I can’t find any follow up to the outcome of the DNA tests, though.
Doesn’t seem you’d have to posit the Romans specifically (the article notes, in fact, that the Huns rolled with some literally-Caucasian troops). I’ve met green-eyed Japanese and Indians, and there are some pretty fair-skinned Afghans too.
Long ago I recall seeing a TV program which indicated that Vikings made it to China as slaves. But China was known to the Romans as Serica and IIRC a gift was sent from the Chinese emperor to the Roman emperor. I don’t know about the other way, but it’s reasonable, and an accompanying traveller might have sired a sprog or two on prostitutes along the way.
I’ve seen a TV documentary about this. There are apparently a lot of people in the village with Western features, but it’s very close to the silk route that was taken by traders from Europe, and you don’t need a Roman army for European genes to have arrived in the area. I seem to recall that one resident of the Chinese village in question had his DNA traced, not to Rome, but to Iran.
Indians and Afghans have had long contact with Europeans. China, too, but not as extensively. This should not be surprising since the traditional “races” all form a continuum with each other where they overlap or come in contact. You can’t find a place, especially in Europe/Asia, where there is a clear dividing line between people with what we call European features and people with what we call East Asian features. These people live in North Western China, which is one place you’d expect to find a blend of such features. Also, we know for a fact (from mummies found in the region) that European featured people were living in western China thousands of years ago.
John, are these thought to be Tocharian speakers? Tocharian is a now-extinct Indo-European language once spoken in what is today Western China.
I thought Romans were fairly short, swarthy and dark haired?
The features described in the article seem to more closely resemble the Uyghurs, or some other Turkic group that did/do inhabit China’s western fringes, which would seem much more plausible.
Yes.