http://www.nd.edu/~nsl/Lectures/phys178/pdf/chap3_3.pdf
DNA sampling was done on eleven mummies. Only 1 was allowed to be exported for testing and showed Haplogroup H largely (40%) associated with people of European origin (15% Near East population.)
I find the textile information very interesting.
http://encyclopedia.stateuniversity.com/pages/21723/tartan.html
Origins
“Textile analysis of fabric from Indo-European Tocharian graves in Western China has shown similarities to the Iron Age civilizations of Europe dating from 800 BC, including woven twill and tartan patterns strikingly similar to Celtic tartans from Northwest Europe. Tartan patterns have been used in Scottish, Irish, Northumbrian (north east English) and Welsh weaving for centuries....”
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Tartan
“Origins
“Today tartan may be mostly associated with Scotland, however the earliest evidence of tartan is found far afield from the British Isles. According to the textile historian E. J. W. Barber, the Hallstatt culture was the predominant Central European culture from the 8th to 6th centuries BC , developing out of the Urnfield culture of the 12th century BC and followed in much of Central Europe by the La Tène culture...Also, textile analysis of fabric from Indo-European graves in Western China has shown it to be similar to the Iron Age....Tartan-like leggings were found on the “Cherchen Man”, a 3,000 year-old mummy found in the Taklamakan Desert in western China. The Tarim mummies are a series of mummies discovered in the Tarim Basin in present-day Xinjiang, China, which date from 1800 BCE to 200 CE...”
The Tocharian corpses are 4000 year old. Textile analysis indicates that their tartans are similar to Celtic ones of a century later. Could these folk be the ancestors of the Celts?
“Europe dating from 800 BC, including woven twill and tartan patterns strikingly similar to Celtic tartans from Northwest Europe. Tartan patterns have been used in Scottish, Irish, Northumbrian (north east English) and Welsh “
That would also explain the large phallic symbols or as us Irish say “Average”...
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