Solid as a warrior of the Caledonii tribe, the man’s hair is reddish brown flecked with grey, framing high cheekbones, a long nose, full lips and a ginger beard. When he lived three thousand years ago, he stood six feet tall, and was buried wearing a red twill tunic and tartan leggings. He looks like a Bronze Age European. In fact, he’s every inch a Celt. Even his DNA says so.
But this is no early Celt from central Scotland. This is the mummified corpse of Cherchen Man, unearthed from the scorched sands of the Taklamakan Desert in the far-flung region of Xinjiang in western China, and now housed in a new museum in the provincial capital of Urumqi. In the language spoken by the local Uighur people in Xinjiang, “Taklamakan” means: “You come in and never come out.”
A meeting of civilisations: The mystery of China’s celtic mummies (Independent, via Daily Grail)
Scientists in Berlin this week gave their first major press conference about the spectacular discovery of a frozen mummy in Mongolia’s Altai mountains. The frozen corpse, embedded in permafrost, is considered one of the greatest archeological finds since climbers came across the mummified remains of Ötzi, the ice man, in an alpine glacier. The corpse of the Scythian warrior could help provide clues about how people lived 2,500 years ago and about what illnesses they suffered.
Ancient Mummy Found in Mongolia (Der Spiegel)
Scythian mummy shown in Germany (BBC)
Archaeologists find 2,500-year-old mummy in Mongolia, tattoos and all (AFP)
The Cherchen Mummies (Discovery)
China’s Mystery Mummies (ThinkQuest)
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