The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West

How did tartan-wearing Indo-Europeans come to be in Asia 2,000 years before West and East admitted each other's existence? That's the question posed by this journey through the discovery and scientific exploration of what have come to be popularly known as the 'Tarim Mummies'.

Describing their role in the West's discovery of the Tarim Mummies and revealing the attempts of scientists to determine their ethnic identity, Mallory and Mair examine the evidence connected with the mummies, including textiles and languages of the Tarim region, in this acclaimed tour-de-force of scholarship.

Victor H. Mair is a professor of Chinese Language and Literature in the University of Pennsylvania's Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations. JP Mallory is a professor of Prehistoric Archaeology at Belfast’s Queen’s University.

This is an updated paperback version of the original 2000 release.