| Online: | |
| Visits: | |
| Stories: |
| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
The Mysterious European Mummies Of China
Mysterious Universe
The image that many people conjure up when they think of mummies is that of Egypt, with its golden sands, pyramids, and Sphinx. However, the practice of mummification on humans and even animals is a feature of cultures from other areas around the world as well, and dates from even before the ancient Egyptians started doing it. Ancient cultures from Asia, Europe, and South America also performed mummification on corpses, and in fact the oldest known deliberate mummy was found in the Camarones Valley of Chile, and dates to around 5050 BCE, quite awhile before the first known Egyptian mummies appeared.
In addition to mummies that were intentionally created, there are those that were naturally made, usually due to either extremely dry conditions combined with great heat or cold, or anaerobic conditions, which means that a low level of oxygen prevented the decomposition of the corpses. Such naturally created mummies are called spontaneous mummies, and can be found all over the world, on every continent.
A semi-natural mummy in Chile’s Atacama Desert
In Asia, many such natural mummies have been found in China, with very well preserved corpses being discovered from dynasties throughout Chinese history. While it certainly seems that it is not unusual to comes across mummified corpses in China, it is perhaps odd that some of the mummies unearthed here are not Chinese at all, and in fact are thousands of miles away from anywhere they have any business being. Such is the case of the hundreds of mysterious mummies of European descent that somehow found their final resting place in the sun scorched sands of the remote Taklamakan Desert of Xinjiang, in western China. Here, in the place they call the Tarim Basin, have been found the perfectly preserved remains of people that have been determined to be of European origin, representing groups that had never previously been believed to have made it to China.
Reposted with permission
