"A noblewoman from Imperial China enjoyed playing polo on donkeys so much she had her steeds buried with her so she could keep doing it in the afterlife, archaeologists found." Source: Science Daily.
"...The research provides the first physical evidence of donkey polo in Imperial China, which previously was only known from historical texts. It also sheds light on the role for donkeys in the lives of high status women in that period.
"Researchers found donkey bones in the tomb of Cui Shi, a noblewoman who died in 878 AD in Xi'an, China. The presence of work animals in a wealthy woman's tomb was unexpected, the researchers said."
Note: Donkey polo, known in China as Lvju, is a safer form of regular polo, which is pretty dangerous. The conclusion that the donkey remains found in Cui Shi's grave were used for polo is based on an analysis of "the size and patterns of stresses and strains on the donkey bones from Cui Shi's tomb. Their findings suggest that these small and active donkeys were being used for Lvju."
Comment: Donkey polo may be OK for medieval Chinese noblewomen, but it's nothing compared to the great American sport of donkey basketball.
Comment: This theory is speculative, but the idea that Roman soldiers ended up in China isn't totally implausible. The general scenario of how it could have happened goes like this:
In 53 BC, the Roman politician and general Marcus Crassus (115-53 BC) was killed at the Battle of Carrhae when he led his army into a trap during his ill-advised invasion of Parthia, an empire which bordered on China:
This map shows the location of Parthia when it was part of the Median Empire around 600 BC. Parthia is in the upper part of the yellow region just to the right of the Caspian Sea.
Crassus' invasion of Parthia was a complete disaster:
"In a slaughter known as the battle of Carrhae the Romans lost nearly their entire army and Crassus was killed. [The story is that the Parthians captured Crassus, the richest man in Rome, and executed him by pouring molten gold down his throat.] The remaining 10,000 or so Roman legionaries were captured." Source: War History Online.
The Parthians apparently used their Roman prisoners as border guards along the eastern frontiers:
"The Parthians had a standard practice of employing captured soldiers as border guards. By transferring the 10,000 legionaries to the eastern borders they prevented any realistic chance of escape for the Romans who likely would have simply accepted their new lot in life. Record of the soldiers vanish for about 17 years when the battle of Zhizhi was fought as a Chinese army under Chen Tang assaulted a border town known today as Taraz, located in Kazakhstan near the border of Kyrgyzstan." (War History Online)
According to the story, some of these former Roman soldiers and Parthian border guards fought as mercenaries at the battle of Zhizhi. They were either captured or defected to the Chinese, who were impressed by their fighting abilities and -- like the Parthians -- stationed them in a border town to guard the frontier:
"Anywhere from 100 to 1,000 or more soldiers established themselves in this town that was known by the Chinese as Liqian/Li-Jien, which is pronounced as 'legion'." (War History Online) "...It seems these Romans lived peacefully in Liqian, and 2,000 years later we have DNA evidence that over 50% of the villagers in modern day Liqian have Caucasian ancestry including green and blue eyes, increased average height and other distinguishing characteristics such as distinctly Roman noses."
If this story is true, then these Roman soldiers who fought under Crassus at Carrhae (and their descendants) had an extremely wild and strange destiny, to say the least. But is the story true?
First of all, there's no doubt that the inhabitants of the region of Liqian, China, have some kind of European ancestry. According to Wikipedia, "The area of the former Liqian city is known for the distinctive physical appearance of its inhabitants. The population has higher frequencies of traits prevalent in Europe, such as aquiline noses, blonde or light-colored hair, blue or green eyes, and relatively fair skin tones."
Who were these Europeans and where did they come from? The idea that they were Roman soldiers or their descendants isn't all that farfetched, but it's still controversial:
"A hypothesis by the sinologist Homer H. Dubs, according to which Roman legionaries clashed with Han troops during the battle and were resettled afterwards in a Chinese village named Liqian, has been rejected by modern historians and geneticists on the grounds of a critical appraisal of the ancient sources and recent DNA testings of the village people. However, this hypothesis has been supported by prominent scholars like Lev Gumilev."
