2 posts tagged “discoveries”

There are even more mysteries that surround the origin of the Silk Road network. Nobody could clearly explain one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the twentieth century - so called Tarim mummies. The number of mummies were found deep in China, they date from 1800 BC to AD 200. And all found corpses exhibit Caucasoid physical type. Many of discovered mummies were found in amazingly great condition. They have their hair physically intact, ranging in color from blond to red to deep brown, and generally long, curly and braided. And what is even more amazing - their costumes indicate a common origin with Indo-European neolithic clothing techniques.

Another mystery that supports the theories of early human contacts between East and West were several discoveries of Chinese silk remnants. These remnants have been found in Ancient Egypt from 1070 BC and later.

I mentioned in the previous entry ancient Scythians. It seems that they brought from the West and introduced in China the most valuable metal of all - gold. This probably happened around eight century BC. It seems that the impact was deep because Chinese jade carvers began to use gold to make imitation Scythian designs of the steppes. They easily adopted the Scythian style animal art like descriptions of animals locked in combat. Scientists also found in China imitations of Scythian rectangular belt plaques made of gold and bronze with alternate versions in jade and steatite.

Fifty five hundred of these warriors were sent by emperor Marcus Aurelius to guard Roman settlements in Britain against attacks by the Celts. In our times the archaeological evidence related to presence of this Sarmatian force was discovered in Britain. Sarmatians even built there their own retirement villages!

Around these times specialists observe the first appearance of Celtic dragon image, which highly likely came from Sarmatian sources. The most curious fact is that in the religion of the Sarmatians, the altar represented a sword embedded in a stone. As we remember from Arthurian legends, famous Excalibur was that kind of the sword. Excalibur could only be drawn from the stone by Arthur, the rightful king. In some versions of the legend the sword is not even called Excalibur but with another name - Sword in the Stone.

This establishes an interesting and valid possibility between the Arthurian legends and the Sarmatians. There is also another interesting coincidence. Arthur's father was called Uther Pendragon, which, basically, means "Dragon's head" and refers to the dragon head symbol on a shield. The evidence suggests that the Sarmatians with their armor created a military caste that survived several centuries and provided the leadership in the early feudal era.

Archaeological search still continues. So, there will be more discoveries that may establish Sarmatian presence and their influence on Celtic Britain.