- BEIJING (Agence France Presse) - An ancient mummy dubbed the "handsome
Yingpan man" has been found in China's remote northwest province of
Xinjiang, state media reported.
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- Archaeologists from the Xinjiang Archeological
Institute found the mummified body when they opened a coffin in a graveyard
dating back 1,900 years, Xinhua news agency reported.
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- The mummy had thick brown hair, a shrunken
face and body, and gray and brown skin.
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- But its beard, eyebrows and eyelashes
were clearly discernible and its clothes were intact and retained their
bright color, said Xinhua news agency.
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- The mummified man, believed to have lived
during the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 AD), was 1.8 meters (nearly six
feet) tall and might have died at about 25 years of age.
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- The "handsome Yingpan man"
is thought to be comparable to the "beautiful Loulan woman,"
a 3,800-year-old female mummy discovered in 1980 at the Tiebanhe Delta,
about 200 kilometers east of Yingpan, said the report.
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- Its coffin which had colorful paintings
on the outside was discovered together with over 150 ancient tombs dating
back to the Eastern Han Dynasty at Yingpan near Lop Nur in the Xinjiang
Uighur Autonomous Region.
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- This coffin along with five others had
been shipped to Urumqi, the regional capital, and were kept in the institute,
unopened, for three years.
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- The mummy is believed to be significant
for the study of economic and cultural exchanges between China and Western
countries in ancient times.
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- Loulan was an ancient kingdom along China's
Silk Road in Xinjiang.
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