The mystery of the red-haired, fair-skinned mummies of China
Posted On: Aug 18th, 2015 at 12:57
China
Rather than solve the mystery of the red-haired mummies of the Takla Makan, the DNA results seem to confuse matters even more.
The conclusion is that the mummies come from “Europe and Asia”. Well, that’s about as diverse as you can get! On closer inspection it suggests ancestry of Siberia and western Europe. While the Siberia results wouldn’t surprise anybody, the western European results are a little more surprising, suggesting a long route east which goes against the ‘humans migrating west from the Middle East’ idea.
The red-haired, fair-skinned people who lived on the route of the silk road four thousand years ago have received much interest since their discovery in 1934, but they were already known about because ancient texts talked of the unusual people. To some it may seem surprising to find red-haired people in a far away land, but red hair is not limited to the northern European countries. In fact, red hair has even been found in northern India, among many other places, and some studies suggest this may be the genetic echoes of the Neanderthal. Others, like the late and great Stan Gooch, suggest modern humans are the offspring of Neanderthal and Cro Magnon, and that it was Cro Magnon who passed on the red hair. Either way, it should not be too surprising to find red hair in just about any European or Eurasian area.
What is also not surprising is the fair skin of the mummies but that, for me, is the more interesting element. The white skin suggests a more far-reaching origin, and this aspect alone – not the hair – suggests these people came from far away. BUT, it isn’t too shocking to find white skin in these areas either! Perhaps they took the Silk Road themselves long ago, and decided the Tarim Basin was an excellent place for trade.
The article talks about how these people moved from here to there, picking up genes along the way as they interbred with various local groups, eventually ending up in the Tarim Basin along the Silk Road. Whatever their origins, I don’t think it’s too surprising to find fair-skinned people so close to modern-day Russia. Even Russia has some red-haired people. The article basically suggests the ancient DNA is from western Europe, but that does not mean they came from western Europe.
Being a rebel I have always favoured Stan Gooch’s theory, which turns things on their head – it was the Neanderthal that gave us blonde hair and artistic abilities, and it was Cro Magnon that passed on red hair and a logical, aggressive brain. So, it was the Neanderthal that was the passive, creative and inventive creature, and Cro Magnon was the destructive, murdering creature that helped us spread around the world and this became the dominant gene in modern human beings.
It’s a very interesting and thought-provoking theory.
Accompanying this article is the video I have uploaded on the Takla Makan mummies on my YT channel. Although it’s old (1998), it’s well worth a watch!
