Horses (China)

[Paul K. Manansala]

  Lars Martin Fosse <lmfosse at ONLINE.NO>
wrote:

> At 06:37 11.05.98 -800, you wrote:
> >      Wolfgang Behr <w.behr at EM.UNI-FRANKFURT.DE>
> >wrote:
> >
> >> At 14:04 10.05.98 +0100, Jan Houben wrote:
> >>
> >> > Wasn't horse-culture in China strongly
> >> > associated with "western people"?
> >>
> >> Yes indeed. There is strong evidence, that the domesticated horse
> >> first appeared in association with the chariot during the late Shang
> >> period (i.e. 12th c. b.c.). The chariot is almost certainly a "Western"
> >> cultural innovation. Cf. for textual & archaeological evidence
> >>
> >
> >There is no evidence though that these "Western" people were
> >Indo-Europeans or that the domesticated horse was associated with any
> >migrations of people into China.
>
> AS far as I know, archaeological remains have been found of almost "Nordic"
> looking people in Sinkiang (pl. correct me if I am wrong about the place).
> The bodies are well preserved, and they should indicate that migrations of
> Indo-European looking people took place. But, of course, the dead don't speak.
>

You are right about the place, although it is not directly connected
with the Shang dynasty.  However, regarding the Xinkiang mummies,
this appear to be more hype than anything else. Some studies on
crania in Xinkiang have followed the same erroneous path as the
interpretation of the Kennewick remains.  That is, they have
interpreted anything that doesn't fit into typical northeast
Mongoloid as "Caucasoid" or "Pre-Caucasoid."  Most of the remains
associated with Xinkiang and also the Siberian "Caucasoids" are
related to modern Southern Mongoloid/Pacific  types that once were very
common  in Northeast and Central Asia.  In fact, Shang remains,
especially the earliest ones, often resemble "Oceanic Negroids" more than
anything else

Regarding blonde mummies, even such mummies were found in Peru.
Unfortunately, what many of these archaeologists do not say is that
mummification can change the color of hair.

There is an old study by Virchow that explained that salts, a common
material in mummification, tends to cause blondness in dead hair. He
was examining specifically pre-dynastic Egyptian remains that had
been sun-dried and exposed to soil with high salt content.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala