NOW THEN, I’ll tell you something which went unnoticed for a century until these mummies statrted turning up again.

 

James Churchward had made a great deal out of an “Inner Asian Empire ruled by White People” and made it one of the most important forces in prehistory. As usual, he got a few things mixed up. But there was a time that a caucasiatic  people controlled the very heart of Asia, and right up against the Mongols of
the Gobi desert as well.

One of the most famous Tocharian mummies found is the “Beauty of Loulan” – Her face depicted on the right was reconstructed by an artist.

http://www.burlingtonnews.net/redhairedmummieschina.html

A Tocharian female mummy with long
flaxen blonde hair, perfectly perserved
in braided hair. Items of weaved
material, identical to Celtic Cloth.

 

A Tocharian man with red-blond hair; his clear European features still visible after lying

nearly 3,500 years in his desert grave in China

 

 

 

 

 

Tocharian male mummy. To his right is a swastika decoration found on his helmet
recovered from the Tocharian grave sites.
The swastika was part of the original Indo-European language, meaning “well being” or “Good luck”

 

 

 

 

 

Recent excavations in the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang province have uncovered more than 100 naturally mummified corpses of people who lived there between 4,000 and 2,400 years ago, indicating that the European race of red and blonde hair with blue eyes lived in this area at one time. The bodies were amazingly well preserved by the arid climate, and according to the New York Times “…archaeologists could hardly believe what they saw.”

 

The mummies had long noses and skulls, blond or red hair, thin lips, deepset eyes, and other unmistakably Europeanan features. Dr. Victor H. Mair of the University of Pennsylvania said, “Because the Tarim Basin Caucasoid corpses are almost certainly representatives of the Indo-European family, and because they date from a time period early enough to have a bearing on the expansion of the Indo-European people from their homeland, it is thought that they will play a crucial role in determining just where that might have been.”

 

One such mummy is of a teenage girl with blond hair and blue eyes. Her remains was found in a cave and has become quite a tourist attraction in Beijing. She has been given the name, “The Lady of Tarim” and is on display at the museum. It is believed that she was someone of importance who lived over 3,000 years ago. She was found buried in fine embroidered garments of wool and leather, along with beautiful jewelry, jars and ornaments of gold, silver, jade and onyx. Her remains are in such a remarkable state of preservation that she looks as if she was sleeping.

It’s McMummy! Chinese unearth 4000-year-old mummy with ginger hair and a kilt – The Daily Record

It’s McMummy! Chinese unearth 4000-year-old mummy with ginger hair and a kilt

Feb 22 2011

mummy Image 2

4000-year-old China body has red hair and kilt
A 4000-YEAR-OLD Chinese mummy has been claimed as a Scot – because of its red hair and kilt-like dress.
The origins of the mummy, known as the Beauty of Xiaohe, have been the subject of much debate since she was found in Xinjiang region in western China.
Other mummified remains found in the region have been linked to warriors of the Caledonii tribe.
The Beauty is on show in Philadelphia in the US as part of the Chinese Secrets Of The Silk Road exhibition.
One source who viewed the mummy, believed to be among the earliest inhabitants of the Xinjiang region, said: “The hair has an orange tint and she looks Celtic or Scottish. The clothes had plaid patterns, like Scottish kilts.”
The mummies linked to the Caledonii have red-brown hair and a ginger beard and wore tartan leggings.
The bodies are better preserved than Egyptian mummies and similarities to traditional Bronze Age Celts are said to be uncanny.     

 

Updated:

They did a DNA test on the Cherchen man (the 3800 year old 6’6 tall dark blonde mummy and the oldest mummy found), and the beauty of Loulan (the red hair mummy), and both of these mummies contained East Asian Mongoloid DNA. Even the Chinese scientist were astonished. The Mongoloid component of the Tocharians are not from Han Chinese or pre Han Chinese, but most likely from Altaic types of Mongoloids such as Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and Mongolians.

