Pages: 293-320

This article is in Russian
Researchers have been interested to associate Tocharians with a certain archaeological culture, because this association is connected with a number of other issues: the peneretration of European cultural elements into China, the definition of ethnic nature of some historical forces in the East, and localisation of the original home of Indo-Europeans. The author considers seven hypotheses of archaeological identification of Tocharians — those hypotheses that connect them with 1) Afanasyevo culture, 2) Seyma-Turbino culture, 3) Karasuk culture through Fatyanovo culture, 4) a culture known as Chaodaogo in the Near East, 5) Yuezhi and Kushans, 6) Tarim (Taklamakan) mummies, 7) recently discovered Chemurchek culture. The new excavations by Anatoly Kovalev discovered in Altay, Mongolia and Хsinjiang the phenomenon of Chemurchek culture for which its migration from France is most convincingly proved. Yet this hypothesis has its own inconsistencies. Neither of these versions including the most popular of them (Afanasyevo) or most convincing (Chemurchek) can be accepted as fully proved.

Keywords: Tocharians, Afanasyevo, Tarim mummies, Chemurchek culture, Proto-Indo-European, migration, Xsinjiang

Information about author:

Leo S. Klejn (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation). Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor
E-mail: [email protected]