Just a "final" thing here on the Tocharian DNA/ Alani thing. I live in the US and was born in the UK, our family comes from the Scottish border areas. I used to be interested in Norse mythology until I recently found that my DNA is Celtic. I have always been interested in Arthurian legend, and have even been trying to learn some Welsh. So, I have been confused in perhaps linking this Tocharian/ Celtic/ Alan thing, along with an idea from some people that my DNA is Celtic Briton from perhaps a pre Roman era. I suppose some of you have read my thing on the Tocharians and the Alans, and I have responded to interested parties privately. I just came off a search engine, where it is stated that in ad 175, about 8000 Alans became the VI Roman Legion "Centrix" under a Marcus Aurelius. It is thought that another basis for King Arthur is a Legionaire Arturius in the VI Legion, which was based in the general area family is supposedly from. I hope all will understand my need in "sharing" this what continues to be a very strange set of synchronous happenings. -- Richard Clarkson Family -------------- Original message -------------- From: confido@ix.netcom.com > Sent to me by a friend. Thought it worth sharing: > > article from The Independent, 28 August 2006: > > > > ************************************************************** > A meeting of civilisations: The mystery of China's celtic mummies > > The discovery of European corpses thousands of miles away suggests > a hitherto unknown connection between East and West in the Bronze > Age. Clifford Coonan reports from Urumqi > > Published: 28 August 2006 > > Solid as a warrior of the Caledonii tribe, the man's hair is > reddish brown flecked with grey, framing high cheekbones, a long > nose, full lips and a ginger beard. When he lived three thousand > years ago, he stood six feet tall, and was buried wearing a red > twill tunic and tartan leggings. He looks like a Bronze Age European. > In fact, he's every inch a Celt. Even his DNA says so. > > But this is no early Celt from central Scotland. This is the > mummified corpse of Cherchen Man, unearthed from the scorched > sands of the Taklamakan Desert in the far-flung region of Xinjiang > in western China, and now housed in a new museum in the provincial > capital of Urumqi. In the language spoken by the local Uighur > people in Xinjiang, "Taklamakan" means: "You come in and never > come out." > > The extraordinary thing is that Cherchen Man was found - with > the mummies of three women and a baby - in a burial site thousands > of miles to the east of where the Celts established their biggest > settlements in France and the British Isles. > > DNA testing confirms that he and hundreds of other mummies found > in Xinjiang's Tarim Basin are of European origin. We don't know > how he got there, what brought him there, or how long he and > his kind lived there for. But, as the desert's name suggests, > it is certain that he never came out. > > His discovery provides an unexpected connection between east > and west and some valuable clues to early European history. > > One of the women who shared a tomb with Cherchen Man has light > brown hair which looks as if it was brushed and braided for her > funeral only yesterday. Her face is painted with curling designs, > and her striking red burial gown has lost none of its lustre > during the three millenniums that this tall, fine-featured woman > has been lying beneath the sand of the Northern Silk Road. > > The bodies are far better preserved than the Egyptian mummies, > and it is sad to see the infants on display; to see how the baby > was wrapped in a beautiful brown cloth tied with red and blue > cord, then a blue stone placed on each eye. Beside it was a baby's > milk bottle with a teat, made from a sheep's udder. > > Based on the mummy, the museum has reconstructed what Cherchen > Man would have looked like and how he lived. The similarities > to the traditional Bronze Age Celts are uncanny, and analysis > has shown that the weave of the cloth is the same as that of > those found on the bodies of salt miners in Austria from 1300BC. > > The burial sites of Cherchen Man and his fellow people were marked > with stone structures that look like dolmens from Britain, ringed > by round-faced, Celtic figures, or standing stones. Among their > icons were figures reminiscent of the sheela-na-gigs, wild females > who flaunted their bodies and can still be found in mediaeval > churches in Britain. A female mummy wears a long, conical hat > which has to be a witch or a wizard's hat. Or a druid's, perhaps? > The wooden combs they used to fan their