This obviously indicates that the Tocharians were already mixed for quite a few generations, since they looked mostly Caucasian. Very interesting. History books need to rewritten again, as intermingling between East and West occured at an even earlier date than conceived.

 

BTW, The Tocharians were not Iranic, its been proven over and over again. There language was so far from any Iranic language, that it needs its own seperate category: Tocharian.

 

New 2007 NG documentary on the mummies. It was released Nov 2007, and it aired on the National Geographic channel. It was very interesting It was again with Victor Mair, (the man whom brought the mummies into the Western World). The Chinese governement finally allowed more DNA test to go foward on just 12 mummies.

The conclusion on DNA test on all 12 samples of the Caucasoid mummies contained DNA from: Europe, Mesopotamia, Central Asia, Mongolia, India, and Siberia. So to make a long story short, the ending of the documentary concluded that Xinjiang was a crossroads town where people from all over came, traded, and mixed with each other. The documentary was incomplete but It was still good and informative. The documentary also stated that the test were not done and more information will be released once completed. They should have just finish the test before making this documentary as it was very vague but it was still informative.

Cherchen Man (dark blonde man that stood 6’6)

Beauty Of Loulan (red haired mummy)

Roman accounts
Pliny the Elder (, Chap XXIV “Taprobane”) reports a curious description of the Seres (in the territories of northwestern China) made by an embassy from Taprobane (Ceylon) to Emperor Claudius, saying that they “exceeded the ordinary human height, had flaxen hair, and blue eyes, and made an uncouth sort of noise by way of talking”, suggesting they may be referring to the ancient Caucasian populations of the Tarim Basin:
“They also informed us that the side of their island (Taprobane) which lies opposite to India is ten thousand stadia in length, and runs in a south-easterly direction-[This incidentally descibes Sumatra better than Ceylon-DD]-that beyond the Emodian Mountains (Himalayas) they look towards the Serve (Seres), whose acquaintance they had also made in the pursuits of commerce; that the father of Rachias (the ambassador) had frequently visited their country, and that the Seræ always came to meet them on their arrival. These people, they said, exceeded the ordinary human height, had flaxen hair, and blue eyes, and made an uncouth sort of noise by way of talking, having no language of their own for the purpose of communicating their thoughts. The rest of their information (on the Serae) was of a similar nature to that communicated by our merchants. It was to the effect that the merchandise on sale was left by them upon the opposite bank of a river on their coast, and it was then removed by the natives, if they thought proper to deal on terms of exchange. On no grounds ought luxury with greater reason to be detested by us, than if we only transport our thoughts to these scenes, and then reflect, what are its demands, to what distant spots it sends in order to satisfy them, and for how mean and how unworthy an end!”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarim_mummieshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarim_mummies

(Seres=Silk People, the dealers-in-silk)

The Tocharians [Tokharians] were a fully Indo-Europid people that lived in parts of modern-day “China”, primarily in the west of modern-day Xinjiang 新疆 [‘New Frontier’] of which only since a decade or two became more known of. That being said, primarily because of the Chinese government allowing a bit more than what was the case in the past, regardless of their attitude to the whole ‘mummy people’ as a whole.

The Tocharians remained fully Europid during their ‘stay’, far longer than expected or than anyone could’ve dreamt – even with rather fair features in complexion – for thousands of years. This shocked many of the multiculturalist archeologists and anthropologists, but they couldn’t deny it.

Aside that they were also responsible for founding and spreading the Indo-European religions Hinduism and Buddhism, of which in the latter case most Tocharians belonged to spiritually and theologically. Not only that, perhaps just a mere detail, but most amazingly perhaps is that they brought both the horse and the wheel to China; which both didn’t exist there prior to their arrival. Those horses, by the way, ironically used against many other peoples in the world – mostly Europids – as the Mongols grew united and started their expansion in approximately the year 1100 after Christ.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 512×289 and weights 16KB.
Takla Makan desert region, nowadays the Tarim Basin

 

 

 

