.png)  Location of the Tarim mummies ( ), with other contemporary culturesc. 2000 BCE | |
| Geographical range | Taklamakan Desert in theTarim Basin |
|---|---|
| Period | Bronze Age |
| Dates | c.2100 BCE –1 BCE |
| Preceded by | Afanasievo culture |
| Followed by | Tocharians |
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TheTarim mummies are a series ofmummies discovered in theTarim Basin in present-dayXinjiang, China, which date from1800 BCE to the first centuries BCE,[1][2][3] with a new group of individuals recently dated to betweenc. 2100 and 1700 BCE.[4][5] The Tarim population to which the earliest mummies belonged was agropastoral, and they livedc. 2000 BCE in what was formerly a freshwater environment, which has now become desertified.[6]
A genomic study published in 2021 found that these early mummies (dating from 2,135 to 1,623 BCE) had high levels ofAncient North Eurasian ancestry (ANE, about 72%), with smaller admixture fromAncient Northeast Asians (ANA, about 28%), but no detectableWestern Steppe-related ancestry.[7][8] They formed a genetically isolated local population that "adopted neighbouring pastoralist and agriculturalist practices, which allowed them to settle and thrive along the shifting riverine oases of the Taklamakan Desert."[9] These mummified individuals were long suspected to have been "Proto-Tocharian-speaking pastoralists", ancestors of theTocharians, but this has now been largely discredited by their absence of a genetic connection withIndo-European-speaking migrants, particularly theAfanasievo orBMAC cultures.[10] Zhang et al. (2025) investigated a Late Bronze Age site in the far west of the Tarim Basin, dated 1600 to 1400 BC. Its inhabitants overwhelmingly descended from theSintashta andAndronovo population, with additional ancestry fromBMAC (10%) and Tarim_EMBA (12%). Nearly all subjects belonged toY-DNA haplogroup R-M17.[11]
Later Tarim Mummies dated to the Iron Age (1st millennium BCE), such as those of theSubeshi culture, have characteristics closely resembling those of theSaka (Scythian)Pazyryk culture of theAltai Mountains, in particular in the areas of weaponry, horse gear and garments.[12] They are candidates as the Iron Age predecessors of theTocharians.[13] The rather recent easternmost mummies atQumul (Yanbulaq culture, 1100–500 BCE), provide the earliest mummies of "Mongoloid" appearance found in the Tarim Basin, as well as others of "Europoid" features.[14][2]
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At the beginning of the 20th century, European explorers such asSven Hedin,Albert von Le Coq and SirAurel Stein all recounted their discoveries ofdesiccated bodies in their search forantiquities inCentral Asia.[15] Since then, numerous other mummies have been found and analyzed, many of them now displayed in the museums of Xinjiang. Most of these mummies were found on the eastern end of theTarim Basin (around the area ofLopnur,Subeshi nearTurpan,Loulan,Kumul), or along the southern edge of the Tarim Basin (Khotan,Niya, andCherchen orQiemo).
