Are you here with the living? Are you back with the dead?

[sovay]

The dead who were buried in boats, among sex and sand:

As the Chinese archaeologists dug through the five layers of burials, Dr. Mair recounted, they came across almost 200 poles, each 13 feet tall. Many had flat blades, painted black and red, like the oars from some great galley that had foundered beneath the waves of sand.

"A Host of Mummies, a Forest of Secrets."

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Wow! What a story!

[sovay]

Wow! What a story!

And I don't know if it can be unriddled, but I hope so: I don't think it tears down the mystery to know what they language they spoke, or why boats in a dry land.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Wondrous strange.

Nine

[sovay]

Wondrous strange.

I would like to know about their underworld.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Such a strange mixture of the alien and familiar. While I hesitate to say that there's nothing more tantalizing than a dessicated corpse, they seem to be the brink of telling their secrets in a way that mere bones never do.

[sovay]

While I hesitate to say that there's nothing more tantalizing than a dessicated corpse,

Nah. Everybody feels that way sometimes.

they seem to be the brink of telling their secrets in a way that mere bones never do.

Because they still have faces? Or because there is so much more of their life around them—material culture, physically—it seems they should be like us, where skeletons are only us at the most mineral level?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

"Buried in boats, among sex and sand". That's a great line....

[sovay]

"Buried in boats, among sex and sand". That's a great line....

Thanks. If it turns into anything for you, feel free to use it.

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

I stayed up late to read this story. Granted, instead of dreaming of them, I had dreams about going with an old man to pawn a bunch of painted ceramic cars depicting the rise and fall of fascism in an alternate America where the 30s were much more unsettled than they were. But then I also had a dream in which I did... something. Something very important that I hoped carried over into the waking world... Hm.

[sovay]

Granted, instead of dreaming of them, I had dreams about going with an old man to pawn a bunch of painted ceramic cars depicting the rise and fall of fascism in an alternate America where the 30s were much more unsettled than they were.

That's great.

But then I also had a dream in which I did... something. Something very important that I hoped carried over into the waking world... Hm.

Maybe it did and that's why you can't remember it.

[schreibergasse.livejournal.com]

That's...weird. (Boat burials in the Tarim, that is, not the vaguely-European-looking maybe-Tokharians.)

[sovay]

(Boat burials in the Tarim, that is, not the vaguely-European-looking maybe-Tokharians.)

They had rivers. I imagine they really did not want the afterlife to be a desert.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Fascinating story, yes. I remember the Tarim Basin mummies from the last time they impinged on the public consciousness, roundabouts ten or fifteen years ago. (I remember once having the strangest feeling that some of them in the photographs looked familiar, whatever that might mean.)

The boat-shaped coffins and the sexual symbolism in this particular cemetery are an interesting wrinkle. I might have to see if I can finagle access to some of the current archaeological journals, to see what's being said about them.

[sovay]

The boat-shaped coffins and the sexual symbolism in this particular cemetery are an interesting wrinkle. I might have to see if I can finagle access to some of the current archaeological journals, to see what's being said about them.

Let me know if you find anything of interest. I've read very little about the Tarim mummies in general.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Let me know if you find anything of interest. I've read very little about the Tarim mummies in general.

Will do.

I'm a slight bit unsure about whether and to what degree my access to my latest university's library resources still holds true, but I'm intending to have a look. I'd hope that at the very least I could get to some of the older journal articles through JSTOR or the like.

[stinger78.livejournal.com]

I second the love for "The dead who were buried in boats, among sex and sand."

[sovay]

I second the love for "The dead who were buried in boats, among sex and sand."

Thanks. Feel free to do something with the image.

[stinger78.livejournal.com]

I'll be sure to share should anything come of it.

[moon-custafer.livejournal.com]

Sigh. One of those frustrating ancient cultures that is both fascinating, and difficult to research online without falling into a morass of white-supremacist sites.

[sovay]

One of those frustrating ancient cultures that is both fascinating, and difficult to research online without falling into a morass of white-supremacist sites.

Oh, God. I hadn't even considered that angle, but you're right: as soon as the blue eyes and fair hair show up, the internet explodes . . .

(I love your icon.)

[moon-custafer.livejournal.com]

Thanks - currently most of my icons are still Deadwood-related, though an original story is currently keeping me away from the fan-writing...

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

One of those frustrating ancient cultures that is both fascinating, and difficult to research online without falling into a morass of white-supremacist sites.

Word. Years ago I got interested in the question of Indo-European-derived vocabulary in Old Chinese, and had the worst time finding anything on the subject (especially because some git had every relevant volumes of the Journal of Indo-European Studies checked out of the library at my then uni for the entire year that I was there, but I digress...) that wasn't either vile, dubious, or both.

Of course, I was extremely displeased to find out that one LJ community with certain of my interests listed as its interests was some den of British-Israelite vermin, so I suppose that sort of thing is, to some degree, unavoidable.