The Tarim Mummies
Who were the people buried in the Tarim Basin?
4.4 (34)
48 mins
Explore the mystery of the remarkably preserved mummies discovered in China’s Taklamakan Desert, some dating back nearly 4,000 years. Discover what their unusual clothing, burial customs and DNA revealed about ancient migration across Central Asia.
Ep 1:
Secrets Beneath the Taklamakan Sands
Four-thousand-year-old mummies with auburn hair and eyelashes still intact emerge from China's deadliest desert, igniting a mystery about who they really were.
Ep 2:
Jumbalakkum: A City of Gold and Blood
A lost fortified city rises from the dunes, revealing gold-mouthed merchants, tattooed elders, and a brutal murder—while DNA upends every theory about European-looking bodies in Xinjiang.
Ep 3:
Whose Mummies Are They Anyway?
As Scythians, Yuezhi, and Sogdians crowd the ancient steppe, the Tarim mummies become an explosive modern battleground between Uyghur activists and the Chinese state.
Ep 4:
Ghosts of the Ice Age Steppe
From Aryan myths to pyramid rumors, the truth emerges: an isolated Ice Age people shaped Eurasia's cultures without ever being absorbed by them.
Discussions (5)
Zachary
Level 5 · 10 hours agooldest cheese at 3600 yrs confirmed
Ted
Level 6 · 10 hours agoThe boat coffins in a desert blew my mind
Jarvis
Level 2 · 10 hours agoSo the mummies absorbed everyone's culture but swiped right on nobody. Iconic.