According toMallory & Mair (2000), the earliest Tarim mummies, found atQäwrighul (Gumugou) and dated to 2135–1939 BCE, were classified in acraniometric analysis as belonging to a "Proto-Europoid" type, whose closest affiliation is to theBronze Age populations of southernSiberia,Kazakhstan, Central Asia, and theLower Volga.[2] A revised craniometric analyses byHemphill & Mallory (2003) on the early Tarim mummies (Qäwrighul) failed to demonstrate close phenetic affinities to "Europoid populations", but rather found that they formed their own cluster, distinct from the European-related Steppe pastoralists of theAndronovo andAfanasievo cultures, or the inhabitants of the Western AsianBMAC culture. Later Tarim mummies displayed varying affinities with Andronovo-like, BMAC-like or Han-like populations, suggesting different waves of migration into the Tarim basin.[16]
Notable mummies are the tall, red-haired "Chärchän man" or the "Ur-David" (1000 BCE); his son (1000 BCE), a 1-year-old baby with brown hair protruding from under a red and blue felt cap, with two stones positioned over its eyes; the "Hami Mummy" (c. 1400–800 BCE), a "red-headed beauty" found in Qizilchoqa; and the "Witches of Subeshi" (4th or 3rd century BCE), who wore 2-foot-long (0.61 m) black felt conical hats with a flat brim.[17] Also found at Subeshi was a man with traces of a surgical operation on his abdomen; the incision is sewn up with sutures made of horsehair.[18]
Many of the mummies have been found in very good condition, owing to the dryness of the desert and the desiccation it produced in the corpses. The mummies share many typical Caucasian body features, and many of them have their hair physically intact, ranging in color from blond to red to deep brown, and generally long, curly and braided. Their costumes, and especiallytextiles, may indicate a common origin with Indo-Europeanneolithic clothing techniques or a common low-level textile technology. Chärchän man wore a redtwill tunic andtartan leggings. Textile expertElizabeth Wayland Barber, who examined the tartan-style cloth, discusses similarities between it and fragments recovered fromsalt mines associated with theHallstatt culture.[19] As a result of the arid conditions and exceptional preservation, tattoos have been identified on mummies from several sites around the Tarim Basin, including Qäwrighul,Yanghai,Shengjindian, Shanpula (Sampul), Zaghunluq, and Qizilchoqa.[20]
It has been asserted that the textiles found with the mummies are of an early European textile type based on close similarities to fragmentary textiles found in salt mines inAustria, dating from the second millennium BCE. Anthropologist Irene Good, a specialist in early Eurasian textiles, noted the woven diagonal twill pattern indicated the use of a rather sophisticated loom and said that the textile is "the easternmost known example of this kind of weaving technique".[18]
The cemetery atYanbulaq contained 29 mummies which dated from 1100 to 500 BCE. 21 of the mummies had a "Mongoloid" appearance and are the first with their appearance found in the Tarim Basin. The other 8 mummies display the same "Europoid" physical traits found at Qäwrighul.[2][14][5]
In 1995, Mair claimed that "the earliest mummies in the Tarim Basin were exclusivelyCaucasoid, orEuropoid" with east Asian migrants arriving in the eastern portions of the Tarim Basin around 3,000 years ago while theUyghur peoples arrived around the year 842. In trying to trace the origins of these populations, Victor Mair's team suggested that they may have arrived in the region by way of thePamir Mountains about 5,000 years ago.
Mair has claimed that:
The new finds are also forcing a reexamination of old Chinese books that describe historical or legendary figures of great height, with deep-set blue or green eyes, long noses, full beards, and red or blond hair. Scholars have traditionally scoffed at these accounts, but it now seems that they may be accurate.[21]
In 2007, the Chinese government allowed aNational Geographic Society team headed bySpencer Wells to examine the mummies' DNA. Wells was able to extract undegraded DNA from the internal tissues. The scientists extracted enough material to suggest the Tarim Basin was continually inhabited from 2000 BCE to 300 BCE and preliminary results indicate the people, rather than having a single origin, originated from Europe,Mesopotamia, Indus Valley and other regions yet to be determined.[22]
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A 2008 study byJilin University showed that the Yuansha population has relatively close relationships with the modern populations of South Central Asia andIndus Valley, as well as with the ancient population of Chawuhu.[23][24]
