Caucasian Mummies Essay

311 Words2 Pages
In the article, “Caucasian Mummies Mystify Chinese” by Keay Davidson, the reader learns the significance of finding the Caucasian mummies in China and how it challenged the dogmas of the Chinese culture. Before the discovery of the mummies Chinese historians believed China had been an independent society from birth, never having been influenced by foreign input in its developmental stages, making it a pure race. But after the mummies were discovered they were forced to reconsider their tradition views based on the archeological, linguistic, and textual evidence. One main significance about the mummies was the cloths they wore and were buried in. The material used and the patterns on the cloths were not like traditional Chinese clothing. They consisted of bright colors and also plai d, which was the same type of clothing that eastern Europeans wore First off, the mummy’s clothing leaves another unanswered question about the Chinese dogmas. The mummies’ clothing reiterated again and again how well preserved the mummies were. When the Chinese government finally granted western researchers their first look at the mummies from pre-history, they found and amazing discovery. They found a baby in colorful swaddling cloths and a man with a pigtail, who was wearing scarlet-colored cloths. As colorful as the rainbow – red, blue, and amber leg wrappings. The mummies’ clothing are hints towards their origin. In conclusion, the mummies’ apparel had a lot to do with identifying and classifying who they were and where they came from. They type of clothing they wore helped to identify what their origin was and what region they were from. Their clothing also helped classify what time period they were from. It was estimated that they were over 4,000 years old. Which was about the same time that China was developing. With this in mind, the Chinese dogmas may not
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