Kenaz
Bluelighter
The beginning of my seventh book, tentatively titled Speed: 4,000 Years of Life in the Fast Lane. I figured this would be a good place to preview it. All comments welcome.
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The Uighurs call the Taklamakan "the place where if you go in, you will never come out" and "the desert of death." The rain shadow cast by the Tien Shan mountains to the north and the Kunlun mountains to the south ensure that little moisture finds its way to this wasteland. The average annual rainfall is between 0.5 and 1.5 inches (12 to 40mm), with many years seeing no precipitation at all. In the winter temperatures may drop below -20c (-4f), rising to 40c (104f) in the summers. Sand dunes stretch across an area the size of Germany, shaped by high winds which kick up frequent dust storms. Only the bravest or most foolhardy dare enter this region. One such explorer chronicled his journey (or plagiarized a Persian or Arabic guidebook) in his 1298 bestseller Il Milione, better known today as Travels of Marco Polo.
But while the Taklamakan may be inhospitable to the living, it takes wonderful care of the dead. Archaeologists have discovered many mummified corpses in and around the region, their hair, skin and even clothing preserved by the arid air and sterile sand. Some of the oldest mummies have been found at Small River Cemetery No. 5, a dig located at the Taklamakan's northeastern edge. There over 200 bodies have been exhumed, the oldest dating back nearly 4,000 years. Each was buried with a treasure of grave goods, including bundles of Ephedra twigs.(2)
Fifteen hundred miles (2,500km) away another landlocked desert - Turkmenistan's barren Karakum - has given up tantalizing evidence of a different but contemporaneous people. Archaeologists working at the Bactrian-Margiana Archaeological Complex have unearthed large fortified settlements with massive towers and thick defensive walls that may have stood as much as 10 meters high. 1,500 years before Alexander the Great's campaign, a thriving civilization existed here. Surviving artifacts suggest trade with potters from western Siberia and artisans from the Indus Valley of modern-day Pakistan. (Their distinctive artwork and sophisticated jewelry has turned up at Bronze Age sites from the Russian Steppes to the Persian Gulf). Canals channeled the Maghreb River (whose course has long since shifted) to provide the people with drinking water and irrigation for farms where wheat, barley, lentils and grapes were grown.
These sites have also revealed temple areas coated with white gypsum plaster, ceramic vessels and elaborately carved bone libation tubes. Chemical analysis performed on these artifacts have revealed the presence of ephedra, combined alternately with local cannabis hemp or with an import from western Europe, the opium poppy Papaver somniferum.(3) This has led some archaeologists (notably Viktor Sarianidi, who has spent over 30 years excavating at the BMAC) to suggest that this lost culture gave birth to a legendary beverage - a drink which the Zoroastrians call "Haoma" and which the Vedic Hindus knew as "Soma."
(1) Marco Polo. The Travels of Marco Polo. Book 1: Chapter 39. Henry Yule, translator. (1920). Available at Wikisource. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Travels_of_Marco_Polo/Book_1/Chapter_39. Accessed December 2, 2010.
(2) Nicholas Wade. "A Host of Mummies, a Forest of Secrets." New York Times, March 25, 2010. Available at www.nytimes.com/2010/03/16/science/16archeo.html. Accessed December 2, 2010.
(3) Andrew Lawler. "Central Asia's Lost Civilization." Discover, November 2006. Available at http://discovermagazine.com/2006/nov/ancient-towns-excavated-turkmenistan. Accessed December 2, 2010.
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The Uighurs call the Taklamakan "the place where if you go in, you will never come out" and "the desert of death." The rain shadow cast by the Tien Shan mountains to the north and the Kunlun mountains to the south ensure that little moisture finds its way to this wasteland. The average annual rainfall is between 0.5 and 1.5 inches (12 to 40mm), with many years seeing no precipitation at all. In the winter temperatures may drop below -20c (-4f), rising to 40c (104f) in the summers. Sand dunes stretch across an area the size of Germany, shaped by high winds which kick up frequent dust storms. Only the bravest or most foolhardy dare enter this region. One such explorer chronicled his journey (or plagiarized a Persian or Arabic guidebook) in his 1298 bestseller Il Milione, better known today as Travels of Marco Polo.
