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Rating: 
Summary: Mysteries of the past
Review: A fascinating book! The title does not do justice to the wealth of information Dr. Barber has compiled and the insights she has to share. It is about the mummies of the Tarim Basin and much more. It is about the advance of civilization from ancient Babylon and Sumeria and beyond, leading up to modern times. It is about where in the world this Caucasion population, preserved in the sands of western China, might have come from. A must read for anyone familiar with the writings of Nicholas Roerich on central Asia. A fascinating account for anyone interested in the common roots of mankind and for anyone inclined to journey back in time with Dr. Barber for an amazing look at ancient civilizations.
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Summary: Textile expert seeks answers about Caucasian migrations
Review: A rather good look at a very interesting mystery of pre-historic European migrations. Central to this has been the discovery of mummies some three to four-thousand years old who posses what is termed a "Caucasian" appearance, both biologically and culturally. Elizabeth Barber is an expert on ancient textiles and the first part of this book, involved in a description of mummies' textiles (from observations made on a visit there) is in her element and makes what could have been a dreadfully tedious description quite lively. It ends up being the best discussion in the book. In fact I give this book an additional star over other scholarly books of this sort - rather bland usually - for causing me to read with deep interest page after page about what is really an analysis of textile stitching. After describing the better-preserved mummies and analyzing their goods and textile weaves and patterns, she then approaches the whole question of their origins and especially in whether one can link this culture to the theoretical proto Indo-European language-speakers. At this point there is an interesting but rather plainly-written collection of a good deal of information provided by explorers into the region, and comparisons to other cultures such as the Celts, and some linguistic analysis. Although it kept my interest, the jumping between time, place and peoples could sometimes be confusing. And I kept having to search through the maps to remember where we were in relation to where, as these parts of Asia are not very familiar to us. It lacks at the end a good tie-up of loose ends or a summary, that seems required after such a lengthy heaping of theories.
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Summary: A shared history from a new angle
Review: I bought this book because I heard an interview with charming Elizabeth Barber about mummies in China. By the time the book was finished she had covered -- almost effortlessly -- a world where weather, textiles, religion, migration, agriculture, geography, mysticism, and so many other fields somehow come together.These events happen in exotic, unfamiliar and inaccessible places but they are surprisingly relevant to our own lives. So many of the side lessons -- like a bad weather year in east Asia could cause a wave of invasions as far as Moscow, and did for millenia -- have helped to make the conflict-prone post-9/11 days a bit more understandable, sadly. It's hard to believe that her short lessons about things like dendrochronology (tree-ring dating) and paleolinguistics (word origins and the people who used them) could turn into almost every day concepts, but it's true! Imagine -- we can what the weather was in the Swedish summer of 863 B.C.E. because of tree trunks from around the world! It's a mark of mastery to take a subject so large and present it clearly, and Ms. Barber has done so.
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Summary: Great book for people who love to learn
Review: I have a longstanding amateur interest in archaeology, but knew nothing of textiles. I found the instruction in the archaeology of textiles to be one of the best thiungs about the book. I also, in contrast to the grumpy first reviewer, very much enjoyed the, admittedly speculative, parts about the migrations of various groups in asian prehistory. It is fascinating to realize that the modern national and ethnic boundaries are merely the latest configuration
Rating: 
Summary: Good if you're interested in textiles
Review: If you are purely interested in the lives, origins and other facts on the mummies you will be disappointed and find yourself doing a lot of skim reading. Barber is a textiles expert and this is the main focus of the book. If you are interested in how the mummies lived I would rate this book a 2, if you are interested in what they wore and how it was made and how this relates to their origins then it's probably a 4 - some nice photos though....
Rating: 
Summary: Fluff
Review: It is beutiful to look at, but it contains very little actual information and lots of uninformed, poorly thought out speculation.
