Lion of War
01-09-2008, 07:56 PM
http://youtube.com/v/9-LXAfmnakg
The Tarim mummies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarim_mummies) suggest that precursors of these easternmost speakers of an Indo-European language may have lived in the region of the Tarim Basin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarim_Basin) from around 1800 BC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1800_BC) until finally they were assimilated by Uyghur (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uyghur_people)Turks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkic_peoples) in the 9th century (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9th_century) AD.
There is evidence both from the mummies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummies) and Chinese (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China) writings that many of them had blonde (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blonde) or red hair (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_hair) and blue (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue) eyes, characteristics also found in central asia. This suggests the possibility that they were part of an early migration of speakers of Indo-European languages (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European_languages) that ended in what is now the Tarim Basin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarim_Basin) in western China (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China). According to a controversial theory, early invasions by Turkic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkic_languages) speakers may have pushed Tocharian speakers out of the Tarim Basin and into ancient Sogdian where they became assimilated in the population. A later group of Tocharians were the Kushans (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kushans) and maybe some iranian tribes of the Hephthalites (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hephthalites) whose iranian population also settled in modern Afghanistan, North-Eastern Iran Usbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkestan while the nomadic turkish ones where defeated by Bahram Gur and the Gok-Turks who pushed them over the Hindukush mountains to Sindh (Pakistan) and North-West India.
The Tarim Basin mummies (1800 BC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1800_BC)) and the Tocharian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tocharian_languages) texts and frescoes from the Tarim Basin (AD 800 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/800)) have been found in the same general geographical area, and are both connected to an Indo-European origin. The faces on these frescos were usually vandalized by Muslim iconoclasts (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iconoclasm) since the Middle Ages. The mummies and the frescoes both point to White (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_%28people%29) types with light eyes and hair color. There is no evidence that directly connects them however, as no texts were recovered from the grave sites.
Mallory & Mair (2000 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tocharians#CITEREFMalloryMair2000):294–296, 314–318) argue that the Tocharian languages (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tocharian_languages) were introduced to the Tarim (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarim) and Turpan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turpan) basins from the Afanasevo culture (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afanasevo_culture) to their immediate north. The Afanasevo culture (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afanasevo_culture) (c. 3500–2500 BC) displays cultural and genetic connections with the Indo-European-associated cultures of the European steppe yet predates the specifically Indo-Iranian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Iranians)-associated Andronovo culture (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andronovo_culture) (c. 2000–900 BC) enough to isolate the Tocharian languages (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tocharian_languages) from Indo-Iranian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Iranian_languages) linguistic innovations like satemization (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satemization).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tocharians
The Tarim mummies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarim_mummies) suggest that precursors of these easternmost speakers of an Indo-European language may have lived in the region of the Tarim Basin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarim_Basin) from around 1800 BC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1800_BC) until finally they were assimilated by Uyghur (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uyghur_people)Turks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkic_peoples) in the 9th century (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9th_century) AD.
There is evidence both from the mummies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummies) and Chinese (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China) writings that many of them had blonde (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blonde) or red hair (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_hair) and blue (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue) eyes, characteristics also found in central asia. This suggests the possibility that they were part of an early migration of speakers of Indo-European languages (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European_languages) that ended in what is now the Tarim Basin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarim_Basin) in western China (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China). According to a controversial theory, early invasions by Turkic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkic_languages) speakers may have pushed Tocharian speakers out of the Tarim Basin and into ancient Sogdian where they became assimilated in the population. A later group of Tocharians were the Kushans (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kushans) and maybe some iranian tribes of the Hephthalites (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hephthalites) whose iranian population also settled in modern Afghanistan, North-Eastern Iran Usbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkestan while the nomadic turkish ones where defeated by Bahram Gur and the Gok-Turks who pushed them over the Hindukush mountains to Sindh (Pakistan) and North-West India.
The Tarim Basin mummies (1800 BC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1800_BC)) and the Tocharian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tocharian_languages) texts and frescoes from the Tarim Basin (AD 800 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/800)) have been found in the same general geographical area, and are both connected to an Indo-European origin. The faces on these frescos were usually vandalized by Muslim iconoclasts (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iconoclasm) since the Middle Ages. The mummies and the frescoes both point to White (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_%28people%29) types with light eyes and hair color. There is no evidence that directly connects them however, as no texts were recovered from the grave sites.
Mallory & Mair (2000 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tocharians#CITEREFMalloryMair2000):294–296, 314–318) argue that the Tocharian languages (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tocharian_languages) were introduced to the Tarim (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarim) and Turpan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turpan) basins from the Afanasevo culture (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afanasevo_culture) to their immediate north. The Afanasevo culture (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afanasevo_culture) (c. 3500–2500 BC) displays cultural and genetic connections with the Indo-European-associated cultures of the European steppe yet predates the specifically Indo-Iranian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Iranians)-associated Andronovo culture (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andronovo_culture) (c. 2000–900 BC) enough to isolate the Tocharian languages (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tocharian_languages) from Indo-Iranian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Iranian_languages) linguistic innovations like satemization (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satemization).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tocharians