The Mummies of Urumchi by Elizabeth Wayland Barber. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1999. 240 pages. $35.

Reviewed by Margaret Black

Like many kids, I loved Egypt and the museum trips to view the tall, brilliantly painted sarcophagi, the statues of sleek alert dogs, enigmatic cats, lumbering hippopotami. For me it was a mythical land filled with graceful, gauzily clad people carrying baskets of food and jars of wine in bright-colored profile. I loved the greasy little jars still filled with rouge, the intricate bead necklaces, the games and toys. But then would come the obligatory, creepy examination, over the rim of a huge stone container, of the shrunken black leathery mummy, dead these thousands of years. It took ages for me to realize that the glorious objects existed only because of that horrible wizened creature.

In The Mummies of Urumchi, Elizabeth Barber not only introduces us to some reasonably attractive mummies found in Western China, she also thoroughly involves us in a fascinating detective story as she uncovers all that the mummies and their grave objects can tell us.

In the 1980s Chinese archaeologists exploring the southern rim of the Tarim Basin -- a vast inhospitable desert region, on the outer edges of which are traces of the fabled Silk Road -- uncovered a grave site at Cherchen containing several 3,500-year-old bodies. They were far better preserved than anything ever recovered in Egypt, partially due to the intensely dry air, but also because the graves had been cut into a salt bed which speeded the process of desiccation. The bodies were dressed in brightly colored garments which had neither deteriorated nor even faded over the millennia. The scientists transported their finds to the museum at Urumchi, capital of the Uyghur [Uighur] Autonomous Region -- formerly Xinjiang -- where they joined several other mummies found in the area, some over 4,000 years old. There they all rested in quiet obscurity until 1994, when Discovery Magazine published a cover story on them, complete with glossy photos.

What everyone noticed immediately was that these bodies were clearly Caucasoid, not Chinese or Mongoloid. Moreover, the man and one woman were well over six feet tall. Who were these people? Where had they come from? How had they managed to live in this exceedingly daunting environment? In 1995 Barber, an expert on prehistoric cloth and clothing and a humorist regarding clothing styles, joined a team of Western specialists who went to Urumchi eager to begin answering these questions.

At the outset Barber reminds us that most of us don't know a thing about death and decomposition. As a consequence, when we do have a direct experience -- me at the museum -- we either misconstrue what we see or are totally grossed out by it. So she gives us enough basic facts to understand why the Urumchi mummies are so extraordinary. She lets us see what worked and what didn't -- Cherchen Man's head strap held his mouth shut so he looks quite pleasant; the women's head straps gave way, producing the typical nasty open-mouthed, Edward Munch "The Scream" look.

Even more rare than well-preserved bodies, however -- "like finding a ruby in your oatmeal," says Barber -- is discovering any cloth whatsoever. But when archaeologists do, they can learn an enormous amount about the people associated with it. Is the material woven? Is it braided? Is it felt? Is it wool? Is it plant fiber? Is it dyed? Is it sewn? How are the garments constructed? Every answer gives information far beyond sheer description, telling us something about when the people lived, how they supported themselves, and where they came from.

The author's sheer detective work is absorbing, and she writes with easy grace, humor, and accessibility. Her delight over small details -- Cherchen Man was buried with ten hats of completely different styles -- is infectious. She explains technical details so smoothly we don't notice that we've learned how felt is made or why people make swirly designs on it rather than straight ones. The book is also replete with diagrams, explanatory pictures, and -- thank heaven! -- maps. You really have to love an author who draws a spider into her illustrations of weaving. The full-color photo section demonstrates that Barber has not made exaggerated claims about the vibrancy of the cloth or the preservation of the bodies.

Like a clever police investigator, the author never rests her case on a single piece of evidence. She embeds what she deduces from each physical object in supporting material taken from language, historical accounts, other grave sites, carbon dating, DNA testing, and so on, all of which she explains simply and clearly. One of Cherchen Man's ten hats, for example, exactly resembles a Phrygian cap -- remember the Phrygian cap, worn by the Symbol of Liberty in paintings of the French Revolution? Phrygian caps appear at a particular time in early history and were worn by a clearly identifiable group of people. Or consider her conclusions about the felt that Cherchen Man and his companions used. Although it distressed the staff at Urumchi Museum to have the accomplishments of their mummies criticized, the Cherchen people didn't make felt particularly well, certainly not well enough to be the sort of herders who regularly erected and deconstructed felt yurts for shelter.

This book will appeal to all sorts of readers. Armchair adventurers can trek into the salt desert on the harrowing trips of exploration. Detective story aficionados can follow the unraveling of the mysteries. Amateur historians can marvel as the author pieces ancient Chinese accounts together with early Western sources. Budding linguists will thrill to discover that the Cherchen mummies probably spoke an Indo-European language closely related to Celtic. With The Mummies of Urumchi, Elizabeth Barber proves once again that a good writer can truly captivate audiences with just about any subject.