Chinese archaeologists discovered the remains of what may prove
to be the country's first foreign worker, an early European, who
labored on the mausoleum of China's first emperor.
The discovery was made after DNA tests on human remains from one
of the laborers' tombs near the mausoleum of Qingshihuang, in
northwestern Shaanxi Province, which was built more than
2,200 years ago.
Archaeologists found the foreigners remains among 121 shattered
human skeletons in a tomb about 500 meters from the famous museum
which houses the life-sized terracotta warriors, their horses and
weapons.
The discovery could mean that contact between the people in East
Asia and those in what is now central Asia actually began a century
earlier than the previously thought Han Dynasty (206 BC - AD 220)
period, said Duan Qingbo, head of the Qinshihuang Mausoleum
Excavation Team under the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Cultural
Heritage.
Scientists collected bone fragments from 50 sets of remains in
the laborers' tomb which was unearthed in 2003 and from these
extracted 15 DNA samples. Most of the bodies were males aged from
15 to 55, said Duan.
"We found one sample had genetic features commonly associated
with the Parsi in India and Pakistan, the Kurds in Turkmenistan and
the Persians in Iran," said Tan Jingze, an associate professor with
the modern anthropology research centre under Shanghai-based Fudan
University which conducted the DNA tests.
The foreigner was a man who died in his 20s and was
ethnologically a European, said Tan. He might have been captured in
the north where nomads roamed between east and west Asia and been
sent to work at the burial ground, added Tan.
"It's an inspiring discovery but we're not sure if there were
more foreigners involved in the construction of the mausoleum," she
said.
Scientists would find it difficult to collect more DNA samples
from the tomb as it had suffered serious water damage and the
skeletons, which are piled in layers, were so badly preserved that
any movement would lead to their complete destruction, said
Duan.
Despite international interest in the underground palace
archeologists suspended excavations of the Qinshihuang Mausoleum in
2003 as they could not protect relics from environmental
degradation, he said.
"It would be impossible to take any DNA samples in the near
future from nearly 200 other laborers tombs in the area," said
Duan.
(China Daily June 29, 2006)