<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/313953c8-ec32-42b8-9f51-f40925d39e4c/3428E654-11D6-48EC-8D56-8DB823E39B88/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/featured/mystery-tarim-mummies/14841" href="http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/featured/mystery-tarim-mummies/14841" style="font-size: 11px;">www.environmentalgraffiti.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/featured/mystery-tarim-mummies/14841"><div align="center"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.environmentalgraffiti.com/img/1F6AA7AB-FBD7-4888-97CF-32001D9E2BDF" alt="A_Tarim_Basin_mummy_photographed_by_Aurel_Stein_circa_1910" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/featured/mystery-tarim-mummies/14841"><P>The door creaked open, and there in the gloom of the newly opened room, perfectly preserved despite the passing of thousands of years, a red-haired mummy with Caucasian features stared back. It was a life-changing moment for archaeologist Professor Victor Mair, and ten years on it still gave him chills. Mair had stumbled upon the recently discovered corpses of a man and his family in a <A href="#" class="kLink" target="undefined" id="KonaLink0"><FONT color="blue"><SPAN class="kLink">museum</SPAN></FONT></A> in the Chinese city of Ürümqi, but the shock waves of the find would be felt far and wide.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/featured/mystery-tarim-mummies/14841"><div align="center"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.environmentalgraffiti.com/img/7149AD7A-6ECB-467A-9E39-1E81B861792B" alt="Cherchen_Man_and Family_China" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/featured/mystery-tarim-mummies/14841"><div align="center"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.environmentalgraffiti.com/img/01A88392-5F01-4E1E-9633-803867D58F5D" alt="Tocharian_man_with_red_blond_hair_European_features_still_visibley_3,500_years_in_his_desert_grave_in_Taklamakan" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/featured/mystery-tarim-mummies/14841"><div align="center"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.environmentalgraffiti.com/img/DD61CA51-59B7-46FC-8E8F-E0C4E3892B32" alt="One_of_the_most_famous_Tocharian_mummies_found_the_so-called_Beauty_of_Loulan" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/featured/mystery-tarim-mummies/14841"><div align="center"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.environmentalgraffiti.com/img/D3944057-FA04-46BB-B917-B30D3306872B" alt="The_first_Tocharian_Nordic_mummy_found_in_1989_a_White_female_with_long_blond_hair" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/featured/mystery-tarim-mummies/14841"><P>So what were a group of Indo-Europeans doing so many thousands of miles east of their established territory? From their full beards, deep-set eyes and high noses – as well as associated texts and artefacts found with the mummies – it is thought they were Tocharians, herders who travelled east across the Central Asian steppes and whose language was Indo-European in kind. Some speculate that these Tocharians may have profited from prehistoric <A href="#" class="kLink" target="undefined" id="KonaLink3"><FONT color="blue"><SPAN class="kLink">trade</SPAN></FONT><SPAN id="preLoadWrap3"><DIV id="preLoadLayer3"><IMG src="http://kona.kontera.com/javascript/lib/imgs/grey_loader.gif" /></DIV></SPAN></A> along a route that would later become the Silk Road.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/featured/mystery-tarim-mummies/14841"><div align="center"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.environmentalgraffiti.com/img/79353B30-ADDD-4C15-9CFF-817A1733CA85" alt="Mummified_boy_approximately_one_year_old_found_in_the_same_grave" /></div></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/3428E654-11D6-48EC-8D56-8DB823E39B88/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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