tresses are familiar > to students of ancient Celtic art. > > At their peak, around 300BC, the influence of the Celts stretched > from Ireland in the west to the south of Spain and across to > Italy's Po Valley, and probably extended to parts of Poland and > Ukraine and the central plain of Turkey in the east. These mummies > seem to suggest, however, that the Celts penetrated well into > central Asia, nearly making it as far as Tibet. > > The Celts gradually infiltrated Britain between about 500 and > 100BC. There was probably never anything like an organised Celtic > invasion: they arrived at different times, and are considered > a group of peoples loosely connected by similar language, religion, > and cultural expression. > > The eastern Celts spoke a now-dead language called Tocharian, > which is related to Celtic languages and part of the Indo-European > group. They seem to have been a peaceful folk, as there are few > weapons among the Cherchen find and there is little evidence > of a caste system. > > Even older than the Cherchen find is that of the 4,000-year-old > Loulan Beauty, who has long flowing fair hair and is one of a > number of mummies discovered near the town of Loulan. One of > these mummies was an eight-year-old child wrapped in a piece > of patterned wool cloth, closed with bone pegs. > > The Loulan Beauty's features are Nordic. She was 45 when she > died, and was buried with a basket of food for the next life, > including domesticated wheat, combs and a feather. > > The Taklamakan desert has given up hundreds of desiccated corpses > in the past 25 years, and archaeologists say the discoveries > in the Tarim Basin are some of the most significant finds in > the past quarter of a century. > > "From around 1800BC, the earliest mummies in the Tarim Basin > were exclusively Caucausoid, or Europoid," says Professor Victor > Mair of Pennsylvania University, who has been captivated by the > mummies since he spotted them partially obscured in a back room > in the old museum in 1988. "He looked like my brother Dave sleeping > there, and that's what really got me. Lying there with his eyes > closed," Professor Mair said. > > It's a subject that exercises him and he has gone to extraordinary > lengths, dodging difficult political issues, to gain further > knowledge of these remarkable people. > > East Asian migrants arrived in the eastern portions of the Tarim > Basin about 3,000 years ago, Professor Mair says, while the Uighur > peoples arrived after the collapse of the Orkon Uighur Kingdom, > based in modern-day Mongolia, around the year 842. > > A believer in the "inter-relatedness of all human communities", > Professor Mair resists attempts to impose a theory of a single > people arriving in Xinjiang, and believes rather that the early > Europeans headed in different directions, some travelling west > to become the Celts in Britain and Ireland, others taking a northern > route to become the Germanic tribes, and then another offshoot > heading east and ending up in Xinjiang. > > This section of the ancient Silk Road is one of the world's most > barren precincts. You are further away from the sea here than > at any other place, and you can feel it. This where China tests > its nuclear weapons. Labour camps are scattered all around - > who would try to escape? But the remoteness has worked to the > archaeologists' advantage. The ancient corpses have avoided decay > because the Tarim Basin is so dry, with alkaline soils. Scientists > have been able to glean information about many aspects of our > Bronze Age forebears from the mummies, from their physical make-up > to information about how they buried their dead, what tools they > used and what clothes they wore. > > In her book The Mummies of Urumchi, the textile expert Elizabeth > Wayland Barber examines the tartan-style cloth, and reckons it > can be traced back to Anatolia and the Caucasus, the steppe area > north of the Black Sea. Her theory is that this group divided, > starting in the Caucasus and then splitting, one group going > west and another east. > > Even though they have been dead for thousands of years, every > perfectly preserved fibre of the mummies' make-up has been relentlessly > politicised. > > The received wisdom in China says that two hundred years before > the birth of Christ, China's emperor Wu Di sent an ambassador > to the west to establish an alliance against the marauding Huns, > then based in Mongolia. The route across Asia that the emissary, > Zhang Qian, took eventually became the Silk Road to Europe. Hundreds > of years later Marco Polo came, and the opening up of China began. > > The