The mummies

Ralf-Stefan Georg Georg at home.ivm.de
Fri Feb 5 07:27:38 UTC 1999


A few days ago Carol Justus announced a newspaper article In "The Guardian"
about a recent book by Elizabeth Barber on the Xinjiang mummies and,
especially, their clothing.
I responded to that with a rather sneerful remark.
In the meantime, having received a clarifying message by Carol Justus, I've
learned that the bit I was objecting to, that the mummies were Celts, was
in fact part of that newspaper's sensationalizing report on the book, and
is not an accurate representation of neither E. Barber's, let alone Carol
Justus' views. I take it the mentioned book does deserve serious attention,
since the findings reported in it do raise important questions for the
historian of the Turkestan region. Not having read this book, I now think
it wiser to read it myself (as I should have in the first place) and hope
interested persons will follow this example, rather than that which I gave
when all I had to say about it was "o tempora".

Stefan Georg
Heerstrasse 7
D-53111 Bonn
FRG
+49-228-69-13-32

[ Moderator's addendum:
  The original comment by Stefan Georg was to a posting from Nicholas Widdows,
  reporting the newspaper article on Barber's book.  I'm afraid that I, too,
  am guilty of pre-judging based on insufficient information, and allowed both
  his comment and another to go through unremarked.

  On the other hand, Carol Justus' endorsement of the book on this list clearly
  indicated that it is a important scholarly work.  I look forward to reading
  it.
  --rma ]



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