Customer Reviews

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

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....[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.

"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.

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.

I very much enjoyed Mallory and Mair's careful consideration of the mystery of the Tarim mummies. With input from all relevant disciplines; from Archaeology to Linguistics to DNA; they sifted theories and evidence meticulously. Eventually logic led them to conclusions.
Human beings have always been on the move. A species that had populated Australia around 40,000 years ago was not daunted by a few mountains and a desert. Mountains have passes and deserts have oases . Having adapted to the steppes' broad grasslands; having tamed sheep, goats and most important for their mobility, horses; the Proto-Indo- Europeans were good to go.
The fact that the denizens of the Tarim basin were largely Caucasoid is only surprising in view of the prejudices of both East and West. The truth is that people spread around the earth until they met on the other side. The meeting place was, apparently, the Tarim basin. There, long before the Silk Road made it official, the trade in ideas and goods went on, with pastoralists and oasis agriculturalists at the crossroads.
In search of the language of these earliest inhabitants, Mallory and Mair settle on early Tocharian, the easternmost extension of the Indo-European language family. Of course, soon after arriving, the extension of the Indo-Iranian branch met them. The Tarim dwellers were soon ethnically mixed and multi-lingual.
The corridor from West to East provided China with wheat, sheep, goats, horses and wheeled vehicles. Buddhism reached them from India by way of the Tarim. From East to West, much technology traveled with the precious silk, including paper, printing and an improved plow.
We are indebted to the early Chinese historians who were the first to record the peoples of the Tarim. It took a team like Mallory and Mair to bring together and decipher so much of the evidence. Much more information will undoubtedly come to fill in the outlines they have so skillfully drawn, but basically, the mystery is solved.

Mair and Mallory did an excellent job. They not only cover the mummies and the archaeological finds, they also provide lots of historical background and context, which is fascinating.

Easy to read, well-written, with a light touch and spots of humor.

My only complaint is that the maps often don't mark the locations being discussed in the surrounding text, leading the reader to flip forward or back to the correct map, though a map of the same area is on the current page.

This thick volume attempts to answer the question of how a bunch of Caucasian mummies ended up in central China. Scholarly and far-reaching, it delves into linguistics, archaeology, religion, and other disciplines.

It didn't actually dwell on the mummies of Tarim much. Most of it's book scholarship, not field investigation. It tries to show how various populations in China got where they did, using whatever means it can. In this regard, it succeeds. But I wish it'd talked about the actual mummies more than it did. I got occasional glimpses, but nothing more.

I wish that serious historians would stop writing books of this kind. Mallory's "In Search of the IndoEuropeans:Language, Archeaeology and Myth" systematically and logically discusses what can be known about the origins of the IndoEuropeans.
What I was hoping for was a discussion of the Tarim Mummies as additional evidence, their historical context, and what the evidence tells us about the mummies as well as the early history of the Indoeuropeans. That information is in there, but one practically needs a separate pencil and paper to piece it together because the authors seem to have decided to create that TV documentary kind of rising action and fiction-device kind of strategy to hold the viewers' attention until the end of the documentary. It is not unusual for an historian to state that certain points will be addressed in a subsequent chapter, but this is generally not done for the purpose of creating suspense. This book seems to have been written for an audience that never thought about history at all and needs to be told that there is a past and that the past is interesting. Is it a good idea to "dumb down" a book to reach an audience or does it simply "dumb down" the audience itself?
Why not just follow a straightforward discussion: What did you find, what was there, what can be concluded from this? In other words, you can write about the discovery of an Egyptian mummy without a biography of Boris Karloff.

I don't consider myself a fan of "popular" treatments of specialized subject matter, but I couldn't help wishing the authors had even just a hint of a flair for writing.

This volume explores the mystery of the caucasoid mummies found in the heart of central Asia along the ancient silk route. It is written by two eminent scholars actively involved in research on the mummies, so readers can be forgiven for assuming the authors' qualifications would result in an exceptional book. Not so. Sadly, this book suffers from the curse of an overly academic approach. It's a real shame, too, considering the unusual nature of the mummies, their fantastic state of preservation, and the detective work required to reconstruct their story from a relatively few tantalizing clues.