It's possible that the people of Liqian are descended from Caucasoid Indo-Europeans who were living in the region long before the Romans went to war with Parthia:
You can always trust the experts to mess up a good story, but I've got to admit that some of these Chinese do look like they have Roman ancestry. The people in Liqian are trying to use their supposed relationship with the Romans to boost their tourism industry and who can blame them? Whether the story is true or not is a different matter altogether.
"At the start of the Tang dynasty, in the early 7th century, a young wandering monk embarked on a 16-year long voyage from the imperial capital Chang’an (today’s Xian) to India to collect Buddhist manuscripts. At the time Chang’an was six times bigger than Rome at its height, with a population of over one million – the epicenter of Asian civilization." Source: UNZ Review.
3D animation of ancient Chang'an.
"History ended up converting Xuanzang into a legend and a national hero in China – although in the West he would never reach Marco Polo levels of popularity.
"Xuanzang had embarked on a quest that still resonates today. He wanted to know whether all men – or just an enlightened few – could attain Buddhahood. There was only one way to find out: ride all the way to India and bring back Sanskrit texts to China, especially from the Yogacara school of Buddhism, which professed that the outside world did not exist: it was merely a projection of one’s consciousness."
"The ancient Patara Lighthouse, constructed on the order of one of the most famed emperors in Roman history, Nero, in 64 AD, is set to be restored and once again shine on the shores of Kaş, in southern Antalya [Turkey], centuries after it went dark." Source: Archaeology News Network.
Note: Kas, thought to have been founded by the Lycians, became the port of Phellus, a town apparently located farther inland. Under the Greeks and Romans, Kas was known as Antiphellus.
"Mysterious bone circles made from the remains of dozens of mammoths have revealed clues about how ancient communities survived Europe's ice age." Source: Science Daily.
"New analysis shows the bones at one site are more than 20,000 years old, making it the oldest such circular structure built by humans discovered in the region. The bones were likely sourced from animal graveyards, and the circle was then hidden by sediment and is now a foot below current surface level."
Note: Prehistoric hunter-gatherers in the region probably used these mammoth bones (and, to a lesser extent, the bones of "reindeer, horse, bear, wolf, red fox and arctic fox") to build shelters, but it's unclear how long they lived in them:
"Previously archaeologists have assumed that the circular mammoth bone structures were used as dwellings, occupied for many months at a time. The new study suggests this may not always have been the case as the intensity of activity at Kostenki 11 appears less than would be expected from a long term base camp site."
At the site of the latest discovery, archaeologists found "the remains of charred wood and other soft non-woody plant remains within the circular structure ... This shows people were burning wood as well as bones for fuel, and the communities who lived there had learned where to forage for edible plants during the Ice Age. The plants could also have been used for poisons, medicines, string or fabric. More than 50 small charred seeds were also found -- the remains of plants growing locally or possibly food remains from cooking and eating."
Video from 2019. Vishnu statues discovered in Vietnam are used here to argue against the Aryan Invasion Theory.
"The Central Committee of Communist Party of Vietnam (CPVCC) has claimed finding of a Vishnu sculpture, describing it as 'Vishnu stone head from OcEo culture, dating back 4,000-3,500 years.' Of late the Government of Vietnam, despite its official Communist doctrine, has developed many programs and projects highlighting Vietnam’s ancient religious heritage. Its scholarly and archeological research and investigations are legitimate and its conclusions are authoritative." Source: India Post (2016).
Note: Oc Eco is an archaeological site in Vietnam. According to Wikipedia, "Excavation at Óc Eo began on February 10, 1942, after French archaeologists had discovered the site through the use of aerial photography. The first excavations were led by Louis Malleret, who identified the place as the Cattigara of Roman merchants in the first centuries of the Roman empire."
If Oc Eo is Kattigara, this shows the incredible reach of the Roman trading network. Vietnam is almost 6000 miles by air from Italy.
Video may have some inaccuracies. Subtitles need proofreading.
"'Bosporus, the Cimmerian,' another name for the strait of Kerch which connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov, was the center of the major kingdom of Bosporus in what is now Ukraine. The kingdom was ruled by the Greek Spartocids from around 438 BC until it came under the control of the new Pontic Empire under Mithridates. The whole area later fell under the control of the Romans." Source: Oxford Classical Dictionary, OCD, 3rd ed. revised.
