china

A group of ancient Chinese mummies found in China have long fascinated experts and the public, largely because the bodies look more distinctly European (or even Celtic) than Asian. Now a new scientific report published last month says the oldest of these mummies — dating back almost 4,000 years  — likely originated outside of China, from a mixture of places such as Europe and Siberia. What's more, these ancient people had an "obsession with procreation", burying their dead alongside symbolic vulvas and giant phalluses.

For decades now, the ancient corpses have been found in China’s Tarim Basin, a desert region near the western frontier of the country. The dry climate of the area has kept the bodies well-preserved, leaving the hair and skin, as well as their clothes, intact.

At 5:30am, the ancient town of Pingyao is a black mass that disappears in the darkness. There are no signs of street lights, save for the few red lanterns that dangle outside these still sleeping homes. The alleys here seem more like one long labyrinth, a giant shadow the seeable destination. Very quickly, I wonder where I am and if I might get mugged.

A few hours later, Pingyao begins to awake. And soon I find that nothing here resembles the modern China I know.

There are no high-rises in sight. No bustling shopping malls within town. In fact, there’s hardly anything over three stories tall.

Who is the man in this picture? How did this fellow, whose maternal ancestry is East Asian, end up in a modest grave in southern Italy about 2000 years ago?

It’s an enticing question and one that has been in the news ever since Heritage Key announced the story of this man’s discovery.

Just a quick recap; a team of scientists based at McMaster University in Hamilton Canada have found that this man, buried in a Roman cemetery at Vagnari, in southern Italy, is of East Asian ancestry on this mother’s side.

They determined this through mitochondrial DNA testing. 

According to archaeologist Liu Qingzhu, trying to name the most important discoveries in China is like facing another, albeit seemingly more simple, question — which one tastes better: dumplings or rice?

“Southerners from China will say rice is better, but northerners will say dumplings,” Liu said. “Then Westerners will say they like French food and that bread is good.”

Listing the most important archaeological discoveries faces similar difficulties, he added. One finding may have had more relevance for one region of China, while not affecting the other. China’s history is also long and not so easy to cover. Still, Liu said there are certain archaeological finds that have not only helped our understanding of China, but also the world.

A team of researchers annouced a surprising discovery during a scholarly presentation in Toronto last Friday. The research team, based at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, has been helping to excavate an ancient Roman cemetery at the site of Vagnari in southern Italy. Led by Professor Tracy Prowse, they’ve been analyzing the skeletons found there by performing DNA and oxygen isotope tests.

The surprise is that the DNA tests show that one of the skeletons, a man, has an East Asian ancestry – on his mother’s side. This appears to be the first time that a skeleton with an East Asian ancestry has been discovered in the Roman Empire.

However, it seems like this contact between east and west did not go well.