Between 2009 and 2015, the remains of 92 individuals found at theXiaohe Tomb complex were analyzed forY-DNA andmtDNA markers. Genetic analyses of the mummies showed that the maternal lineages of the Xiaohe people originated from both East Asia and West Eurasia, whereas the paternal lineages all originated from West Eurasia. The East Eurasian mtDNA carried by the Tarim mummies is mtDNA haplogroup C and the particular subclade found in the Tarim mummies originates from southeast Siberians likeUdeghe andEvenks and not from East Asians, who carry mtDNA haplogroup C at a far lower rate and carry different subclades of mtDNA C.[22]
Mitochondrial DNA analysis showed that maternal lineages carried by the people at Xiaohe included mtDNAhaplogroupsH,K,U5,U7,U2e,T andR*, which are now most common in West Eurasia. Also found were haplogroups common in modern populations from East Asia:B5,D andG2a. Haplogroups now common in Central Asian or Siberian populations included:C4 andC5. Haplogroups later regarded as typically South Asian includedM5 andM*.[24]
Li et al. (2010) found that nearly all – 11 out of 12 males, or around 92% – belonged toY-DNA haplogroupR1a1a-M198,[25] which is now most common in Northern India and Eastern Europe; the remaining one belonged to the exceptionally rare paragroupK* (M9) from Asia.[26][27]
The geographic location of this admixing is unknown, although south Siberia is likely.[22]
In 2021 the School of Life Sciences, Jilin University, China, analyzed 13 individuals from the Tarim basin, dated to c. 2100–1700 BCE, and assigned 2 toY-haplogroup R1b1b-PH155/PH4796 (R1b1c in ISOGG2016), 1 – toY-haplogroup R1-PF6136 (xR1a, xR1b1a).[4][28]
Zhang et al. (2025) investigated a Late Bronze Age site in the far west of the Tarim Basin, dated 1600 to 1400 BC. Nearly all subjects belonged to Y-DNAhaplogroup R-M17. One sample of Y-DNA extracted from a late Iron Age individual belonged to haplogroupQ1a2.[11]
The samples ofmtDNA extracted from the Late Bronze Age Tarim Basin belonged toH27e (four samples), H11b,U4a1, U4c1,T2b34 (two samples) ,N1a1a1a1, H5b, U2e3, U5b2a1a2, U4a2, H91,W1-T119C, U2e1e, T2d, U5a1b1,R1b1, H6a1a, HV14, T2a1b1, R1b*. Two samples of mtDNA extracted from late Iron Age individuals belonged to haplogroup A+T152C!+T16362C andA2d1.[11]
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A 2021 genetic study on the Early Bronze Age Tarim mummies (13 mummies, including 11 fromXiaohe Cemetery, ranging from 2,135 to 1,623 BCE) found that they were most closely related to an earlier identified group called theAncient North Eurasians, particularly the population represented by theAfontova Gora 3 specimen (AG3), genetically displaying "high affinity" with it.[29][30] The genetic profile of theAfontova Gora 3 individual represented about 72% of the ancestry of the Tarim mummies from Xiaohe, while the remaining 28% of their ancestry was derived fromAncient Northeast Asians (ANA, Early Bronze AgeBaikal populations).[7] Tarim_EMBA mummies from Beifang have a slightly higher amount of ANA ancestry and can be modelled as having 89% Xiaohe-like ancestry and about 11% ANA ancestry.[9] The Tarim_EMBA mummies are thus one of the rareHolocene populations who derive most of their ancestry from theAncient North Eurasians (ANE, specifically theMal'ta and Afontova Gora populations), despite their distance in time (around 14,000 years).[31] More than any other ancient population, the Tarim mummies can be considered as "the best representatives" of the Ancient North Eurasians.[31]
When compared with other ANE-derived Holocene poulations, the early Tarim mummies from Xiaohe ("Tarim_EMBA1") display the highest genetic affinity to Middle Holocene hunter-gatherers from theAltai Mountains (5500–3500 BCE). Tarim_EMBA1 and Altai hunter-gatherers can be successfully modeled from each other in both directions: Altai hunter-gatherers can be modeled as a 2-source admixture between Tarim_EMBA1 andAncient Paleo-Siberians, while conversely, Tarim_EMBA1 can be modeled as an even mixture of Altai hunter-gatherers and the ANE-genome AG3 fromAfontova Gora.[32]
Tests on their genetic legacy also found that many groups inCentral Asia andXinjiang derive varying degrees of ancestry from a population related to the Early Bronze Age Tarim mummies. TheTajik people show the relative highest affinity with the Tarim_EMBA mummies, although their main ancestry is linked to Bronze Age Steppe pastoralists (Western Steppe Herders).[33]
Zhang et al. (2025) investigated a Late Bronze Age site in the far west of the Tarim Basin, dated 1600 to 1400 BC. Its inhabitants overwhelmingly descended from theSintashta andAndronovo population, with additional ancestry fromBMAC (10%) and Tarim_EMBA (12%).[11] By the time of the late Iron Age, as the cities established in the Western Tarim Basin became cosmopolitan hubs of thesilky road, this Andronovo-related ancestry is no longer detected.[11]
