FT263

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.