Mair has claimed that:
The new finds are also forcing a reexamination of old Chinese books that describe historical or legendary figures of great height, with deep-set blue or green eyes, long noses, full beards, and red or blond hair. Scholars have traditionally scoffed at these accounts, but it now seems that they may be accurateTarim mummies – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tocharian languages – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tocharian script – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tocharians – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Silk Road transmission of Buddhism – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Around 2300 BC, Aryan tribes (Indo-Iranians) poured off the Pontic Steppes, and migrated east & south. By ~1800 BC, they had reached China & India. In the figure below, these Indo-Iranians’ original homelands are colored dark red, while their migrations are marked in light red*:

This expansion coincides with a catastrophic climate change, around 2200 BC**, which laid low Egypt’s Old Kingdom***.
[Around here we refer to that as the Old Kingdom Catastrophe. In regards to this map it is important to note that THE TOCHARIANS BELONGED TO THE BLUE GROUP OF EUROPEANS (incl. Celtic) RATHER THAN TO THE RED ONES: They were Centum speakers and not Satem ones.]

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centum-Satem_isogloss
** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/22nd_century_BC_drought
*** BBC Ancient Apocalypse — Death on the Nile (DVD). See also: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1458327.stm

Meanwhile, the Indo-European Ancestors (Afanasevo culture) had already settled southern Siberia, north of the Himalayas & northwest of China, from 3500 to 2500 BC*. Like the Indo-Iranians, the proto-Tocharians then migrated south & east, to the Takla Makan desert, west of China. There, mummies, dating from 1800 to 1000 BC, show clear “Europoid” Aryan features**. These proto-Tocharians herded sheep, and used horses, donkeys, & carts. They likely introduced the Chinese to sophisticated wool weaving, the wheel, & bronze. By 1000 BC, they had established vast trading networks. By 300 BC, they were trading, with the Chinese, in silk, probably starting MUCH earlier.

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afanasevo_culture
** NOVA — Mysterious Mummies of China (VHS). The mummies wear red woolen plaids, remaniscent of Celtic tartans, have blond & red hair, & even typical European oval faces & overbites.

In sum, archaeological evidence shows “trade networks right across Asia” by 2000 BC, and “possibly earlier“, nearly 2000 years before Emperor Ch’in opened up the Silk Road to Roman merchants*. Indeed, the Ulu Burun shipwreck, in the Aegean, from the 14th Century BC, contains:

• Copper ingots, from the Middle East
• Pottery, from Cyprus & the Levant
• Elephant tusks & ebony logs, from Equatorial Africa
• Tin & colored glass, from Central Asia
• Gold, from Egypt
• Ornaments, from Mycenaean Greece

This shows that the “greater part of the Mediterranean in antiquity was connected by trade“, to the Middle East and Central Asia**.

* Mysteries of the Ancient World (Episode II) (DVD) [36:00]. Moreover, the proto-Tocharians’ sheep, from analysis of their wools, were of European (not Chinese) stock.
** History Channel Digging for the Truth — Troy: of Gods & Warriors (DVD)

CONCLUSION: By linking all the lands, from China to Mesopotamia, with one single culture, the Indo-European tribes paved the (proto-) Silk Road, by 2000 BC*.

Ignatius Donnelly had mentioned these Tocharians an by name in 1882, long before the press heard anything about the redheaded mummies in China. And until I btrought the matter up myself, nobody saw the connection because even Donnely was talking about a different time and place. Donnelly in Atlantis, the Antediluvian World says in chapter VIII,  The Bronze Age in Europe,

For the merchants of the Bronze Age we must look beyond even the Tokhari, who were contemporaries of the Phœnicians.

CELTIC WARRIOR, FROM EGYPTIAN MONUMENTS.

