Origin of the Alans

[Alanus]

Hi, Jan

True, the Phrygian hat looks similar to the Loufan one, but the latter is a hooded cap and not a hat as it wraps down over the warrior's ears... just as the Pazyryk ones do. Fact is, it's just the tip of a cultural iceberg. Other findings in Loufan graves are a far more important connection.

I have no trouble believing the Tarim people spoke Tocharian. I simply can't swallow Benjamin's claim that the Yuezhi, evidently as a whole, were also Tocharians. Look at this, "It was the Afanasevo culture of the Middle Bronze Age that is the most likely candidate for having included the ancestors of the Yuezhi/Tocharians." (Benjamin, p. 43) He even calls them "Yuezhi/Tocharians"! Like all other Scythians and Saka, all of which were formed in the Arzhan core-group, the Yuezhi/Pazyryks are far more likely to have spoken Iranian, perhaps specifically Eastern Iranian... not Tocharian. This falls in line with the Kushan Yuezhi using Bactrian as their coined language, and it continues into the Aorsi spectrum until becoming Ossetic.

All I'm saying is this. Benjamin has a real problem in recognizing the Yuezhi for who they were. He talks about their horses without allotting enough room for pasturage. Imagine raising the finest horse-flesh in the ancient world in Gansu... or even worse, the Tarim basin! It's a ruddy desert! And as you know, the word for "horse" is absent in the Tocharian language. (see Mallory's lecture, posted above by Jan) The Tarim mummy people were millet farmers, humble at that; and if they became rich from selling white jade to the Chinese, they kept it a well-hidden secret.

I specifically want to do a post on "barbarian" generals within the Chinese army, so momentarily I'm "passing the hats"  and even the wondrous pontifications of Professor Benjamin. I need to rest first, but I will continue.

PS: I can't believe I wasted $65 on that dumb book. What a crock!