Beauty of Loulan

The government of China barred study of the mummies, but samples were smuggled out of the country and tested to find evidence of European ancestry in 1993.

[3] For many years, the Chinese government forbade the testing of the mummy's DNA, due to fears that it would aid Uyghur nationalists.

[3] In 1980, her likeness was reconstructed by a Japanese painter named Yamaguchi Terunari (山本耀也), and displayed besides her in the museum.

The Loulan Beauty was buried near a salt lake in the desert, where the arid and dry conditions preserved even the finer details of her face, such as her eyelashes.

[4] Collectively, the Tarim mummies are evidence of settlement in East Asia by people with European genetic markers far earlier than previously believed.

Elizabeth Wayland Barber examined the cloth fabrics preserved with the mummies and argued that they show ties to the Caucasus and even Scotland.