The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West [Hardcover]

J. P. Mallory (Author), Victor H. Mair (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2000

The best-preserved mummies are in the museums of Xinjiang, China. For thousands of years the occupants of the Tarim deserts buried their dead in the desert sands. The mummies' faces are European, and this study tries to explain their origin.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A major contribution to the history and archaeology of a remote and little known part of the world. -- Brian Fagan

Facinating and well-researched...certain to prove controversal. -- Colin Renfrew

This book is of outstanding significance . . . essential reading for archaeologists and scholars of ancient history. -- Social and Behavioral Sciences, C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky, January 2001

About the Author

J.P. Mallory, Professor of Archaeology at the Queen's University, Belfast, is the author of In Search of the Indo-Europeans, published by Thames and Hudson. Victor H. Mair is Professor of Chinese at the University of Pennsylvania and has been instrumental in bringing the Tarim mummies to the notice of Western scholars.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson (June 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0500051011
• ISBN-13: 978-0500051016
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 7.1 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,489,851 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Did We Read the Same Book?, July 22, 2000

By 

C. Scott Littleton (Pasadena, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West (Hardcover)

....[As] one who has participated in an aspect of this research-the
extent to which at least some of the later Xinjiang mummies may have
been Northeast Iranians (Saka, et al.), who subsequently had an impact
on both China and Japan-I can attest that Mair and Mallory have
critically assessed every possible explanation before concluding that
the great bulk of this Europoid population, esepcially in the later
period, were in all probability Tocharian speakers of one sort or
another (the earliest Europoids in the region may have been archaic
Iranians, an idea recently suggested by my colleague Dr. Elizabeth
J. W. Barber). Moreover, the textile evidence, intensely researched
by Dr. Barber (see her widely-praised book THE MUMMIES OF URUMCHI,
W.W. Norton & Co., 1999), reinforces the conclusion that the
Europoids who settled in the Tarim Basin in the latter part 2nd
millennium, B.C.E., shared a common origin with a variety of Western
Indo-European speakers, including the Celts, whose textiles were
preserved in the salt-filled graves at Hallstatt (ca. 1300-400
B.C.E.). This, of course, also points squarely in the direction of the
Tocharians, who, despite the fact that they were the easternmost of
the attested ancient Indo-European speakers, shared a great many
specific linguistic features in common with the Western group,
especially the Celts. (Incidently,...the pointed "witches
hat" is in fact deeply embedded in the ancient Brythonic-and,
by extension, Celtic-culture and predates the 17th century Puritan
image...by at least two millennia.) Yes, the great majority
of the current population of the Tarim is Uyghur-speaking, that is, of
Altaic origin, and yes, there are some physical similarities between
some of the current inhabitants of the region and the tall, blue-eyed
people whose mummified remains have become so controversial. But that
is to be expected whenever a new population intrudes into a
region-and we know beyond a reasonable doubt that the intrusion of
the "Turkic" speaking Uyghurs into Xinjiang occurred in the
9th and 10th centuries B.C.E, over a millennium after the arrival of
the Iranian- (or perhaps Tocharian-) speaking Europoids. To cite a
parallel situation, the vast majority of modern Mexicans speak
Spanish, a tongue introduced by a conquering culture some five
centuries ago. Physically, however, most Mexicans, including those
with little or no "Indio" cultural heritage, still reflect
their Native American ancestry, though with a fair amount of
"Europoid" admixture, especially among the ruling elite. In
short, THE TARIM MUMMIES should be required reading for anyone
seriously concerned with trans-Eurasian cultural connections in the
course of the last six thousand years.

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating book on an intriguing archaeological mystery, September 19, 2000

By 

JLP (Schaumburg, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West (Hardcover)

"The Tarim Mummies" weaves field data, historical background, scholarship, and informed speculation into probably the best account of this subject yet published. The authors set the discovery of the mummies in the wider context of written historical records and ancient (mainly Indo-European) migrations. They are not afraid to make occasionally tenuous hypotheses on the origins of the Tarim Basin's earliest settlers, but they are always clear about their evidence and the tentative nature of their assertions. Sometimes, they raise more questions than answers, but then such is science. The writing style is both sober and engaging.

I also read "The Mummies of Urumchi" (by E. W. Barber), an excellent book, but I enjoyed this newer work more, if only for its more balanced and comprehensive treatment.

20 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Impressive volume, August 20, 2000

By 

Atheen M. Wilson "Atheen" (Mpls, MN United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West (Hardcover)

I've had a life long interest in ancient history and have studied it to the MA level. In my exposure to the process of learning the subject, it often seemed to me that somehow god casts a spotlight on earth's stage and the historic cast of one civilization takes center stage does its part and departs. When the curtain rises again, another character steps forward to play its part. None of these individual civilizations seems to have much to do with any of the others. The student is left with little sense of connection and even the time lines seem disconnected. This book is amazing if for no other reason that the highlighted culture(s) of which the mummies were a part are peripheral, marginal ones lying between the East and the West. In attempting to describe the origins of the mummies and the population movements that they indicate, the authors provide a more thorough description of the intereactions of East and West. It's as if all the "characters" are on stage together during any given "act" giving the reader a far more comprehensive view of world history in the making than any other book on an individual topic. In acheiving their overall goal of describing the mummies and their background--cultural, linguistic, genetic, and historic--Mallory and Mair have also achieved a tour de force which puts more of human history into perspective. I expected to learn a great deal about the Tarim mummies of the Taklamakan Desert, I did not anticipate putting much of what I already knew of the ancient world into a more understandable framework. A very impressive book.