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Summary: A Guiding Light for Traversing the Tunnels of Our History
Review: Ms. Barber has given me exactly what I hoped for with this incredible book: a plausible suggestion for the origins of these fascinating people. My first contact with the mummies of the Tarim Basin was through an article published by Discover magazine, which I have kept. After reading that piece, my imagination took off, and I found myself hauling out atlases and everything I own on the pre-history of humans. It was not until reading this excellent book that I found support for some of my inexperienced suspicions of the mummies' origins. I have learned so much from this book, from the dispersion of Indo-European languages to the role of textiles in our human development. I love Ms. Barber's writing style; she doesn't go over the head of the layperson. She uses humor and a friendly tone, as if you were at her elbow, studying the clothing of the Cherchen man. Her manner of explaining new pieces of information was very clear. It was easy to understand a previously unknown textile term, for instance, through her simple illustrations and analogies. I highly recommend this book. I eagerly await more news from the continuing excavations, and more publications from Elizabeth!
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Summary: Textile expert seeks answers about Caucasian migrations
Review: This was an impressive text. I am not personally knowledgeable about textiles, although my mother an artist who is a consumate spinner and weaver is, and so I have come to have an appreciation for the weaver's art through my association with her. I was especially impressed by the authors' thorough knowledge of the craft and of the archaeological implications of the textiles preserved with the famous Urumchi mummies of the Tarim Basin of the Taklimakan Desert. These naturally preserved bodies, like the freeze dried mummies of the Andean mountains and the Early Bronze age body found frozen in an Alpine glacier, provide archaeologists with direct information about the health, genetic relationships, and cultural affinities of the people in these regions. In particular the Urumchi mummies are unique in that the population appears to have been caucasian rather than oriental, suggesting early settlement of the area from the West. Prior to the discovery of these bodies, it had always been assumed that the cultures of the East and the West had developed in relative isolation with respect to one another. Now it is clearer that the human populations of both areas were in far greater contact and that there was significant potential for both genetic and cultural exchange, with ultimate implications for the later civilizations that developed in each. With their intensive evaluation of the fiber crafted cultural remains entered with the bodies, the Barbers' add fine points of detail to what is known about the people of the area and of their likely origins. The book clearly illustrates the value of textiles in the approach to archaeological problems.
Rating:
Summary: Central Asian mummies brought to life
Review: When most people think of mummies, they think of ancient Egypt, or maybe South America. In truth, mummification can occur whenever the conditions are right, and the arid Tarim River basin in Western China has revealed a large number of mummified bodies, thousands of years old. What sets these mummies out from others is their probable ethinicity. The author displays with great lucidity the thesis that these people were not Asian at all, but rather were closely related to the Celts. She does this by covering a wide range of available evidence, such as funeral practices, cloth, and language, as well as looking at the geography of the region and exptraploating as to how it may have affected the patterns of settlement three thousand years ago or more. At the end, I was convinced by her arguments, and in the process gained a better appreciation of the Celts, whom I had assumed I understood reasonably well. This is only possible because of the author's breadth of knowledge and research, well presented in a sparsely worded style. This book is a great combination of popular science and academic sholarship. I like it the more as the author has the intellectual honesty to admit the points on which her thesis may be lacking in evidence. This does much to inspire confidence in the work as a whole. Having just finished reading Tournament of Shadows, I prefer this book for its coverage of the Tarim River basin by far.
Rating:
Summary: Central Asian mummies brought to life
Review: When most people think of mummies, they think of ancient Egypt, or maybe South America. In truth, mummification can occur whenever the conditions are right, and the arid Tarim River basin in Western China has revealed a large number of mummified bodies, thousands of years old. What sets these mummies out from others is their probable ethinicity. The author displays with great lucidity the thesis that these people were not Asian at all, but rather were closely related to the Celts. She does this by covering a wide range of available evidence, such as funeral practices, cloth, and language, as well as looking at the geography of the region and exptraploating as to how it may have affected the patterns of settlement three thousand years ago or more. At the end, I was convinced by her arguments, and in the process gained a better appreciation of the Celts, whom I had assumed I understood reasonably well. This is only possible because of the author's breadth of knowledge and research, well presented in a sparsely worded style. This book is a great combination of popular science and academic sholarship. I like it the more as the author has the intellectual honesty to admit the points on which her thesis may be lacking in evidence. This does much to inspire confidence in the work as a whole. Having just finished reading Tournament of Shadows, I prefer this book for its coverage of the Tarim River basin by far.
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