, 181, (,iir>hil
Achaeology
1
162 Kirghiz 100
Kokonor 40
68; 26
lie
'I'arish
sl,-{l, 104,
Khruschev, Nikita 232 Kidantes 98 Kikkuli 257
knitting 214
165
236
(Llrumchi) 2-. 246;
100
1
Inner Mongolia 269 Institute of Archaeology
Irish
243, 255, 283; H2
84-6, 14S, 165,200, 208, 236, 294 hemp 1^8. 20?, 209, 262, 294, ?05-6, ?21;
;55, ;56
Il-baliq 281
HeDexRi
10, 63,
1
Iraq
139, 160, 162,239,
Hedin, Sven
jade Gate Pass 60, i04 jainism 9japan PI Japanese 14, 1(N, 11
liaolie
Indo-Iranians 32, P, 125, 129-30, 138,228,
Iceman isee jlso Ox/a) 11,228,24-
Hecvka ^^^ 155, 178, 193
/56. /57 Indo-Greek 94-5
111-13, 116-18, 121,
'l46
latioi
headdress iO headgear 229 'He.ivenlv Questions' ?30-l Hebrew 102-3
50. 52, 53. 55, i55.
Iran
58, 62, 98,
Hurrian 257, 259 Hvperboreans 39, 44,
/
219,228,232-3, 258-9,265-7,270-1, 281,287,290-1,292. 293,314.316-17.331;
Institute of /-/s'
;;;, 124. 12s. 126. 127
hawthorn 126 Hazaras 41 headband 22
120,
122-4, 126, 129, 131,
(Bei|iiig)
1
214, 220, 321; 66, X2,
?30
;
312-18; 52, 56, 14~,
Hunve 92 Hunza 117
harp 29
50 Indo-Kuropeans 33, 1
lade s8. -8-81, 8s', 138-9, 14-, 322, ?28,
158
106, 239; 35
hare 126 harness 321
Ivrkae ?S
JinshK 73 jiumoluoshi (see
Huanghe
l>S
kilt
252-3, 256-7, 259, 262, 265, 267-8, 288, 33
95,
299; 47
haiiov, VvacliesLu
Ivolga 88
17-18,
1
,S'3,
254, 272, 278, 284,
299
291,293-5,303,305,
Hou Can 86, 165 HoumaCity 190 Huang Wenbi 63
Hanmi
/56
265-8, 285, 287, 289,
horseriding
141
313; /J7 Indo-Arvans
67,
60 Khotanese 78, 81, 112, J
Italo-Celtic 286 Italy
U,
24, 30,
289, 291-2; 50, s2,
77
76.
249 KanfjvMi 236-tO, 242-4; / r, ; 5.S', HI)
97, 121,2-1,
Mi;
88-9. 141,23', 240,
Han
Arvaii")
266, 287, 288,
jingiue 68; 26
86; IX; ethnic j^roup
hitiifilii
300. 302.315, 334; 19,
Italics
233,252,257-61,263,
horse-bit J,S'.
Italians
Indic [see jIso 'Indo-
269, 273, 276, 287-8. 294. 324-5. 328, 330,
horse-gear 162 horsemen 328-9; /67
9, 22. 24. ?7.
239, 243, 253-5, 278,
160,281,333 275,321
121-2^ 124-5, 131,
17
i,
120,25HIA 245 hood 212,222
H.illst.itt
Hami
18s,
Hittite
jIso
{si'f
linduism 9". l"!
I
245, 248-9; cut "5, -9; J;;X1I
164. 16", 1-4, 200,
Issvk kul
237,243,268,301-2,
Hindu 114-1\ 180
Issedon Seni.a 41,8s
531,333; /6 Indians 96; 9
277-8, 284-5, 302, 310, 333-4; 52 Indo-Afghan 238-40,
333
181-2, 1S4, 1S6-9, 191, 193-4. 196,
H.ii.idun
?(10-1, ?04, 312, 321,
)'9
169, 171-2, 175,203,
239, 248, 272, 274,
160,236--,
293^, 308-9; 164
Ke'ermuqi (see also Keremchi) 146,307 Kellv, William 321 Keremchi 146, 30--8;
276-7,303,318, 333-4; 19,24,26,27, 2,S', 32, 58,67,68,