The Tokhari, we have seen, are represented as taken prisoners, in a sea-fight with Ramses III., of the twentieth dynasty, about the thirteenth century B.C. They are probably the Tochari of Strabo. The accompanying figure represents one of these people as they appear upon the Egyptian monuments. (See Nott and Gliddon’s “Types of Mankind,” p. 108.) Here we have, not an inhabitant of Atlantis, but probably a representative of one of the mixed races that sprung from its colonies.
Dr. Morton thinks these people, as painted on the Egyptian monuments, to have “strong Celtic features. Those familiar with the Scotch Highlanders may recognize a speaking likeness.”
It is at least interesting to have a portrait of one of the daring race who more than three thousand years ago left the west of Europe in their ships to attack the mighty power of Egypt. [They are, in fact, one of the “Peoples of the Sea” fleeing Megalithic Europe during a Catastrophe!-DD]
They were troublesome to the nations of the East for many centuries; for in 700 B.C. we find them depicted on the Assyrian monuments. This figure represents one of the Tokhari of the time of Sennacherib. It will be observed that the headdress (apparently of feathers) is the same in both portraits, although separated by a period of six hundred years. [At this time they were mercenaries and guardsmen. Doubtless many had been hired on as guards along the perilous caravan routes to Central Asia, where we finally find them carving out a new land for themselves in the most unlikely place, but where they had a complete blocade on the only trade artery running to China!]
It is more reasonable to suppose that the authors of the
p. 245
[paragraph continues] Bronze Age of Europe were the people described by Plato, who were workers in metal, who were highly civilized, who preceded in time all the nations which we call ancient. It was this people who passed through an age of copper before they reached the age of bronze, and whose colonies in America represented this older form of metallurgy as it existed for many generations. [ie, the Atlanteans were originally Chalcolithic rather than bronze-casters, a very sound conclusion-DD]

[‘TOKHARI’] CELTIC WARRIOR, FROM ASSYRIAN MONUMENTS.

 

What Donnelly has told us, without specifying exactly, was that the Bronze Age of Europe was run by a unified trade network of nations including the makers of the Nordic Bronze Age in Scandinavia and the Atlantic Bronze Age with headquarters in Tartessos.were descendants of the original Atlanteans, many held the myth of their origin on an island which they called Paradise, and they recognised a commonality of their nations as being Atlanteans. We know this from Classical authors. At the time of the Phaethon event, All these people stopped what they were doing, uprooted and fled to the Eastern Mediterranean as Pirates and mercenaries, comprising an astonishing variety of nations recognising their brotherhood but desperate beyond measure. And one of these Western-European nations of a race, language and physical type related to the Celts, escaped from the fall of the Megalithic culture and would up circa 1000 BC (the date is disputable) on the Borderland Wilderness of China. And they had something to do with the introduction of megalths and mound-burials in the region, something else mentioned by Donnelly at another time.

 

 

Although it may not look like it at first glance, Donnelly is defining Atlantean Europe as Megalithic Europe (with its Bronze Age Successor). In the case of the Tocharians, he knew the megalithic cullture was related from the descriptions but he did not say that a specific Western-European people were responsible for transplanting European culture there. Such seems to have been the case. Icidentally the Megalithic culture in Southern India was also starting about the same time as the Tocharians were.

EGYPTIANS: THE MASTERS OF MUMMIFICATION

• By Liesl Clark

Not to put too fine a point on it, a mummy is an old dead body. But unlike a skeleton or a fossil, a mummy still retains some of the soft tissue it had when it was alive—most often skin, but sometimes organs and muscles as well. This tissue preservation can happen by accident or through human intervention but, in either case, it occurs when bacteria and fungi are unable to grow on a corpse and cause it to decay.

The royal mummies of ancient Egypt, such as the remarkably preserved body of Queen Nofretari, may be the most famous mummies in the world, but mummies come from various cultures and time periods.EnlargePhoto credit: Courtesy University of Chicago Library

Historically, quick drying has been the most common method of mummification, since bacteria and fungi cannot grow where there is no water. Mummies can be dried in the sun, with fire or smoke, or with chemicals. Since most bacteria and fungi cannot live in sub-freezing temperatures, permanent freezing can also produce a mummy. Placing a body in an oxygen-free environment, such as a peat bog, will also cause mummification, because microorganisms can’t live without air. Yet another way to create a mummy is to bury it in soil containing chemicals that kill bacteria and fungi.

