The Mummies of Urumchi | 
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Product Description
A fascinating exploration of the mysterious, perfectly preserved Caucasian mummies of western China. In the museums of rmchi, the windswept regional capital of the Uyghur Autonomous Region in Western China-what we know as Chinese Turkestan-a collection of ancient mummies lay at the center of an enormous mystery. Some of rmchi's mummies date back as far as 4,000 years-contemporary to the famous Egyptian mummies, but even more beautifully preserved, especially their clothing. Surprisingly, these prehistoric people are not Oriental but Caucasian-tall and large-nosed and blond with round eyes (probably blue). Where did they come from? What were these blonds doing in the foothills of the Himalayas? Few gifts are put into the graves of the dead, making it difficult for archaeologists to pinpoint any cultural connections from clues offered by their pottery and tools. But their clothing-woolens that rarely survive more than a few centuries-has been preserved as brightly hued as the day each was made. Elizabeth Wayland Barber describes these remarkable mummies, their clothing, and the world to which they so mysteriously belonged, piecing together their history and peculiar Western connections both from what she saw in rmchi and from the testimony of those who explored along the Silk Road centuries earlier. The result is an entertaining and informative unveiling of an ancient and exotic world.
Amazon.com Review
The 2000-year-old mummies of Ürümchi, found in central Asia along the famed Silk Road trading route, are so well preserved as to show clearly that they seem to be of Caucasoid origin. Where did these people come from? Where did they go? You can find their pale-skinned, light-haired descendents among the people of the region, but the story of their presence in this forbidding land leaves more mysteries than it answers. Mass migrations during the Bronze Age scattered many peoples across Europe and Asia, and these startlingly lively-looking mummies may help answer some questions about this period of human history. Their intact, fantastically colored and patterned clothing captures much of author Elizabeth Wayland Barber's attention--she is an expert on prehistoric textiles. Her enthusiastic descriptions of the sewing skills of these migrant people, while focusing on details, lend an immediacy to this fascinating tale. Black-and-white as well as color photos, maps, and diagrams illustrate Barber's colorful tale of anthropology. --Therese Littleton
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Customer Reviews:
• A Shared History From A New Angle 20 August, 2003
I bought this book because I heard an interview with charming Elizabeth Barber about mummies in China. By the time the book was finished she had covered -- almost effortlessly -- a world where weather, textiles, religion, migration, agriculture, geography, mysticism, and so many other fields somehow come together.These events happen in exotic, unfamiliar and inaccessible places but they are surprisingly relevant to our own lives. So many of the side lessons -- like a bad weather year in east Asia could cause a wave of invasions as far as Moscow, and did for millenia -- have helped to make the conflict-prone post-9/11 days a bit more understandable, sadly. It's hard to believe that her short lessons about things like dendrochronology (tree-ring dating) and paleolinguistics (word origins and the people who used them) could turn into almost every day concepts, but it's true! Imagine -- we can what the weather was in the Swedish summer of 863 B.C.E. because of tree trunks from around the world! It's a mark of mastery to take a subject so large and present it clearly, and Ms. Barber has done so.
- Reviewed by customer ID: AXPI82Y3YZCEZ
• Good If You Are Interested In Textiles 23 May, 2005
I enjoyed reading this book but did skip over some of the details of the textiles once I got the point. My textile-mad friend who is a spinner and knitter was more interested in this aspect. I enjoyed seeing how the scientists deduced the origin of these mummies, not just from textiles but from historical documents, the records in ancient cities in the area and carbon dating, paths of migration - they certainly have to know a lot in order to develop the understanding of these ancient people. For me, it is interesting that the ancestors of the Scots were also the ancestors of these mummies.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1BKFLPCEUBZTJ
• Fascinating 14 January, 2007
I bought this book & read it soon after it was printed. I thought it was a great book at the time and I still get it out & read from it occasionally. I was thoroughly captivated by Barber's writing and the subject matter.
- Reviewed by customer ID: AUJHENHUSFL0P
• Textile Expert Seeks Answers About Caucasian Migrations 23 April, 2001
A rather good look at a very interesting mystery of pre-historic European migrations. Central to this has been the discovery of mummies some three to four-thousand years old who posses what is termed a "Caucasian" appearance, both biologically and culturally. Elizabeth Barber is an expert on ancient textiles and the first part of this book, involved in a description of mummies' textiles (from observations made on a visit there) is in her element and makes what could have been a dreadfully tedious description quite lively. It ends up being the best discussion in the book. In fact I give this book an additional star over other scholarly books of this sort - rather bland usually - for causing me to read with deep interest page after page about what is really an analysis of textile stitching. After describing the better-preserved mummies and analyzing their goods and textile weaves and patterns, she then approaches the whole question of their origins and especially in whether one can link this culture to the theoretical proto Indo-European language-speakers. At this point there is an interesting but rather plainly-written collection of a good deal of information provided by explorers into the region, and comparisons to other cultures such as the Celts, and some linguistic analysis. Although it kept my interest, the jumping between time, place and peoples could sometimes be confusing. And I kept having to search through the maps to remember where we were in relation to where, as these parts of Asia are not very familiar to us. It lacks at the end a good tie-up of loose ends or a summary, that seems required after such a lengthy heaping of theories.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A8H8UP3968QN7
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