Loulan Beauty upsets Chinese View of Colonization of Xinjiang

Darkfrog submitted, created time 1 month 2 weeks (www.nytimes.com)

In Xinjiang, a part of China that mainstream culture considers to be entirely Chinese, the discovery of over two hundred extremely well-preserved and marketly not Han Chinese mummies have called that assertion into question. Xinjiang borders Kazakh and Mongolia.

My take? Well DUH. Human beings migrate like crazy. Borders change. My ancestors moved from God-knows-where to Ireland, displacing the people who lived there earlier. Today we call their other descendants "Irish" and wouldn't think of calling them anything else

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: China Chinese populations migrations mummies demographics DNA ethnicity science and culture

The Iceman's mysterious genetic past

sea-maid submitted, created time 2 months 1 week (www.sciencenews.org)

A 5,000-year-old mummy displays a genetic signature no longer found in Europe, according to its complete mitochondrial DNA sequence.

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Archaeological discovery elucidates misconceptions about domestication

Darkfrog submitted, created time 9 months 1 week (www.nytimes.com)

A discovery of ten donkey skeletons at a dig in Abydos reveals that the Egyptians didn't always view asses as a bumbling, low-rent form of transportation. The donkeys' skeletons show clear signs of wear and tear from freight work, but their hooves and teeth seem to indicate that they were cared for scrupulously and their general bone structure is almost identical to that of the wild ass. More significantly, the position of the burial site -- diggers initially expected to find human officials killed to accompany their king into the afterlife -- suggests a great deal of reverence

7 comments | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: economics science and history history archaeology mummies egyptology domestication agriculture domesticated animals donkeys asses human cultures religion