'Tis all composed of hills and valleys of sand, and not a thing to eat is to be found on it. But after riding for a day and a night you find fresh water, enough mayhap for some 50 or 100 persons with their beasts, but not for more. And all across the Desert you will find water in like manner, that is to say, in some 28 places altogether you will find good water, but in no great quantity; and in four places also you find brackish water.
Beasts there are none; for there is nought for them to eat. But there is a marvellous thing related of this Desert, which is that when travellers are on the move by night, and one of them chances to lag behind or to fall asleep or the like, when he tries to gain his company again he will hear spirits talking, and will suppose them to be his comrades. Sometimes the spirits will call him by name; and thus shall a traveller ofttimes be led astray so that he never finds his party. And in this way many have perished.(1)
Beasts there are none; for there is nought for them to eat. But there is a marvellous thing related of this Desert, which is that when travellers are on the move by night, and one of them chances to lag behind or to fall asleep or the like, when he tries to gain his company again he will hear spirits talking, and will suppose them to be his comrades. Sometimes the spirits will call him by name; and thus shall a traveller ofttimes be led astray so that he never finds his party. And in this way many have perished.(1)
But while the Taklamakan may be inhospitable to the living, it takes wonderful care of the dead. Archaeologists have discovered many mummified corpses in and around the region, their hair, skin and even clothing preserved by the arid air and sterile sand. Some of the oldest mummies have been found at Small River Cemetery No. 5, a dig located at the Taklamakan's northeastern edge. There over 200 bodies have been exhumed, the oldest dating back nearly 4,000 years. Each was buried with a treasure of grave goods, including bundles of Ephedra twigs.(2)
Fifteen hundred miles (2,500km) away another landlocked desert - Turkmenistan's barren Karakum - has given up tantalizing evidence of a different but contemporaneous people. Archaeologists working at the Bactrian-Margiana Archaeological Complex have unearthed large fortified settlements with massive towers and thick defensive walls that may have stood as much as 10 meters high. 1,500 years before Alexander the Great's campaign, a thriving civilization existed here. Surviving artifacts suggest trade with potters from western Siberia and artisans from the Indus Valley of modern-day Pakistan. (Their distinctive artwork and sophisticated jewelry has turned up at Bronze Age sites from the Russian Steppes to the Persian Gulf). Canals channeled the Maghreb River (whose course has long since shifted) to provide the people with drinking water and irrigation for farms where wheat, barley, lentils and grapes were grown.
These sites have also revealed temple areas coated with white gypsum plaster, ceramic vessels and elaborately carved bone libation tubes. Chemical analysis performed on these artifacts have revealed the presence of ephedra, combined alternately with local cannabis hemp or with an import from western Europe, the opium poppy Papaver somniferum.(3) This has led some archaeologists (notably Viktor Sarianidi, who has spent over 30 years excavating at the BMAC) to suggest that this lost culture gave birth to a legendary beverage - a drink which the Zoroastrians call "Haoma" and which the Vedic Hindus knew as "Soma."
(1) Marco Polo. The Travels of Marco Polo. Book 1: Chapter 39. Henry Yule, translator. (1920). Available at Wikisource. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Travels_of_Marco_Polo/Book_1/Chapter_39. Accessed December 2, 2010.
(2) Nicholas Wade. "A Host of Mummies, a Forest of Secrets." New York Times, March 25, 2010. Available at www.nytimes.com/2010/03/16/science/16archeo.html. Accessed December 2, 2010.
(3) Andrew Lawler. "Central Asia's Lost Civilization." Discover, November 2006. Available at http://discovermagazine.com/2006/nov/ancient-towns-excavated-turkmenistan. Accessed December 2, 2010.