Mallory and Mair (2000) propose the movement of at least two "Caucasian" physical types into the Tarim Basin. The authors associate these types with theTocharian andIranian (Saka) branches of theIndo-European language family, respectively.[35] However, archaeology and linguistics professorElizabeth Wayland Barber cautions against assuming the mummies spoke Tocharian, noting a gap of about a thousand years between the mummies and the documented Tocharians: "people can change their language at will, without altering a single gene or freckle".[36]
On the other hand, linguistics professor Ronald Kim argues that the amount of divergence between the attested Tocharian languages necessitates that Proto-Tocharian must have preceded their attestation by a millennium or so. This would coincide with the timeframe during which the Tarim Basin culture was in the region.[37]
B. E. Hemphill's biodistance analysis ofcranial metrics (as cited inLarsen 2002 andSchurr 2001) has questioned the identification of the Tarim Basin population as European, noting that the earlier population forms their own distinct cluster and having closer affinities to two specimens from theHarappan site of the Indus Valley civilisation, while the later Tarim population displays closer affinities with theOxus River valley population. Because craniometry can produce results which make no sense at all (e.g. the close relationship betweenNeolithic populations inUkraine andPortugal)[better source needed] and therefore lack any historical meaning, any putative genetic relationship must be consistent with geographical plausibility and have the support of other evidence.[38][39]
Han Kangxin, who examined the skulls of 302 mummies, found the closest relatives of the earlier Tarim Basin population in the populations of theAfanasevo culture situated immediately north of theTarim Basin and theAndronovo culture that spannedKazakhstan and reached southwards into WestCentral Asia and theAltai.[40]
It is the Afanasevo culture to whichMallory & Mair (2000:294–296, 314–318) trace the earliest Bronze Age settlers of theTarim andTurpan basins. The Afanasevo culture (c. 3500–2500 BCE) displays cultural and genetic connections with the Indo-European-associated cultures of theEurasian Steppe yet predates the specificallyIndo-Iranian-associated Andronovo culture (c. 2000–900 BCE) enough to isolate theTocharian languages fromIndo-Iranian linguistic innovations likesatemization.[41]
Mair concluded:
From the evidence available, we have found that during the first 1,000 years after theLoulan Beauty, the only settlers in the Tarim Basin were Caucasoid. East Asian peoples only began showing up in the eastern portions of the Tarim Basin about 3,000 years ago, Mair said, while theUighur peoples arrived after the collapse of the Orkon Uighur Kingdom, largely based in modern day Mongolia, around the year 842.[42]
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Hemphill & Mallory (2003) note the existence of an additional physical type at Alwighul (700–1 BCE) and Krorän (200 CE) different from the earlier one found at Qäwrighul (1800 BCE) and Yanbulaq (1100–500 BCE), while finding no evidence of significant Steppe-related contributions to these remains:
The results fail to demonstrate close phenetic affinities between the early inhabitants of Qäwrighul and any of the proposed sources for immigrants to the Tarim Basin. The absence of close affinities to outside populations renders it unlikely that the human remains recovered from Qäwrighul represent the unadmixed remains of colonists from the Afanasievo or Andronovo cultures of the steppe lands, or inhabitants of the urban centers of the Oxus civilization of Bactria. ... This study confirms the assertion of Han [1998] that the occupants of Alwighul andKrorän are not derived from proto-European steppe populations, but share closest affinities with EasternMediterranean populations. Further, the results demonstrate that such Eastern Mediterraneans may also be found at the urban centers of theOxus civilization located in the northBactrian oasis to the west. Affinities are especially close between Krorän, the latest of the Xinjiang samples, and Sapalli, the earliest of the Bactrian samples, while Alwighul and later samples from Bactria exhibit more distant phenetic affinities. This pattern may reflect a possible major shift in interregional contacts in Central Asia in the early centuries of the second millennium BCE. ... Nevertheless, there is no support for the hypothesis that steppe populations contributed significantly to Bronze Age populations of the Tarim Basin. Despite numerous similarities between Afanasievo and Andronovo artifacts and Bronze Age artifacts from Xinjiang (Bunker, 1998; Chen and Hiebert, 1995; Kuzmina, 1998; Mei and Shell, 1998; Peng, 1998), all analyses of phenetic relationships consistently reveal a profound phenetic separation between steppe samples and the samples from the Tarim Basin (Qäwrighul, Alwighul, and Krorän).