Some of the world’s best known mummies were created accidentally, when a body’s final resting place happened to prevent the natural process of decay. But many cultures around the world have sought to mummify their dead on purpose. The process of artificially preserving a dead body is called “embalming,” and the methods used are as varied as the cultures themselves.

Ancient Egyptians are perhaps the best known mummy-makers—though initially, it was their climate, not their skill, that preserved their dead. Arid desert winds and blazing hot sand could dry corpses out quickly enough to mummify them. In fact, the oldest-known Egyptian mummy, dated around 3500 BC, is believed to have been created this way.

The first “artificial” Egyptian mummies were made around 3000 BC. These early efforts at embalming were crude, but reflected the culture’s emerging beliefs about preserving the dead to achieve eternal life.

The ancient Egyptians believed that, in the transition from this world to an eternal afterlife, the dead would pass through a “Hall of Judgment.” This image shows the critical “weighing of the heart” ceremony. EnlargePhoto credit: © British Museum/HIP/Art Resource

 

Initially, mummification was so expensive that it was a privilege enjoyed only by the Pharaoh and a few favorites. Everybody else was given a simple grave burial in one of the vast cemeteries or “necropolises” of the time. But the promise of eternal life was so alluring, that it wasn’t long before wealthy Egyptians began signing up for mummification, too. By 1550 BC, every Egyptian who could afford it was mummified.

Embalming became an art—practiced in booths set up along the banks of the Nile river. A top notch embalming job took seventy days. The first forty of these were spent drying out the corpse. The process began with the removal of the lungs, stomach, liver and intestines through an abdominal incision on the left side of the body. The brain was removed through the nose with an implement called a brain hook, which looked something like a crochet needle. The heart, believed to be the source of thought, was left inside the body.

This x-ray is from a study exploring how the Egyptians likely used brain hooks during the embalming process.EnlargePhoto credit: Courtesy F. Filce Leek

 

After the organs were removed, the body was rinsed with wine, which helped kill any remaining bacteria. It was then covered and packed with a form of natural salt called natron and left to dry on the embalming table. Forty days later, it would be blackened and shriveled, but ready for restoration.

The ancient Egyptians believed that a person’s Ka (vital force) and Ba (personality) left the body at the time of death. But they also believed that Ka and Ba could be lured back if an idealized re-creation of the body was offered. This re-unification of body and spirit was the ticket to the nether world.

To make sure the spirit could find the body (which by now looked like a withered prune) a restorative beautification process was necessary. The skin of the corpse was massaged to make it supple, the body was stuffed and perfumed, and padding was slipped under the skin to approximate plump flesh. Finally, rouge and other paints were applied. The last step was to coat the mummy in warm resin and wrap it from head to foot in layer after layer of linen strips. About 150 yards—the length of one and a half football fields—were used.

Embalmers took the utmost care with the body of Pharaoh Thutmosis I, the third king of the 18th Dynasty. His mummy, well over 3,000-years-old, retains a lifelike appearance. EnlargePhoto credit: Courtesy University of Chicago Library

 

Egyptians stopped making mummies between the fourth and seventh century AD, when many Egyptians became Christians. But it’s estimated that, over a 3000-year period, more than 70 million mummies were made in Egypt.

EARLY SOUTH AMERICAN AND INCA MUMMIES

While the ancient Egyptians may be the best-known mummy makers, they were not the first. A very sophisticated fishing tribe called the Chinchoros, who lived on the north coast of what is now Chile, were embalming their dead as early as 5000 BC.

Chinchoros embalmers disassembled their corpses, chemically treated the internal organs to prevent decay, and then reassembled the pieces. They often added wood supports along the spinal column, arms and legs, filled in the body cavity with fiber or feathers, and coated the exterior of the body with clay on which they painted or sculpted. Infants, children and adults of both sexes were mummified, though some corpses undoubtedly received more attention than others.

