Yup, Victor Mair recruited Barber and her husband to go to China with him and do the 'textile' work. She said that the fabrics (textiles) were just like those at the Celtic site at Halstadt, Austria...same materials, same mfg technique, same weave and same pattern style. Some of the patterns are still in use in Scotland today.
Urumchi and Haldstadt are 4,000 miles and 1,000 years apart. Those two books are amazing. I've read each three times and still haven't absorbed all the info.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels that way after reading all this stuff--sometimes it makes my head spin trying to absorb it all! :) Yeah, that does sound pretty amazing if they've got evidence of Halstadt-type textiles in ancient China. Do you remember offhand from reading the book, was there any iron technology found with that or was it just copper/bronze? I have a working theory that C.J. Thomsen's assumption of a single linear bronze/iron transition has put somewhat of a straitjacket on historical models of ancient technological development, so I'd be curious if Barber's find sheds any light on that, given Halstadt's significance in the bronze/iron transition in Europe.