Zhang et al. (2021) proposed that the 'Western' like features of the earlier Tarim mummies could be attributed to theirAncient North Eurasian ancestry.[43] Previous craniometric analyses on the early Tarim mummies found that they formed a distinct cluster of their own, and clustered with neither the European-related Steppe pastoralists from theAndronovo andAfanasievo culture, nor with inhabitants of the Western AsianBMAC culture, nor East Asian populations further East.[44]
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Western Regions (Hsi-yu;Chinese:西域;pinyin:Xīyù;Wade–Giles:Hsi1-yü4) is the historical name in China, between the 3rd century BCE and 8th century CE for regions west ofYumen Pass, including the Tarim and Central Asia.[45]
Some of the peoples of the Western Regions were described in Chinese sources as having full beards, red or blond hair, deep-set blue or green eyes and high noses.[46] According to Chinese sources, thecity states of the Tarim reached the height of their political power during the 3rd to 4th centuries CE,[47] although this may actually indicate an increase in Chinese involvement in the Tarim, following the collapse of theKushan Empire.
Reference to theRouzhi name was possibly made around 7th century BCE by the Chinese philosopherGuan Zhong, thoughhis book is generally considered to be a later forgery.[48]: 115–127 Guan Zhong described a group called either the Yuzhi 禺氏 or Niuzhi 牛氏 as a people from the north-west who suppliedjade to the Chinese from the nearby mountains of Yuzhi 禺氏 atGansu.
After the Rouzhi experienced a series of major defeats at the hands of theXiongnu, during the 2nd century BCE, a group known as the Greater Rouzhi migrated to Bactria, where they established theKushan Empire. By the 1st century CE, the Kushan Empire had expanded significantly and may have annexed part of the Tarim Basin.
The degree of differentiation between the language known to modern scholars asTocharian A (or by theendonymĀrśi-käntwa; "tongue ofĀrśi") andTocharian B (Kuśiññe; [adjective] "ofKucha,Kuchean"), as well as the less-well attestedTocharian C (which is associated with the city-state ofKrorän, also known asLoulan), and the absence of evidence for these beyond the Tarim, tends to indicate that a common, proto-Tocharian language existed in the Tarim during the second half of the 1st millennium BCE. Tocharian is attested in documents between the 3rd and 9th centuries CE, although the first knownepigraphic evidence dates to the 6th century CE.
Although the Tarim mummies preceded the Tocharian texts by around 2,000 years, their shared geographical location and links to Western Eurasia have led many scholars to suggest that the mummies were related to theTocharian peoples.
The possible presence of speakers ofIndo-European languages in the Tarim Basin by about 2000 BCE[35] could, if confirmed, be interpreted as evidence that cultural exchanges occurred among Indo-European and Chinese populations at a very early date. It has been suggested that such techniques aschariotwarfare andbronze-making may have been transmitted to the east by these Indo-European nomads.[49] Mallory and Mair also note that: "Prior toc. 2000 BCE, finds of metal artifacts in China are exceedingly few, simple and, puzzlingly, already made of alloyed copper (and hence questionable)."
