{{Short description|Natural mummy from the Taklamakan Desert}} {{Infobox artefact | name = Cherchen Man | image = Cherchen Man mummy in XUAR Museum.jpg | image_caption = The Cherchen Man. Tattoos are visible on the side of the face. | image_size = 200 | material = Natural mummy | size = | writing = | created = 1000 BCE | discovered = Cherchen | location = Xinjiang Museum, China | id = | registration = Tomb 85QZM 2 | map = {{Location map|Continental Asia#Xinjiang |width = 300 |float = center |border = |caption = |alt = |relief = yes |AlternativeMap= |overlay_image = |label = Cherchen |label_size = |position = right |background = |mark = |marksize = |link = |lat_deg = 38 |lat_min = 8 |lat_sec = 45.6 |lat_dir = N |lon_deg = 85 |lon_min = 31 |lon_sec = 48 |lon_dir = E }} }} '''Cherchen Man''' or '''Chärchän Man''' or '''Ur-David''' is the modern name given to a mummy found{{when?|date=May 2023|reason=Excavations at the site date to 1985, 1989, and 1996.}} in the town Cherchen, located in current Xinjiang region of China. The mummy is a member of the group known as Tarim mummies. His naturally-mummified remains were discovered in ''Tomb 2'' at the Zaghunluq cemetery, near the town of Qiemo (Chärchän) in the Taklamakan Desert of north-west China.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Anthony |first=David |title=Tracking the Tarim Mummies |journal=Archaeology |volume=54 |issue=2}}</ref> Other such remains have also been recovered at sites throughout the Tarim Basin, including Qäwrighul, Yanghai, Shengjindian, Shanpula (Sampul), and Qizilchoqa.
==Description== The mummy is an adult male who is believed to have died around 1000 BC and is likely to have been aged around fifty years at the time of his death.<ref name=":0">{{cite journal |last=Kamberi |first=Dolkun |date=January 1994 |title=The three thousand year-old Charchan Man preserved at Zaghunlug |url=http://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp044_charchan_man.pdf |journal=Sino-Platonic Papers |access-date=2018-05-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220224442/http://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp044_charchan_man.pdf |archive-date=2016-12-20 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tomasskinner.com/the-mummies-of-zaghunluq-cemetery.html |title=The Mummies of Zaghunluq Cemetery: Dress, Appearance and Identity |last=Skinner |first=Tomás |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20151124110554/http://www.tomasskinner.com/the-mummies-of-zaghunluq-cemetery.html |archivedate=24 November 2015 |url-status=dead |access-date=23 November 2015}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{cite book |title=The Tarim Mummies |last1=Mallory |first1=J.P. |last2=Mair |first2=Victor H. |year=2000 |publisher=Thames & Hudson |isbn=0-500-05101-1 |location=London |page=[https://archive.org/details/tarimmummiesanci00mall/page/191 191] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/tarimmummiesanci00mall/page/191 }}</ref>
His height is estimated at 176–178 cm.<ref name=":1" /> His hair was "reddish brown flecked with grey, framing high cheekbones", he had an aquiline "long nose, full lips and a ginger beard", and was wearing "a red twill tunic" and leggings with a pattern resembling tartan.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/13/books/books-of-the-times-silent-giants-as-guides-on-an-ancient-thoroughfare.html |title=Books of the Times; Silent giants as guides on an ancient thoroughfare |last=Bernstein |first=Richard |date=13 January 1999 |newspaper=The New York Times |accessdate=26 August 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Eiland |first=Murray Lee |date=2007-07-25 |title=Felting Between East and West |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08949460701424163 |journal=Visual Anthropology |language=en |volume=20 |issue=4 |pages=263–283 |doi=10.1080/08949460701424163 |s2cid=144540499 |issn=0894-9468|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Yellow and purple spiral and sun patterns on the mummy's face have been misidentified as tattoos in some sources; they are actually an ochre paint.<ref name=":0" />
thumb|center|upright=1.5|Facial tattoos or paint of the Cherchen man<ref>Xinjiang Museum notice</ref><ref name=":0" />
==Mummification== Like other mummies from the Tarim, Cherchen Man was buried in a tomb made of mud bricks topped with reeds and brush. The Cherchen man and the other female mummy were placed on multiple branches, with small mats underneath them that reduced the moisture in the tomb, adding to their preservation.<ref name=":0"/> The Cherchen man also appears to have had a piece of wood holding his legs up in the bent position which would have increased the amount of air circulation, slowing the rate of decomposition.<ref name=":0"/>
The Cherchen man and his companions (there were one man and three women in the same tomb, and one baby in the adjacent tomb)<ref name="UV"/> were natural mummies meaning that unlike the well known Egyptian mummies, they became mummies from exposure to their ambient environment, as opposed to intentional human practices.
<gallery widths="300px" class="center" heights="140px" perrow="4"> File:Infant mummy (Tarim).jpg|The infant mummy (Tomb A-2), probably the son of the Cherchen Man<ref name="UV">{{cite book |last1=Longfellow |first1=Katharine |title=Threads of the Dead: An Investment in Appearance in Ancient Central Asia |date=2013 |publisher=University of Vermont |url=https://www.uvm.edu/sites/default/files/S13_Thesis_Longfellow.pdf}}</ref> File:Mummy mummy in XUAR Museum 06.jpg|A wife of the Cherchen man<ref name="UV"/> File:距今2800年古代欧罗巴和蒙古人种混血且末女尸 Qiemo Female Mummy(about 2800 years ago.She belongs to a Mixture of Europoid and Mongoloid traits)6.jpg| Cherchen female mummy hands </gallery>
==See also== [[File:Map of the Tarim Mummies (Tarim detail).png|upright=1.35|thumb|Location of Cherchen within the general area of the Tarim Mummies]] * Subeshi culture, a contemporary culture in the northern area of the Tarim Basin * Sogdia * Tocharians * Uyghurs * Western Regions * Wusun * Yuezhi * Kurgan Peoples * Human Migration
==References== {{reflist|25em}}
==Links== * {{cite web |url=https://chinesemummies.weebly.com/cherchen-man.html |series=Chinese Mummies |title=Cherchen Man |website=chinesemummies.weebly.com}} * {{cite web |url=https://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.ca/2011/10/flashback-secrets-of-cherchen-man.html |title=Secrets of Cherchen Man |publisher=The Archaeology News Network |date=2011-10-24 |df=dmy-all}}
Category:Tarim mummies Category:History of Xinjiang Category:11th-century BC deaths Category:Qiemo County