Science

Look: Mysterious mummies represent an ancient "cosmopolitan" culture

Their odd, boat-shaped coffins are just the beginning.

by Jennifer Walter
Updated: 
Originally Published: 
Masked Caucasoid mummy from Tarim Basin, China.
Fine Art/Corbis Historical/Getty Images

Wenying Li, Xinjiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology

This boat-shaped coffin, complete with an oar, is the final resting place of a person who died up to 4,000 years ago in modern-day China’s Uyghur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang.

It’s just one of the hundreds of graves in the Xiaohe cemetery, which sits in the arid Tarim basin.

Wenying Li, Xinjiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology
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