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While stressing that the argument as to whether bronze technology travelled from China to the West or that "the earliest bronze technology in China was stimulated by contacts with western steppe cultures", is far from settled in scholarly circles, they suggest that the evidence so far favours the latter scenario.[50] However, the culture and the technology in the northwest region of Tarim basin were less advanced than that in the East China of Yellow River-Erlitou (c. 2070–1600 BCE) orMajiayao culture (c. 3100–2600 BCE), the earliest bronze-using cultures in China, which implies that the northwest region did not use copper or any metal until bronze technology was introduced to the region by theShang dynasty in about 1600 BCE. The earliest bronze artifacts in China are found at theMajiayao site (between 3100 and 2700 BCE),[51][52] and it is from this location and time period that Chinese Bronze Age spread. Bronze metallurgy in China originated in what is referred to as theErlitou (Wade–Giles:Erh-li-t'ou) period, which some historians argue places it within the range of dates controlled by the Shang dynasty.[53]
Others believe the Erlitou sites belong to the precedingXia (Wade–Giles:Hsia) dynasty.[53] The USNational Gallery of Art defines the Chinese Bronze Age as the "period between about 2000 BC and 771 BC", which begins with Erlitou culture and ends abruptly with the disintegration ofWestern Zhou rule.[54] Though that provides a concise frame of reference, it overlooks the continued importance of bronze in Chinese metallurgy and culture. Since that was significantly later than the discovery of bronze in Mesopotamia, bronze technology could have been imported, rather than being discovered independently in China. However, there is reason to believe that bronzework developed inside China, separately from outside influence.[55][56]
The Chinese officialZhang Qian, who visitedBactria andSogdiana in 126 BCE, made the first known Chinese report on many regions west of China. He believed to have discerned Greek influences in some of the kingdoms. He namedParthia "Ānxī" (Chinese: 安息), a transcription of "Arshak" (Arsaces), the name of the founder ofParthian dynasty.[57] Zhang Qian clearly identified Parthia as an advanced urban civilization that farmed grain and grapes and manufactured silver coins and leather goods.[58] Zhang Qian equated Parthia's level of advancement to the cultures ofDayuan inFerghana andDaxia in Bactria.
The supplying ofTarim Basinjade to China from ancient times is well established, according toLiu (2001): "It is well known that ancient Chinese rulers had a strong attachment to jade. All of the jade items excavated from thetomb of Fuhao of theShang dynasty byZheng Zhenxiang, more than 750 pieces, were fromKhotan in modernXinjiang. As early as the mid-first millennium BCE theYuezhi engaged in the jade trade, of which the major consumers were the rulers of agricultural China."
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ThePrincess of Xiaohe (Chinese:小河公主) was unearthed and also named by the archaeologists of Xinjiang Institute of Archaeology at Xiaohe Cemetery Tomb M11, 102 km west of Loulan, Lop Nur, Xinjiang in 2003.[59] She has reddish brown hair and long eyelashes and was wrapped in a white wool cloak with tassels and wore a felt hat, string skirt, and fur-lined leather boots. She was buried with wooden pins and three small pouches ofephedra and twigs and branches of ephedra were placed beside the body.[60] She is not permanently exhibited in any museum.
TheBeauty of Loulan (also referred to as the "Loulan Beauty" or the "Beauty ofKrorän") is the most famous of the Tarim mummies, along with theCherchen Man.[61] She was discovered in 1980 byChinesearchaeologists working on a film about theSilk Road. The mummy was discovered nearLop Nur. She was buried 3 feet beneath the ground. The mummy was extremely well preserved because of the dry climate and the preservative properties of salt.[62] She was wrapped in a woolen cloth; the cloth was made of two separate pieces and was not large enough to cover her entire body, thereby leaving her ankles exposed. The Beauty of Loulan was surrounded by funerary gifts.[63] The Beauty of Loulan has been dated back to approximately 1800 BCE.[64]
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The Beauty of Loulan lived around 1800 BCE, until about the age of 45, when she died. Her cause of death is likely due to lung failure from ingesting a large amount of sand,charcoal, and dust.[62] According to Elizabeth Barber, she probably died in the winter because of her provisions against the cold.[63] The rough shape of her clothes and thelice in her hair suggest she lived a difficult life.[62]
The Beauty of Loulan's hair colour has been described asauburn.[63] Her hair was infested with lice.[62] The Beauty of Loulan is wearing clothing made ofwool andfur. Her hood is made offelt and has a feather in it.[67] She is wearing rough ankle-highmoccasins made ofleather, with fur on the outside. Her skirt is made of leather, with fur on the inside for warmth. She is also wearing a woolen cap. According to Elizabeth Barber, these provisions against the cold suggest she died during the winter.[63] The Beauty of Loulan possesses acomb, with four teeth remaining. Barber suggests that this comb was a dual purpose tool to comb hair and to "pack theweft in tightly during weaving". She possesses a "neatly woven bag or soft basket". Grains ofwheat were discovered inside the bag.[63]
A 23-poem sequence on the Beauty of Loulan appears in the Canadian poetKim Trainor'sKaryotype (2015).
