Origin of the Alans

[Alanus]

Being Totally Dead in Gansu... not just Mostly Dead.

After Dr. Craig Benjamin's total location of the Yuezhi in Gansu-- nowhere else-- I thought a pursuit of other opinions might shed more light.

Back in 1980, Karl Jettmar likened Kushan facial characteristics to the warrior approaching the bald-headed woman on the felt hanging found in Pazyryk Kurgan 5. Jettmar's observation is circumstantial and based on physical likeness-- and of course, this connection is between Yuezhi Bactria and the Pazyryk culture. Nothing from Jettmar, Maenchen-Helfen, or Rudenko, about any people who "inhabited" the Gansu Corridor.

To find something worthwhile, we need to advance to the end of the 20th century and into this one. In 1992, Kaogu Xuebao's study of 18 Gansu burials found 12 podboi inhumations which he attributed to the Yuezhi... perhaps because the Grand Historian (Sima Qian) placed them there. In 1999, mathematical genius Prof. Zadneprovsky reiterated Xuebao's work but had trouble counting. Let's count to "1" (lowering the difficulty-factor) and take a look at Gansu.

   
The Gansu or Hexi Corridor began a few hundred miles inside the state of Qin, and crossed westward to Dunhaung. It was the first leg of the "Silk Road," co-founded by the Chinese and Yuezhi.

   
Looking at the Gansu Corridor, you can imagine why any Yuezhi would love to die here... because it's better than living here.

   
Around 220BC, General Meng finished the Great Wall for Shihuangdi. At that time, the Jade Gate was established at Dunhuang. This was the meeting point where non-Chinese traders made their final exchange. It would be here, somewhere outside the Jade Gate, that the Yuezhi had a sizable trading station. This trading depot somehow became the residence of the Yuezhi, according to statements of Sima Qian in the Shiji.

In 2003 (A Comprehinsive History of Western Regions, 2nd edition), Taishan Yu explicitly mentioned that no Caucasoid skulls had been found by archaeologists within the supposed "Yuezhi homeland," qualifying it with, "The site thought to be of Yuezhi and Huns found at Barkol County [in Gansu Province] showed similar to a culture in Inner Mongolia."

How disappointing. I was beginning to think Gansu looked like Heaven on Earth (if you lived in Hell). What we really need is a broad sample... because maybe a Yuezhi got lost in the Gansu, died of thirst or boredom, and left his Caucasoid skull for an ecstatic archaeologist to discover.

Here comes the really boring part. In 2010, the team of John Dodson, Fiona Bertuch, Liang Chen, and Xiaoqiang Li, conducted an extensive examination of over 500 skulls found in Gansu, the entire Province and not just the Hexi Corridor. Skulls from Yumen, Datong, Shansunjizhai, Xicum, and several other sites, were carefully measured. They ranged from the Bronze Age to the Zhou and Western Han periods. Examples were evaluated as either "South Asia" or "East Asia" type. Their conclusion, "All examples are of the Mongoloid race."

   
I'll close the post by translating this famous Yuezhi rock inscription: "Help! Water! Pant, pant... Am I dead yet?"