Look at this blog as a sidebar to the continuing look at the Adena/Allegheny culture. The reason I am diverting to a sidebar is because there IS a theory about the origins of the Adena that I don’t hold to but which isn’t as absurd as it seems at first glance: the Kelts came here and established the Adena. There are TONS of problems with that interpretation but it must be said that the Kelts were a long-ranging people. They have always been on the move. It is a mistake to equate Kelts with just the Highland Scots, the Irish, the Welsh, and smaller numbers of people in Cornwall and Normandy. They came from Central Europe and they once roamed the world, leaving precious few records as they traveled.

The occasion of this sidebar comes from the July/August 2010 issue of Archaeology magazine. I have a love/hate relationship with this magazine. It is an excellent read and quite a bargain. That’s good. It also is well written. That’s good. It is not afraid to bring up things which other, more stuffy mags, might avoid. That’s very, very good. However, from time to time it just decides to write off something (such as the Kensington Runestone) and ignore evidence in its favor. THIS issue, however, has a ton of incredible information. One article is germane to our discussion of hidden history — “Battle for the Xinjiang Mummies.” [NOTE: the spelling of Kelt with a K instead of a C is gaining in popularity even though no Keltic nation had a K in its alphabet. The reason? Their C was always hard, never soft. To keep it from being pronounced "Selt," the K is gaining in use]

In a great article by Heather Pringle, the story unfolds like this: Since the 1960’s mummies have been found in the northwest of China. Although found in a desert, many of the very well preserved mummies were found buried in oval boats made of stretched skin over wooden stays. The boats were coracles made in the same style the Kelts have made since recorded history began (and some still use in the west of Ireland). No great studies of the mummies were made and they didn’t make much of a splash in Chinese circles until the 1970’s when massive Communist building programs uncovered hundreds of them. All of them were Western in dress and looks. Many had long red hair and they were much taller than the average Chinese person.

These discoveries caused trouble almost from the beginning. That region of China is home to the Uyghurs (pronounced “Wee-gurs”), Muslims who speak a language related to Turkish and Kasakh. They are ethnically different from the Chinese and they have long pushed for their own homeland (or, at least, an autonomous region). They said the mummies were their ancestors and proof that they lived there before the Chinese did. The mummies were all near the Great Silk Road, a road used by traders between China and Europe. It seems that the road was in use a long, long time before we thought it was.

The mummies are so well preserved that Victor Mair (the preeminent American scholar of the mummies) thought at first that they were wax dummies made to fool the locals. Some of the women still have a hint of their original beauty on their faces and that long red or auburn hair is striking. The remains are dated to 4000 years ago — around 2000BC. The more Mair and others studied the mummies, the more Keltic they appeared to be. The clothes, hair, height, the shape of the skulls, and the goods they were buried with were all Keltic or Keltic-like.

The Kelts originated in Central Europe (they were the Galatians whom Paul addressed in one letter) and moved in massive migrations east, west, north, and a bit south. Along the way, they tended to intermarry and, slowly, disappear as a distinct people. They were never one single nation or culture but a polyglot of cultures and tribes with a common ancestry. Thus, we find evidences that indicate some made it the New World while others went into modern day China and Mongolia. Mair and linguists have determined that the mummies spoke and wrote Tocharian, a language that is much more closely related to European languages than it is Asian ones.

DNA studies are being done on the mummies but they have to be done carefully and under intense Chinese governmental scrutiny. Some of the events described by Pringle in Archaeology magazine bring to mind a spy show or thriller as samples are smuggled out or examined under the noses of armed guards. A series of DNA studies have already been completed on 20 mummies indicating they had one male European ancestor and two female ancestors, one European and one Asian. All of the studies indicate a Keltic connection. None show a connection to either ethnic Chinese or Uyghurs. This has angered both Chinese and Uyghur activists but, as Mair says, “I have so many good Uyghur friends, but I’m not going to distort history.”

So… as odd as it sounds that Kelts might have migrated to the New World in significant numbers, it is not unprecedented. They were always a people on the move, spreading their art, religions, cultures, and language with them. They usually didn’t leave behind enough for us to reconstruct their history as they passed, but in the high, dry desert of northwest China, they remain.

Some of you remember that I wrote a blog about my father once entitled “Born Walking.” It’s what the Kelts do.

Next time, I’ll introduce the Keltic source theory for the Adena. Again, I’m not at all sure there is enough evidence to “buy” it, but since Kelts tend to show up in random, far flung places… who knows?