Genetic study on the origins of the Tarim Basin mummies | HeritageDaily

Buried in boat coffins in an otherwise barren desert, the Tarim Basin mummies have long puzzled scientists and inspired numerous theories as to their enigmatic origins.

Since the late 1990s, the discovery of hundreds of naturally mummified human remains dating from around 2,000 BC to AD 200 in the region’s Tarim Basin has attracted international attention over their so-called ‘Western’ physical appearance, their felted and woven woollen clothing, and their agro-pastoral economy.

The Tarim Basin mummies’ cattle-focused economy and unusual physical appearance had led some scholars to…