Further north, another coastal group at Paloma were mummifying their dead as early as 4000 BC. The Palomans used salt to stop decay and carefully positioned their dead with knees drawn to the chest and hands clasped. The bodies were then wrapped in reed matting and buried under the floor of their existing homes.

The Inca, renowned architects of Machu Picchu, paid homage to their mountain gods with sacrificial mummies. EnlargePhoto credit: © Bartosz Hadyniak/iStockphoto

 5000 years later, during the time of the Inca (approximately 1100 to 1500 AD), the Andean tradition of preserving the dead was still intact. Most Inca mummies were arranged in the familiar fetal position and were wrapped in leather or cloth or placed in baskets or sat under huge ceramic jars. These “mummy bundles,” often brightly decorated, were buried with food, clothing and other items. Some archaeologists believe that the Inca mummified all their dead, not just the elite.

When the Spanish conquered the Inca in the 1500’s and 1600’s, they forbade the practice of mummification, declaring it pagan. The Spanish destroyed countless Incan burial sites—partly for religious reasons, but also to plunder the gold often buried with mummies. As a result, few Incan burial sites remain.

In 1875, archaeologists did manage to uncover a huge burial site at Ancón on the Peruvian coast. Hundreds of shafts, some 18 to 20 feet deep, led to tombs where extremely well-preserved mummy bundles were found. Apparently, the dry climate and high salt content of the region had helped to prevent decay. The mummies were wrapped in cloth, seaweed, leaves, grass matting and furs. Many bundles were topped with a sort of false head, decorated with eyes that stared out into the darkness of the tomb.

Perhaps the most remarkable Incan mummies have been those found on high mountain peaks, where the Inca offered human sacrifices to their Gods. Over the years, some 115 of these sacrificial mummies have been found in the high Andes. In 1995, Dr. Johan Reinhard stumbled upon the body of a young girl, barely into her teens, on top of Mount Ampato in the Peruvian Andes. Named “Juanita,” she is the best-preserved Incan mummy ever discovered. With long black hair, a graceful neck, and well muscled arms, Juanita was found wrapped in a cocoon of fine textiles and surrounded by gold and silver statues, bags of corn, and other offerings. Reinhard led another expedition in 1996 that resulted in the discovery of “Sarita,” another sacrificial mummy. (For more information, see Ice Mummies of the Inca.)

Archeologist Johan Reinhard, who has discovered several Incan mummies high in the Andes, here pays homage to their sacrifice.EnlargePhoto credit: Courtesy Johan Reinhard

 

OTHER EMBALMING METHODS

Embalming methods usually reflect the tools and materials available to a given culture. For example, the Aleut people, who lived on the Aleutian Islands off the coast of Alaska, mummified their dead by removing the organs and stuffing the cavity with dry grass. Next they laid the body in a stream, where the running water dissolved the body’s fat and washed it away, leaving only muscle and skin. The body was then tied in a squatting position and dried in the open air. Once it was dry, the mummy was wrapped in several layers of waterproof leather and woven clothing and placed in a warm cave, either hanging from the ceiling or lying on a platform to keep it off the damp floor. In one Aleutian cave, archaeologists found more than 50 mummies dating back 250 years.

In Papua New Guinea, embalmers smoke-cured the dead, covered them in a protective layer of clay and propped them up on scaffolding that overlooked their villages.

It’s not known exactly how the Anasazi, who lived in the “four corners” region of the American Southwest, mummified their dead. But mummies dating as far back as 100 AD have been found wrapped in fur and leather blankets inside caves and rock holes. Many of these mummies were found wearing a new pair of sandals, presumably for use in the next life.

ACCIDENTAL MUMMIES

Some of the most spectacular mummies were created accidentally. In 1991, German climbers found a body frozen on top of a glacier near the Austrian-Italian border. Initially, the police and forensic experts who arrived on the scene didn’t realize how old the body was—even though he was wearing a grass cape, carrying a bow and arrows and had shoes stuffed with grass for warmth. Later, radiocarbon dating determined that the “Iceman” died sometime between 3350 and 3300 BC—making him the oldest well-preserved mummy in the world.

