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Comment by supernova87a | Hacker News Reader

Reportedly there are villages along the Silk Road in remote western China, where some people are blond haired, blue eyed, descendants of lost (or decided-to-settle) traders or soldiers from centuries ago.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/815449...

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The idea of a lost Roman legion in China isn't taken seriously by scholars. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liqian

Further west along the silk road from Gansu, the earliest documented inhabitants of Xinjiang were the Tocharians. They had brown, red, or blond hair, spoke two different Indo-European languages (Tocharian A and B), and were Buddhist. They're a more likely source of blond hair in western China.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tocharians

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarim_mummies

The legion was lost in Scotland.

The legion was lost in Teutoburg Forest

Quintili Vare, legiones redde! (Quintilius Varus, give me back my legions!)

the "roman lost legion" thing is probably mythical. https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/no-romans-need...

Ah, interesting. Well, yes, UK Telegraph isn't the most reliable source.

Taking you very literally I don't know what the most reliable source is, nevermind claim it to be the Telegraph, but I'm not really sure what the implication is, or perhaps rather its reasoning? It's a perfectly respectable paper; (along with The Times) a paper of record.

> UK Telegraph isn't the most reliable source.

Why not? As far as I am aware it is a legitimate and decent journalistic news source. It might have a political leaning, but for this sort of reporting I don't think it would give their preferred political party and leverage.

That lost legion probably is. The ones Publius Quinctilius Varus lost (along with his head) are quite well documented.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Teutoburg_Forest

There's even a village of Jews that was intergrated into society. East Asia likes Jews for whatever reason, even Japan an axis power didn't give them up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Jews_in_China

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaifeng_Jews

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MApRCy3xq6c

Quite remarkable and unusual.

The Tarim mummies. Many centuries ago about 3,800 years ago. I remember seeing one that had a large pointed felt hat like a stereotypical witch would wear.

Being blond haired and blue eyed doesn't mean much though since there are some non-European cultures where it exists. Solomon Islands people, and I've known blond Lebanese people, supposedly there are some blond north African people too.

There were people (Tocharians for one) in Central Asia and Western China who descend from Indo-European migrants from the Black Sea area.

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