[Gelato]

Thanks for the link on China. Interesting mummies, aren't they?

I was, however, specifically referring to the Middle Eastern countries that once comprised the Persian Empire (Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc.). They were inhabited by the ancient Elamites, who later mixed with the Caucasian race.

[blam]

This is an outstanding book. It is so detailed and thorough that I (an interested lay person) was intitially overwhelmed by the volume of data presented. I do highly recommend it though. "The Mummies of Urumchi," is another that I recommend.

The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mysteries of the Earliest Peoples in the West by J. P. Mallory & Victor Mair is the latest book about the Tarim mummies. The book will necessarily be compared to Barber's The Mummies of Ürümchi, which described the Cherchen mummies (a sub-category of the Tarim mummies) in masterful detail.

Mallory and Mair's book is a different book altogether. It will disappoint those who want a beautifully-written, compelling story of the Tarim mummies (à la Barber). It will not disappoint anyone, however, who wants to know more about the 500+ mostly-Caucasian mummies found in this part of the world and expects the photos to go along with it. Make no mistake: their book is well-written, but it is written in the scholarly "we" in most chapters, which serves to distance the reader a bit. The best chapters are the ones that are most personal: an introduction and two chapters on the mummies themselves.