The mummies from western China's arid Tarim Basin are so well-preserved that the viewer can see their intricate clothing and eyelashes, and also that they are distinctly non-Asian in appearance.
"I was shocked when I saw them. I thought, 'My goodness, they look like Europeans,' " says Victor Mair, a Chinese language and literature professor at the University of Pennsylvania who has studied the mummies since 1993 and is a
