- Hardcover: 352 pages
- Publisher: Thames and Hudson (Jun 29 2000)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0500051011
- ISBN-13: 978-0500051016
- Product Dimensions: 25.8 x 18 x 4 cm
- Shipping Weight: 1.1 Kg
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,353,736 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
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
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
Book Description
The best-preserved mummies in the world are not found in Egypt or Peru but in the museums of Xinjiang, the westernmost province of modern China. For thousands of years the occupants of the barren wastes and oases that would later become the Silk Road buried their dead in the desiccating sands of the Tklimakan, the second greatest desert on earth. This arid environment, preserving body and clothing, allows an unparalleled glimpse into the lives and appearance of a prehistoric people. While the mummies lie mute, their faces eloquently challenge modern scholars to identify them. For these are not the faces of ancient Chinese but rather those of Indo-Europeans who settled in the Tarim Basin on the western rim of ancient China some four millennia ago, 2,000 years before West and East recognized each other's existence. This intriguing study describes the discovery of these people of ancient China and reveals the latest attempts of Chinese and Western scientists to explain their origin and determine their ethnic identity. The book examines the clues left by physical remains; their economy, technology, and textiles (some of the mummies even wore tartans); and the later traces of the languages of the Tarim region. The trail ultimately leads to two major contenders: the Indo-Iranians, those masters of the Eurasian steppes who poured south into the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, India, and China, and the Tocharians, the most elusive of the major branches of Indo-Europeans.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
If you found this book too dull,
By rkb "rkb@hvc.rr.com" (Wallkill, NY United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West (Hardcover)
read Elizabeth Wayland Barber's "Mummies of Urumchi" instead. It's a great read. She foucses on what we can learn about these people based on (starting from) the textiles the mummies were wrapped in. The result is a fascinating look at a surprising culture. And if you enjoy that, try her earlier book "Women's Work: the First 20,000 Years" too.
4.0 out of 5 stars
A fascinating look at one of our modern mysteries.,
By Cas (the Idaho mountains) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West (Hardcover)
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.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Lots of academic theorizing to reade, sometimes engaging.,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West (Hardcover)
...what it is, mainly, is a discussion about the cultural name and the language of the mummies might be. This is fine, and should occupy a chapter, but half the book is specifically related to trying to pin down a name out of Chinese and European sources and where they came from from archaeological and linguistic knowledge.It seemed to me that the book might better have concentrated on what could be learned of their culture from what we DO know from their burials and with comparisons to how people live in those regions today. There is no in-depth analysis of the items (beyond what you can see for yourself in the photographs) nor comparison of cultural details or even explaining what a nomadic lifestyle would be like, nor discussion of specific practices that might suggest their beliefs. And when mention is made it is done briefly so they can get on with their analysis of the historical basis of Central Asia. Clearly they chose their emphasis simply because they have such limited access to the mummies themselves. There are several chapters at the end that spell out all the competing ideas of how the Tarim basin may have been populated, which probably belonged in a anthropological journal. But I cannot say the book is not interesting to reade, its just that I kept waiting for a close study of cultural comparisons right until the book ended. For this reason I liked Barber's book better, for her close appraisal of Tarim fabrics and then to speak of how they might have been made. One feature of the mummies was the women with "witch" hats. The authors simply say the real witch's hat was Puritan dress from the 17th century and then blithely go on. Now somehow I believed the Puritans were Christians not pagans, but maybe I'm wrong.
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