 If I was to describe a six foot tall man with reddish brown hair and a ginger beard who was wearing a red-spill tunic and tartan leggings you could be forgiven for thinking I was describing a Scottish man from the 19th century. Yet I am actually describing the appearance of a 3,000 year old mummy who was found in the dry sands of the Taklamakan Desert in the region of Xinjiang in western China. He is known as the Shershin Man after his body was found alongside three women and a baby in the Chinese town of Shershin. We know that this man was of European origin and was probably an ancient kelp. In addition to his features the weave of his cloth is identical to those worn by ancient Austrian salt miners from 1300 BC. Furthermore the burial sites of these people were marked by stone structures that were similar to dolmens, houses of the dead which were popular in ancient Europe and Celtic civilizations. The origins of these mummies from western China are far from clear however. One theory posits that the Shershin Man was from the Afanasavio culture, an ancient culture of southern Siberia in Russia. Interestingly some scholars argue that the Afanasavio culture itself was formed in part by migrants from the Don Volga River region of Russia which is much further west, closer to Eastern Europe. Furthermore Elizabeth Weyland Barber, a textile expert believes that the tartan-like cloth worn by the Shershin Man is from the steep area north of the Black Sea around Anatolia and the Caucasus region. Barber argues that certain groups in this Black Sea region split into two with some going west and others going east thousands of years ago. Exactly how all this fits together is far from clear and it is still shrouded in mystery. It does seem however that the peoples of the east and the peoples of the west were more connected thousands of years ago than what is generally believed, with the ancient trading roots of what later became known as the Silk Road, helping to connect these civilizations. What is your thoughts on this story? Please leave your comments below and let me know if you know of any more potential connections between ancient civilizations of the east and the west. Thanks for watching. If you enjoyed this video, please support this work on Patreon. For as little as £1 per month, you will gain early access to all my videos, the ability to participate in my bi-monthly Q&A on history, access to vote and exclusive polls, and other great, exclusive benefits. The link to the Patreon page of Celtic History Decoded is in the description below. Please also remember to subscribe to this channel and hit the bell so that you are notified every time I post a video. Thank you, speak to you soon.