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TheYingpan man is a much later mummy from the same area, dating to the 4th–5th century CE. Dressed in luxurious clothes, he may have been aSogdian or an elite member of theShanshan Kingdom.[68][69]
According toEd Wong'sNew York Times article from 2008, Mair was prohibited from leaving the country with 52 genetic samples. However, a Chinese scientist clandestinely sent him half a dozen, on which an Italian geneticist performed tests.[1]
Since then, China has prohibited foreign scientists from conducting research on the mummies. As Wong says, "Despite the political issues, excavations of the grave sites are continuing."[1]
Biological anthropological research indicates that the physical characteristics of those buried at Gumugou cemetery along the Kongque River near Lop Nur in Xinjiang are very similar to those of the Andronovo culture and Afanasievo culture people from Siberia in Southern Russia. This suggests that all of these individuals belong to the Caucasian physical type. Additionally, excavations in 2002 by Xinjiang archaeologists at the site of Xiaohe cemetery, first discovered by the Swedish archaeologist Folke Bergman, uncovered mummies and wooden human effigies that clearly have Europoid features. According to the preliminary excavation report, the cultural features and chronology of this site are said to be quite similar to those of Gumugou. Other sites in Xinjiang also contain both individuals with Caucasian features and ones with Mongolian features. For example, this pattern occurs at theYanbulark cemetery in Xinjiang, but individuals with Mongoloid features are clearly dominant. The above evidence is enough to show that, starting around 2,000 BCE some so-called primitive Caucasians expanded eastward to the Xinjiang area as far as the area around Hami and Lop Nur. By the end of the second millennium, another group of people from Central Asia started to move over the Pamirs and gradually dispersed in southern Xinjiang. These western groups mixed with local Mongoloids resulting in an amalgamation of culture and race in middle Xinjiang east to the Tianshan.
The basin holds several intact Bronze Age cemeteries of a founding population known as the agropastoral Xiaohe culture, which formed around 2100 BCE in what were then freshwater environments (the Bronze Age spanned from about 3000 to 1000 BCE).
Combining genomic and proteomic evidence, researchers revealed that these earliest residents in the Tarim Basin carried genetic ancestry inherited from local Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers, carried no steppe-related ancestry, but consumed milk products, indicating communications of persistence practices independent from genetic exchange.
The whole graveyard including tomb M2 belongs to the Subeixi culture, associated with theCheshi (Chü-shih) state known from Chinese historical sources (Sinor, 1990). Archaeological and historical data attest it as society with a developed agro-pastoral economy, that existed in and north of the Turfan Basin (Fig. 1) during the first millennium BC. The Subeixi weaponry, horse gear and garments (Mallory and Mair, 2000; Lü, 2001) resemble those of the Pazyryk culture (Molodin and Polos'mak, 2007), suggesting contacts between Subeixi and the Scythians living in the Altai Mountains.
... the fact that in cemeteries such asYanbulaq both Europoid and Mongoloid mummies have been found together, also indicates some degree of interaction between existing farming populations and newly arrived nomadic migrants from the West.
40°20′11″N88°40′21″E / 40.336453°N 88.672422°E /40.336453; 88.672422