The Greek/Cimmerian Bosporan Kingdom is deep barbarian territory and the ancient history of the region is suitably tumultuous and confusing. The Cimmerians themselves apparently lived in the region back in the 7th or 8th centuries BC, but their original homeland is still obscure and they were apparently defeated by the Scythians:
"...prevailing opinion among the ancients was that the Cimmerians had once inhabited the steppes on the northern shore of the Black Sea. The first surviving evidence of this view is found in the poem Arimaspaea by Aristeas of Proconnesus (ca. 550 b.c.e.), in which the Scythians are said to have driven the Cimmerians from their country in southern Russia..." Source: Encyclopedia Iranica.
Linguistically, the Cimmerians could have been Scythians themselves, or Iranians; it all seems to depend on which source you read.
"Some authorities identify [the Cimmerians] with 'Thraco-Cimmerian' remains of the 8th–7th century BC found in the southwestern Ukraine and in central Europe; these may perhaps be looked upon as traces of the western branch of the Cimmerians, who, under fresh Scythian pressure, eventually invaded the Hungarian plain and survived there until about 500 BC." Source: Encyclopedia Britannica.
Fittingly enough, Thraco-Cimmerian artefacts seem to consist mostly of "grave goods and hoards."
The most famous Cimmerian, of course, is Conan the Barbarian, but the Cimmerians as created by the great Robert E. Howard are a fictional race living in a mythological world of his own invention which was based very loosely on actual history:
"North of Aquilonia, the western-most Hyborian kingdom, are the Cimmerians, ferocious savages, untamed by the invaders, but advancing rapidly because of contact with them; they are the descendants of the Atlanteans, now progressing more steadily than their old enemies the Picts, who dwell in the wilderness west of Aquilonia." -- The Hyborian Age, Robert E. Howard.
"The Cimmerians are known from several Assyrian texts, which call them Ga-mir or Gi-mir-a-a. In the Assyrian language, the last name means something like 'people traveling back and forth' and seems to be the less adequate of the two renderings of the Cimmerians' Indo-European name, but it describes their way of life excellently, because they were nomads. The Cimmerians were closely related and are archaeologically almost identical to the Scythians, who may have expelled them from their home country." Source: Livius.
The Cimmerians appear to have been a warlike, aggressive people, but they weren't a force for very long. According to Wikipedia, their homeland, Gamirr, was first mentioned by the Assyrian king Sargon II around 721-715 BC. They destroyed the Anatolian kingdom of Phrygia in 695 and again in 676-674 and were eventually defeated in 637-626 by Alyattes II, the king of Lydia, after decades of battles, sacks, invasions, short-lived occupations and general mayhem.
The Cimmerians, aka the Cimmerri, had a meteoric rise and fall, but they made their mark on history. According to the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica, they were "an ancient people of the far north or west of Europe, first spoken of by Homer (Odyssey, xi. 12–19), who describes them as living in perpetual darkness. Herodotus (iv. 11–13), in his account of Scythia, regards them as the early inhabitants of South Russia (after whom the Bosporus Cimmerius [q.v.] and other places were named), driven by the Scyths along by the Caucasus into Asia Minor, where they maintained themselves for a century."
The Cimmerian's push for conquest and expansion only lasted for about a hundred years, but that's not a bad record considering the chaos and constant turmoil in the region back then.
Excavations at Chagyrskaya cave in Siberia. (Jan. 2020).
"At least two different groups of Neanderthals lived in Southern Siberia and an international team of researchers ... have now proven that one of these groups migrated from Eastern Europe." Source: Science Daily.
This discovery was made through the examination of stone tools found in the Chagyrskaya cave in the Altai mountains in Russia:
"The site has been excavated since 2019 as part of a DFG research project in conjunction with the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of the Sciences in Novosibirsk. In addition to stone tools and bones from hunting remains, two main find layers yielded numerous Neanderthal fossils. After discovering that the stone tools did not resemble any of the tools from groups living in the Altai during the same period, the team searched for comparable finds in a larger radius."
