Mayhaps I should have put a smiley with that. However, I stand my ground (stamps foot several times, in a belligerent fashion, and glowers)
The Tocharians seems to be part of the Scythian/Sakas/Seres/'Bai people' crowd, those nomadic redhaired and blond, ephedra and cannabis using, wearers of tartan cloth and pointy hats, folk of central Asia; often annoying to their neighbors and called barbarians by them. When information on the "blond mummies" was first starting to show up, I mentioned that to an acquaintance who is into Chinese herbalism and history, his Chinese wife, and a Chinese historian. They in effect said "no surprise, the Chinese words related to horse archers and chariot warfare seem to be loan words, and the Scythians were famous for those". The Tocharians, proto-Tocharians, Yuezhi, Pazyryk, or whoever, likely got their words for rice, millet, abacus, and various terms related to urban commerce, from the Chinese.
The Scythian gorytos, in its later incarnations, looks a lot like those quivers. Chinese history seems to indicate that the Chinese picked up horse powered warfare from the annoying barbarians, and then proceeded to drive them far enough away to be less annoying.
So that's why I said 'Tocharian', sort of similar reason that the Liberty Cap is also called a Phrygian cap.
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Date: 2006-01-07 05:27 pm (UTC)The Tocharians seems to be part of the Scythian/Sakas/Seres/'Bai people' crowd, those nomadic redhaired and blond, ephedra and cannabis using, wearers of tartan cloth and pointy hats, folk of central Asia; often annoying to their neighbors and called barbarians by them. When information on the "blond mummies" was first starting to show up, I mentioned that to an acquaintance who is into Chinese herbalism and history, his Chinese wife, and a Chinese historian. They in effect said "no surprise, the Chinese words related to horse archers and chariot warfare seem to be loan words, and the Scythians were famous for those". The Tocharians, proto-Tocharians, Yuezhi, Pazyryk, or whoever, likely got their words for rice, millet, abacus, and various terms related to urban commerce, from the Chinese.
The Scythian gorytos, in its later incarnations, looks a lot like those quivers. Chinese history seems to indicate that the Chinese picked up horse powered warfare from the annoying barbarians, and then proceeded to drive them far enough away to be less annoying.
So that's why I said 'Tocharian', sort of similar reason that the Liberty Cap is also called a Phrygian cap.