[Texan5]

The many programs on the Discovery channel about the Caucasian mummies from China would certainly seem to support that. I am always saying that these scientists who scoff at early trading and migration over great distances (such as the Ainu and Africans on the American continent before 12,000 years ago) are not taking into consideration how clever and industrious humans are. We didn't get that way overnight, so to speak-all anyone had to do was build a seaworthy boat and have a need to leave where they were, or an urge to trade goods further afield. I think the scientists who recognize this perfectly logical fact will be proven right.

[blam]

"The many programs on the Discovery channel about the Caucasian mummies from China would certainly seem to support that."

There are numerous Chinese poems written about the green eyes of the Han Emperors.

The Curse Of The Red-Headed Mummy

Victor Mair and company found jade mining in the area where these mummies were found.

[Elliott Jackalope]

Consider how the ancient Syrians guarded their knowlege of iron working, and then consider how valuable the knowlege of a place where people have a material that is highly prized by your local community, but there it is cheap and common?

It is my personal belief that travel in the ancient world was much more common and much more widespread than modern archeology is willing to concede, and that the primary motivation for this travel was economic. My theory is that the knowlege of these distant places and what goods were to be traded was kept as a closely guarded secret by various families and tribes over generations.