Readers interested in this subject will be pleased with the color photos included, and I don't mean to suggest that this book is not worth reading--far from it--however, the writing is unremittingly turgid, the conclusions predictably cautious and wishy-washy, and when all is said and done it is sadly unsatisfying.

I will not go to great lengths in describing why I think this is a great book, as all the 4 / 5 star reviews here cover all the comments I would have made.

I will also not attack those who have panned or attacked the book, although several of their comments seemed to me to be unfair, to say the least. Some attacked Drs. Mair and Mallory for not being readable enough, while others did so for not being scholarly enough. I found them to be both very readable and quite scholarly.

Others attack their findings. While the late Ms. Horvath (for example) voiced some valid concerns over some of the other popularized treatments, I did not find this to be the case with this book. I thought their work was scholarly, balanced and fair throughout. I might add that Ms. Horvath's comments about fabrics show that whatever her other accomplishments may have been (and she was obviously well-read and traveled), she lacks knowledge in this field.

The material generally described today as "plaid" while it has appeared in other cultures, is certainly a long-time hallmark of those later Indo-European speaking peoples we describe as Celts. The plaid material found at Tarim was identical in weave and appearance to that found at Hallstatt and other Celtic sites, or to early Scottish finds such as that at Falkirk (c. 3rd century AD). Indeed, it would not be out of place at a Highland Games today.

As to her criticism of the idea that the West could have given anything to China, I think that the fact that the Chinese seem to have lacked the wheel prior to the advent of these people, while not "proof positive" is certainly indicative of at least one such gift, as are certain other curious facts garnered from ancient Chinese literary sources. Of course, any such gifts do not negate in any way the long and splendid history of fully native Chinese art, technology, and culture. It merely indicates that the trade and cultural exchanges we enjoy today are of much greater antiquity than previously known - which I believe is a good thing.

Additionally, the fact the Chinese government apparently seems rather anxious to bury or belittle any possible contributions or connections to the West - just as they are to negate any possible connections between the Tarim Mummies and the current inhabitants (albeit for different reasons). Their last-minute attempt to grab all the DNA samples speaks volumes - as does the courageous act of one of their scientists in seeing that the team came away with some DNA anyway.

As to their place of origin, I think the theory that they came in from the same direction as the Indo-Europeans to not be too far a stretch, and that the obvious cultural connections with the later Tocharians, while not proof in and of itself of a linguistic connection, is certainly indicative.

As far as their field work - nobody from the West has done as much as Dr. Mair and his expert team, and Dr. Mallory is one of the most noted Indo-European scholars in the world. I cannot think of anyone with more experience, or better qualified than these people to do the work, or to make an educated hypothesis on possible origins.

As to those who criticize them for not stating with certainty things like origins and languages, etc. - I think those matters will never be adequately and certainly settled unless we somehow become able to travel in time, which would present tis own set of challenges, as any science fictioneer knows) -- and since the current state of scientific theory seems to negate this possibility, we are not likely to see that capability emerge anytime soon.

For myself, I don't see this as some sort of competition between East and West to see which is supposedly "superior." From my world travels, I have seen that there are good, bad, and indifferent in all cultures, and that "superiority" based on things like race, culture, religion, or similar criteria usually are the best proof of the fallacy of that theory.

In conclusion, I found this book and Dr. Barber's related book on the textiles found at the site (The Mummies of Ürümchi) to be fascinating and readable treatises on a most interesting subject, and highly recommend the both to all interested readers.

