Posted on 03/31/2004 7:24:50 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Surprising Discoveries in Silla's Royal Tomb No. 98 (including Greco-Roman artifacts)
King Nae-Mool(birth/death: unknown/402 AD) and his queen's royal tomb in Dae-Roong-Won, Kyong-ju, S. Korea was excavated in 1973-75 to yield some truly unexpected findings later. Many artifacts were quite different from those known to be produced in Korea or China. Exotic designs and materials abound. Further research established that these artifacts originated from Central Asia, Black Sea, Caucasus, Persia and Eastern Mediterranean. This is quite far away from the South Eastern tip of Korean Peninsula, where this ancient Kingdom, Silla, located. The last of 5 short videos below shows how artifacts found in Silla's royal tombs match up with the ones found in these far-away areas.
(my note: Many scholars now advance a hypothesis that nomadic tribes around Tien-shan Mountains(N.W. China, next to Central Asia) started migrating out in the 3rd century AD, due to a weather-related disaster. These people were under the Scythian cultural influence, which was, in turn, heavily traded with Greco-Roman culture. Some went West, others went South, and still others went East. Part of those who migrated East ended up in S.E. Korea, while some of them even went further and reached Japan around 400 AD. Some speculate that they maintained the trade links with the West even after they settled down in S.E. Korea, even though they cannot yet pinpoint with confidence the trade route these people could have used.)
| (Click the start button on the left to view the video) Artifacts found inside the tomb. A silver vessel, a gold-plated bracelet, many glasswares. They were only found in the Kyong-ju area of Korea. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| (Click the start button on the left to view the video ) The golden crown found inside the tomb. Such a crown was not used in other parts of Korea and China at the time. Unfolded, we can see that the crown has three tree shapes in the middle and two deer antler shapes on each side. What is the significance of such a design? The next two video answers the question. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| (Click the start button on the left to view the video) The video from the turn of the century shows a Siberian shaman conducting his ritual. A tree is an important part of his ritual. A tree is a passage way to bring Shaman's soul to the heaven and commune with god and back to earth carrying god's messages. The trees in the crown have a religious significance. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| (Click the start button on the left to view the video) Deers were important food source for people in Eurasian steppes. Naturally, it was also the object of religious worship. Hence, deer antlers also have a religious significance. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| (Click the start button on the left to view the video) The Altaic shaman mask at the start of the video has three trees on its head but no deer antlers. However, the combination of trees and deers does show up in a Scythian golden crown. The video shows the Eremitazhu Museum in Russia(?). It has many Scythian golden artifacts, including a golden crown which has one tree in the middle, two deers on each side(, and extra figure on the right side.) Short comments from a Russian scholar follow. After that, more Scythian golden artifacts are shown, starting with a golden comb. For the last 40% of the video, it shows the surprising match between artifacts found around the Steppe Road which Scythians used and the ones found in Silla's ancient tombs in S. E. Korea. The table below serves as the annotation of the video clip.
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Our family name is LAMB (hence my screen name blam)
I'm trying to find something on that now. Here's one site which has some interesting information:
Maps Locating Fossil Hominids from China
MAP SHOWING MAJOR SITES OF MODERN H. sapiens IN CHINA:
Until recently fossils of modern H. sapiens in China were relatively few and far between. The most important specimens, consisting of three complete skulls and other skeletal remains, were discovered at the Upper Cave at Zhoukoudian in the 1930s. The dating of these remains has been problematical with age estimates ranging between 11-26,000 YA. The Upper Cave remains have been said by some to show closer affinities to Upper Paleolithic Europeans rather than living Chinese. Other researchers, however, see the remains as representative of an East Asian "proto-Mongoloid " population. The oldest modern human fossils in China date from between 35-60,000 YA from Salawusu in Inner Mongolia, Laishui in Hebei and Liujiang in Guangxi. These finds preserve archaic features reminiscent of pre-modern Chinese fossils from sites like Xujiayao. Other modern human fossil remains from both North and South China date from the terminal Pleistocene, approximately 10-12,000 YA.
The skeletons (mummies) found in the presence of the Tocharian language were tall and red-headed and had fabrics like the Celts in Hallstadt, Austria.
It's a map of the migrations from the Black Sea flood in 5600BC and indicates (by an arrow) the Tocharians and Ainu headed across the northern steppes to Asia. (JimRob doesn't like us linking from that site, I can still see it but it may be blocked?)
Very interesting.
Mair said that during his searches dealing with the Tarim Mummies they came across human artifacts dated to 250,000 years ago in that region. (he just mentioned this in passing in his book)
Victor Mair recruited many experts on this investigation of the Tarim Mummies, Barber is just one of those and wrote a very good book (The Mummies Of Urumchi) about the textiles. JP Malloy and Victor Mair wrote the excellent book The Tarim Mummies that covers the work of all the recruited experts, a required read for this subject. (They cover everything, excellent)
A well-designed Thames-and-Hudson book, The Tarim Mummies presents a thorough background on the migration of people and languages into the Tarim basin area. Like Barber's, it also includes a chapter on textiles. But the main source of interest will be Chapters 5 (The Mummies Themselves) and 10 (Who Were the Mummies?).
I agree, that's probably the most unusual we can expect. I push the envelope sometimes, lol.
I tend to agree (surprise! :-) But some scholars do attempt this by extrapolating from known languages to hypothetical common ancestors, which is a somewhat speculative enterprise IMO. However, even if we don't employ that method of classification, we still have to call these groups something if we're going to talk about them, in which case if we're going to use the name "Scythian" or "Celt" we need to agree upon who we're talking about, which is why I prefer to stick with Herodotus' terminology. Incidentally, though, the Scythians and Celts did leave written artifacts:
THE PRELIMINARY REPORT ON THE DECIPHERMENT OF THE PROTO-SLAVONIC WRITING SYSTEM
The Hungarian Rune Writing (During those times Sekler runic was referred to as the "Scythian letters", because the Seklers believed themselves to be the successors of the Scythians.)
About 25,000 B.C. there appears in North China a new human type, found in upper layers in the same caves that sheltered Peking Man. This type is beyond doubt not Mongoloid, and may have been allied to the Ainu, a non-Mongol race still living in northern Japan. These, too, were a palaeolithic people, though some of their implements show technical advance. Later they disappear, probably because they were absorbed into various populations of central and northern Asia. Remains of them have been found in badly explored graves in northern Korea.
4 The Neolithic age
In the period that now followed, northern China must have gradually become arid, and the formation of loess seems to have steadily advanced. There is once more a great gap in our knowledge until, about 4000 B.C., we can trace in North China a purely Mongoloid people with a neolithic culture.
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