very thought that Caucasians were settled in a part of China > thousands of years before Wu Di's early contacts with the west > and Marco Polo's travels has enormous political ramifications. > And that these Europeans should have been in restive Xinjiang > hundreds of years before East Asians is explosive. > > The Chinese historian Ji Xianlin, writing a preface to Ancient > Corpses of Xinjiang by the Chinese archaeologist Wang Binghua, > translated by Professor Mair, says China "supported and admired" > research by foreign experts into the mummies. "However, within > China a small group of ethnic separatists have taken advantage > of this opportunity to stir up trouble and are acting like buffoons. > Some of them have even styled themselves the descendants of these > ancient 'white people' with the aim of dividing the motherland. > But these perverse acts will not succeed," Ji wrote. > > Many Uighurs consider the Han Chinese as invaders. The territory > was annexed by China in 1955, and the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous > Region established, and there have been numerous incidents of > unrest over the years. In 1997 in the northern city of Yining > there were riots by Muslim separatists and Chinese security forces > cracked down, with nine deaths. There are occasional outbursts, > and the region remains very heavily policed. > > Not surprisingly, the government has been slow to publicise these > valuable historical finds for fear of fuelling separatist currents > in Xinjiang. > > The Loulan Beauty, for example, was claimed by the Uighurs as > their symbol in song and image, although genetic testing now > shows that she was in fact European. > > Professor Mair acknowledges that the political dimension to all > this has made his work difficult, but says that the research > shows that the people of Xinjiang are a dizzying mixture. "They > tend to mix as you enter the Han Dynasty. By that time the East > Asian component is very noticeable," he says. "Modern DNA and > ancient DNA show that Uighurs, Kazaks, Kyrgyzs, the peoples of > central Asia are all mixed Caucasian and East Asian. The modern > and ancient DNA tell the same story," he says. > > Altogether there are 400 mummies in various degrees of desiccation > and decomposition, including the prominent Han Chinese warrior > Zhang Xiong and other Uighur mummies, and thousands of skulls. > The mummies will keep the scientists busy for a long time. Only > a handful of the better-preserved ones are on display in the > impressive new Xinjiang museum. Work began in 1999, but was stopped > in 2002 after a corruption scandal and the jailing of a former > director for involvement in the theft of antiques. > > The museum finally opened on the 50th anniversary of China's > annexation of the restive region, and the mummies are housed > in glass display cases (which were sealed with what looked like > Sellotape) in a multi-media wing. > > In the same room are the much more recent Han mummies - equally > interesting, but rendering the display confusing, as it groups > all the mummies closely together. Which makes sound political > sense. > > This political correctness continues in another section of the > museum dedicated to the achievements of the Chinese revolution, > and boasts artefacts from the Anti-Japanese War (1931-1945). > > Best preserved of all the corpses is Yingpan Man, known as the > Handsome Man, a 2,000-year-old Caucasian mummy discovered in > 1995. He had a gold foil death mask - a Greek tradition - covering > his blond, bearded face, and wore elaborate golden embroidered > red and maroon wool garments with images of fighting Greeks or > Romans. The hemp mask is painted with a soft smile and the thin > moustache of a dandy. Currently on display at a museum in Tokyo, > the handsome Yingpan man was two metres tall (six feet six inches), > and pushing 30 when he died. His head rests on a pillow in the > shape of a crowing cockerel. > *********************************************************** > > > ==== SCOT-DNA Mailing List ==== > THANK YOU to all the Scot DNA Volunteers! They give freely > of their time and effort to this Project and study. NO ONE > in this Project receives any financial or in-kind remuneration > for their work. Please be patient with them as they perform the work > necessary to analyze and report the findings of what has been > submitted to the Project by a multitude of sources. > > ============================== > Jumpstart your genealogy with OneWorldTree. Search not only for > ancestors, but entire generations. Learn more: > http://www.ancestry.com/s13972/rd.ashx >