Was Cherchen Man a European?

The Tarim Basin in Xinjiang in north-west China is an inhospitable place: extremely dry, with very hot summers and freezing winters. But these are good conditions for preserving bodies.

In 1978, Chinese archaeologists discovered the mummy of a tall man dressed in a dark-red wool tunic and brightly coloured leggings. His red hair and aquiline nose identified him as European rather than Chinese, and they named him Cherchen Man after the province where he was found.

Radiocarbon dating, showed that he had been lying there since the 11th century BC and that similar mummies found in the region dated from between 2000BC and 300BC. Until then, historians believed that China had not been in contact with the West until around 140BC. Proof of the Xinjiang mummies' European origins came in 1995, when DNA tests showed that they were genetically related to present-day Swedes, Finns, Tuscans, Corsicans and Sardinians.

Top