It was with great enjoyment that I read the Mummies of the Tarim. The book should be a milestone in its attempt to popularize early Indo-European pre-historiography, by trying to reduce--if not oversimplify--a formidable amount of theory, data, and material evidence into some sort of comprehensible format. The illustrations (maps, charts and color photos) help bring a little known cultural sphere to life. The style is easy to understand and the chapter headings eye-catching, though the reader needs to be versed in many of the particulars. Mair's and Mallory's overall reluctance to draw the conclusion that in 2000 BC there was an en masse migration of western European Celtic groups eastward into the Tarims oasis area (China's Xinjiang autonomous province), is commendable. I find the work's approach a refreshing relief from the frenzy of the past 4-5 years dominated by the press' sensationalizing a yet unproved hypothesis about the mummies of Xinjiang, their role in China's history and a supposed Indo-European cultural diffusion. The implication that these western Europeans brought technologial innovations to the backward Chinese was unmistakeable. Several points are worthy of mention here. 1. Based on the available evidence, Mair and Mallory cannot but conclude that direct migrations from western Europe are unwarranted since these Europoid populations of Asia, some of whose memebers were mummified after death in the Tarim Basin--have been living in Siberia and Central Asia at least since the Neolithic Age (4-3000 BC). However, they fail to mention that though they are antropologically classified as Europoids, they are markedly different from those of Western Europe (p 236) of the same time period. The Asian Europoids exhibit a short, flat face and round skull, while the norhther European Europoids have long faces, protruding noses and long skulls. 2. Futher merit of the book include discussions of the seeming similarity between the textile find of the Hallstatt culture of western Europe (ca 900-to 400 BC), and that found in Qizilchoca 1000 BC, (p 219). They point out that the distance and the scarcity of data--not to mention that Hallstatt pieces are later than Qizilchoca-- preclude the claim of direct derivation of the Tarim textiles from Hallstatt. 3. Similarly, they discuss in great detail the myriad problems of assigning a language to the early Xinjiang populations. They explore Tocharian (3rd.c. AD), yet admit that projecting back the linguistic evidence from this late date upon the population that lived 1500 years earlier in the Tarim is a method scientifically unsound (p. 301). 4. The Uygur nationality who moved to Xinjiang from the Baikal area, show marked physical resemblance to the ancient populations and the authors point out-- correctly-- that these people can claim direct descent from these early groups (pp 250-251). 5. However, while bringing in much food for thought regarding migrations focuses myopically only on Indo-European peoples, sadly falling short of exploring the history and ethnic continuity of the indigenous populationf of multi-ethnic Tarim---as the book title would warrant. The Turks get three pages of discussion (pp 99-101), the Huns and Avars none. This treatment can hardly be called exhaustive . The authors themselves admit that the south Siberian and Central Asian populations resemble the ancient Xinjiang groups the most closely, yet ignore much research that show that a high percentageage of today's Turkic speaking peoples in Central Asia, not only in the Tarim, have been from this very stock, since the Bronze Age, precluding mass migrations from the west. 6. There are numerous other ommissions. One concerns connecting the so-called "witches' hat" of the Tarim (p 220) to the head-gear of the western European witch. While this kind of headdress existed first in the Tarim area, its use spread in Asia among the Saka, Scythians, Turks, Kumans, and Mongols, and the book neglets to note that these hats never existed anywhere in western European cultures. Therefore, the ' witches' hat of the 17th c. AD Puritans-- the only other evidence offered as a western European parallel-- lacks credibility. From in-depth reading of the work it becomes clear that the cultural features examined in the book cannot be shown to derive from Western Europe, but have continuous traditions locally and in Central Asia among Iranian, Turkic, and Mongolian speaking groups. By and large throughout the book Mair and Mallory are walking the tightrope of tenuous linguistic reconstructions in an effort to establish the possibility of Indo-Europeans dispersing eastward from somehwere in the grasslands of South Russia, transmitting cultural features to China. In the final analysis they have to admit that the role of the Tarim mummies is still far from clear in this respect. While the authors still cannot bring themselves to openly admit that not all Europoid-looking peoples speak Indo European languages, as hard as it is for them, they cannot help but be cautious regarding far reaching conclusions about Indo European movements. How to categorize this book? It cannot be called an authoritative scholarly research tool, since its style is neither authoritative nor scholarly. Lack of footnotes and references, and grossly incolmplete bibliography render it of marginal use for the scholar. It abounds in statements which lack proof, circular arguments, and a-priory theories . It can be categorized as a popularized attempt at the overview of a too wide, grossly underresearched topic. Nevertheless, the book is commendable for at least helping to dispel the rather naive, if not ridiculous notion --partially perpetrated by sensationalist journalism of the past few years--the unproved conjecture, that in 2000- BC, read-headed and blonde Scotsmen, wearing tartans (p. 218), riding furiously on their charitos from western Europe eastward all the way to the Tarim Basin, brought the Chinese knowledge of horseriding, metalworking and of course, the wheel.