The Altai Mountains.
According to Antiquity, Neanderthals, modern humans and Denisovans probably lived (and mated) at the same time in this region. The authors of this paper, of course, manage to turn that simple statement into several turgid sentences:
"It is assumed that there had not been a simple successive occupation of the region by different kinds of humans but rather some chronological overlap or co-existence of all these populations. Although palaeogenetic data indicate interbreeding (at least between Neanderthals and Denisovans), the possibility of cultural reciprocity between these populations remains unclear. The cultural affinity of Denisovans and early modern humans attested at the Denisova and Strashnaya Caves is described as a Levallois-based blade industry, while the Neanderthal industries of the Okladnikov and Chagyrskaya Caves demonstrate completely different features."
"Their first foray around 120,000 years ago saw them living in famous Denisova Cave when they co-habited with the Denisovan population, another early human branch that was to become extinct.
"A separate and later influx is noted at Chagyrskaya Cave after a journey of perhaps 4,000 kilometres [1] from Eastern Europe, an odyssey which saw them traverse the North Caucasus, the Caspian Sea, then shrunken by up to 1,000 kilometres, and the Altai Mountains.
"‘The settlers of the second wave also left their traces in Okladnikova Cave,’ said Professor Ksenia Kolobova, head of excavations at Chagyrskaya Cave.
"‘We do not have exact ages when they were there, but the Okladnikova assemblage is definitely younger than Denisova.’"
[1] The Neanderthals traveled around 2500 miles, the rough equivalent of walking from New York to San Francisco while living off the land.
"It is a place unlike any other and is, arguably, one of the greatest art galleries anywhere in the world. Yet you won't find masterpieces in the traditional sense here, with no Rembrandts, Monets, or Da Vinci’s anywhere in sight." Source: Siberian Times (2014).
"Instead, this is the Russian Altai mountain range, where art exists in its most natural sense, carved into the rocks by ancient civilizations 5,000 years ago.
"Located in Siberia, at its borders with China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan, it is home to literally thousands of petroglyphs and drawings that continue to fascinate archaeologists today. Experts have been studying the area for more than a century, with each expedition deep into the heart of the valleys and gorges uncovering more fingerprints of the past."
Imagine what it must have taken to survive in this wilderness back in 11,000 - 6,000 BC when the earliest rock art in the area was created.
According to Wikipedia, Hartapu was a king of the Hittites. See end note.
"Last winter, a local farmer in southern Turkey stumbled upon a large stone half-submerged in an irrigation canal with mysterious inscriptions. The stone revealed the story of an ancient, lost civilization that may have defeated King Midas' kingdom of Phrygia[1] in the late eighth century B.C., according to new findings." Source: Live Science.
"...A symbol on the stone indicated that it was a message that came directly from its ruler, King Hartapu. One part of the stone read, 'The storm gods delivered the [opposing] kings to his majesty.'
"The lost kingdom likely existed between the ninth and seventh centuries B.C. and at its height, it likely covered around 300 acres (120 hectares). Though that sounds tiny compared with modern cities, it was actually one of the largest settlements to exist in ancient Turkey at the time."
[1] This isn't the legendary King Midas who died of starvation because everything he touched turned to gold. According to Wikipedia, the King Midas referred to in the Live Science article "ruled Phrygia in the late 8th century BC, up until the sacking of Gordium by the Cimmerians, when he is said to have committed suicide [by drinking bull's blood, according to some sources]. Most historians believe this Midas is the same person as the Mita, called king of the Mushki in Assyrian texts, who warred with Assyria and its Anatolian provinces during the same period."
Note: This article is confusing. According to Wikipedia, King Hartapu was "a late Hittite king who reigned in Tarhuntassa in the 8th Century BCE. He is known from Hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions from Kizildağ, Mount Karadağ, and Burunkaya near Aksaray. His recently discovered monumental stele claimed victory over the kingdom of Phrygia, ruled around that time by King Midas." Maybe I'm missing something here, but if this is the same King Hartapu -- and it definitely seems so -- then the "lost civilization" referred to in the Live Science article is actually well known.