The Sogdians were an Eastern Iranian-speaking people originally from Sogdiana, or modern-day Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. Traders, artisans, and cultural brokers, their influence peaked during the Tang Dynasty, or roughly from 618 to 907 CE, described as the "Golden Age" of the Silk Road. But until recently, very little has been known about their origins and interaction with other populations.A breakthrough in understanding the Sogdians came from the analysis of two skeletons excavated from a Tang Dynasty tomb, M1401, in Guyuan, northwest China. The tomb was excavated by the Ningxia Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology in 2014 to prevent...