The Celts of China? Ancient Celtic Mummies Found in China…
Channel: Celtic History Decoded
Date: 2021-07-25

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The Celts of China? Ancient Celtic Mummies Found in China… 

If I was to describe a 6-foot-tall man, with reddish-brown hair and a ginger beard, who was wearing a red twill tunic and tartan leggings, you could be forgiven for thinking I was describing a Scottish man from the 19th century. Yet I am actually describing the appearance of a 3,000-year-old mummy who was found in the dry sands of the Taklamakan Desert in the region of Xinjiang in western China.

He is known as the Cherchen Man, after his body was found alongside 3 women and a baby in the Chinese town of Cherchen. We know that this man was of European origin, and was probably an ancient Celt. In addition to his features, the weave of his cloth is identical to those wore by ancient Austrian salt miners from 1300 BC. Furthermore, the burial sites of these people were marked by stone structures that were similar to Dolmens, houses of the dead, which were popular in ancient European and Celtic civilizations. 

The origins of these people are far from clear however. One theory posits that the Cherchen man was from the Afanasievo culture, an ancient culture of south Siberia in Russia. Interestingly, some scholars argue that the Afanasievo culture itself was formed in part by migrants from the Don-Volga region of Russia, which is much further west, closer to eastern Europe. 

Furthermore, Elizabeth Wayland Barber, a textile expert, believes that the tartan-like cloth worn by the Cherchen man is from the steppe area north of the Black Sea, around Anatolia and the Caucasus region. Barber argues that certain groups in this Black Sea region split into two, with some going west and others going east. 

Exactly how all this fits together are not clear however, and is still shrouded in mystery. It does seem that the people of the east and the west were more connected thousands of years ago than what is generally believed, with the ancient trading routes of what later become known as the Silk Road helping to connect these civilizations.  

What’s your thoughts on this story? Please leave your comments below, and let me know if you know of any more potential connections between the East and the West…

Sources:

The Independent - A meeting of civilisations: The mystery of China's Celtic mummies https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/meeting-civilisations-mystery-china-s-celtic-mummies-5330366.html 

Cherchen Man https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherchen_Man 

Afanasievo culture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afanasievo_culture 

Tarim mummies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarim_mummies 

Gerard Seenan (The Guardian) https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/jan/25/gerardseenan 

Beauty of Loulan https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauty_of_Loulan 

Creative Commons Imagery:

Loulan beauty closeup https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Loulan_beauty_closeup.jpg 漫漫长冬 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en 

Krakkos https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Afanasievo_culture.jpg Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en 

Kmusser https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Volgarivermap.png Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/deed.en 

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