Like the Iceman, this Inuit child, who died 500 years ago in Greenland, was naturally mummified. EnlargePhoto credit: © Werner Forman/CORBIS

In 1972, hunters found the best preserved human bodies in North America at an abandoned settlement called Qilakitsoq in Greenland. The “Greenland Mummies,” who died about 500 years ago, consisted of a six-month old baby, a four-year old boy, and six women of various ages. Protected by a rock that overhung a shallow cave, the bodies were naturally mummified by the sub-zero temperatures and dry, dehydrating winds. Accompanying the eight bodies were 78 items of clothing, most made out of seal skin.

Over the years, peat cutters working the bogs of northwest Europe have uncovered hundreds of mummies. The spongy top layer of a peat bog tends to seal off oxygen from the layers below. A bog’s naturally acidic environment also helps to create mummies, giving them a distinctively brown, leathery and lifelike appearance. The oldest “bog mummies” are from the Iron Age (between 400 BC and 400 AD) and are thought to have been the Celtic or Germanic contemporaries of the Romans. Strangely, many of the mummies found in the European bogs show evidence of violent deaths. With slit throats and broken skulls, these individuals may have been victims of ritual sacrifice, just like the mummies of China’s Takla Makan Desert.

Perhaps the most famous and best preserved of all the bog mummies is the Tollund Man. EnlargePhoto credit: Courtesy Silkeborg Museum

 

 

The mummy Nesikhonsu A is a supreme example of 21st Dynasty (c. 1070-945 B.C.) embalming. Her body was molded to retain a lifelike form, stones were inlaid under her eyelids, and flowers were wrapped around her toes. Click next for a gallery of mummies.

t

Djedptahiuankh also dates to the 21st Dynasty. His body cavity was packed with lichen, his mouth filled with sawdust, and sculpted stone eyes were inserted under his half-closed lids.

Like other 21st Dynasty mummies, Nesitanebetashrua A was painted with yellow ochre. The inscription on her coffin indicates she was a priestess, and the quality of her embalming reflects her high status.

 

“Lady Rai”

The Egyptologist who unwrapped “Lady Rai” called her “the most perfect example of embalming that has come down to us from the … early 18th Dynasty, or perhaps even of any period.” Her beautifully braided hair was protected in its own bandages.

 

Seti I

Seti I, like his father Rameses I, was a great military leader and powerful pharaoh of the 19th Dynasty (c. 1319-1196 B.C.). Tomb robbers severed the mummy’s head from its body, but Seti I’s expressive face remained unharmed.

Rameses II

Rameses II (“the Great”) may be the most famous of all Egyptian kings. He reigned for 67 years and lived well into his 80s. By the time of his death, he suffered from severe arthritis, arteriosclerosis, and abscesses in his teeth.

 

 

Scholars debate her identity but agree that the mummy known as “The Elder Woman” lived some 3,600 years ago. Tomb plunderers battered her body, perhaps in a search for precious amulets wrapped near her heart.

 

Rameses V

Rameses V reigned for only five years during the 20th Dynasty (c. 1196-1070 B.C.). He died in his early 30s, and a possible reason for his premature death is evident on his mummy, which is scarred on the face, neck, and chest by smallpox.

Bog Bodies of the Iron Age

More than a thousand preserved bodies and skeletons have emerged from the peat bogs of Northwest Europe, and scientists now have the tools to study the remains in such detail that they can, in a sense, resurrect ancient people. Drawing on the work of Dutch bog-body scholar Wijnand van der Sanden, the following map charts more than 80 important finds and includes profiles of some of the most fascinating.

Tollund Man

He has become the face of Iron Age Europe. But in 1950, when men cutting peat near the village of Tollund, Denmark, stumbled upon him, they thought he was a modern murder victim. The police, aware of similar ancient bodies, contacted the Silkeborg Museum, and various specialists—archeologists, forensic scientists, radiologists, paleobotanists, even dentists—later studied his body. Here, learn about their findings and get an intimate view of the 2,400-year-old man.