Journal of Eurasian Studies - EPA

April‐June 2010 JOURNAL OF EURASIAN STUDIES Volume II., Issue 2.
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HORVÁTH, Izabella
The Tarim Basin Mummies: a Commentary
Since the mid‐nineteenth century much of Western historical research has been motivated by the desire
to prove that Indo‐Europeans were responsible for significant cultural development and evolution in
Europe and beyond. Over the years major inventions, such as the chariot, bronze working, and horse
riding have all been claimed as Indo‐European creations. These speculations are based largely on the
assumption of cultural diffusion from a single source, that is Europe, and often overlook the possibility of
independent clusters of cultural development taking place in tandem in different parts of the world.
Moreover, the research often lacks a global perspective and neglects to include pertinent historical data
from farther afield.
While early efforts to prove Indo‐European cultural primacy nearly 150 years ago may be
understandable, if not excusable, it is hardly so in the 21 st century. This is especially true in regards to the
study of the early history of China and the question of western influence. More often than not western
researchers ignore pertinent Chinese historical records as well as Chinese and Russian scholarly work in
order to maintain claims of Indo‐European cultural primacy. This predisposition of viewing cultural
diffusion as moving exclusively from West to East complicates and confounds the relevant questions and
issues we are faced with when researching the cultural history of ancient China.
One of the most famous and prevalent cases in which the inclination of western scholars to seek
cultural influences moving from the Indo‐European west to the Chinese east, is in the case of the Tarim
Mummies. Scholars such as Sir Aurel Stein, Albert von le Coq, and Sven Hedin came across these
fascinating finds, excavated in Xinjiang, China in the early 20 th century and dating between 1800 BCE and
200 CE. More recently, they have been dealt with by western scholar Victor Mair.
Mair, a Chinese language professor at the University of Pennsylvania, visited Xinjiang in 1994 and
reported his “discovery” in the Urumqi Museum of a number of mummified remains which looked to
him to be European (Hadingham, 1994). The report about “Mysterious Blonde Ancient Europeans in
China” spread like wildfire to sensation‐seeking media. Simply entering “Tarim Mummies” into a Google
search verifies the report’s far‐reaching effects.
The journalist, Hadingham reported in Discover magazine that some of the mummies were blonde and
that according to Mair, were of Celtic stock who rode chariots across Central Asia introducing this
technology to China, along with the knowledge of surgery, bronze working and textile weaving. Early
Chinese historical records do not mention the origins of bronze working, and the use of the chariot, thus
leaving western scholars to continue their guesswork about the diffusion of these inventions. However,
speculations on the subject do not bring us any closer to answering these questions.
My own research pertaining to the Tarim mummies began in January 1995 when I had the opportunity
to personally conduct fieldwork in Xinjiang. This naturally included seeing the mummies in the Urumqi
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