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A 4,000-year-old graveyard known as Small River Ceme­tery No. 5, situated in the fearsome Taklimakan Desert north of Tibet in China’s autonomous region of Xinjiang, has presented some puzzles. The cemetery, alongside a now dried-up riverbed, was originally discovered by a Swedish archæologist in 1934, but its whereabouts became lost until a recent Chinese expedition rediscovered it. Excavations took place between 2003 and 2005, and around 200 mummies were uncovered. They were well preserved due to the dry air, and display European features, with long noses and brown hair. Some of the mummies, including a parti­cularly well preserved female nicknamed the Beauty of Loulan (or of Xiaohe), were analysed by Chinese geneticists and shown to have a mix of European and Siberian genetic markers. The males were found to have a Y-chromo­some found in northern and eastern Europ­ean populat­ions, while the mitochondrial DNA (passed down the female line) showed one lineage found in Siberia and two common to Europe.

The mummies were buried inside coffins like upturned boats, and each had a 4m pole projecting vertic­ally from it – the females had poles that the archæo­logists figured displayed phallic symbolism, while the males had oar-shaped ones that archæo­logists think represented the vulva. There were also grave goods inside the coffins, including woven baskets, masks and bundles of the psycho­active herb, ephedra. Life-size wooden phall­uses were found in some of the women’s coffins. Whoever these unknown people were, they had lived in the region when it was more hospitable than the arid wilderness it is now. The finds are the subject of ‘Secrets of the Silk Road’, an exhibition at Bowers Museum, California, until 25 July.

New York Times, 15 Mar 2010.