SIlk Road Repaved

Authorities in China have decided not to pull Caucasian looking mummies from the Penn Museum. The Museum will now open up the full exhibit which opened last Sunday. There is no explicit reason given for the initial dispute or why the decision was changed. However, it seems safe to say these issues pertain to ethnic and racial issues that continue to resonate today.

The mummies that were to be displayed appear to have Caucasian features, as Uighurs do, "and they have become part of the larger ethnic argument . . . as evidence of ancient claim to the land," the Times goes on to say.

"Chinese authorities were reluctant to allow Western researchers access to the mummies, until more recent DNA studies showed their origins were European, not Uighur."

The collection offers insight into the daily lives of ordinary people in the region 3,000 to 4,000 years ago, including clothing, health, diet and culture.

Read more about this here.