Tocharians

With the name Tocharians ( Latin: Tochari, also Thocari, Greek: Τοχάροι Tocharoi ) Antique and Byzantine writers refer to members of Central Asian peoples who were generally counted among the Scythian tribes. The geographer Strabo and the historian Pompeius Trogus write them to a role in the conquest of the Graeco -Bactrian empire and military conflicts with the Parthians in the 2nd half of the 2nd century BC. They are named for the northern Afghanistan as Tocharistan from late antiquity to the 13th century. According to a frequently expressed hypothesis they are identical with the Yuezhi of Chinese sources. Speculation about the language of the Tocharians have meant that they were to name donors for the Tocharian language (s) (s). Whether the Tocharians originally spoke Tocharian actually is debatable.

As far as today also members of the former, historical population of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in China are meant by the name Tocharians as speaker of the Tocharian languages ​​, this name is not clear, because it is not known which ethnicity was associated with this language and who they where has spoken extent. In many cases, then applies the term " Tocharians " at times, from which no evidence of Tocharian are obtained.

History

The ancient " Tocharians " are usually equated with the Yuezhi ( Yueh - chi), a people who settled in the space of the Chinese province of Gansu. The Xiongnu defeated 176 BC, after which the Yuezhi migrated mostly in the Seven Rivers country in Central Asia. In the year 129 BC they crossed the Jaxartes ( Syr Darya ) and settled on upper Oxus ( Amu Darya ) down. This landscape, which includes the southern Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and northern Afghanistan, was named after the new inhabitants " Tocharistan ". ( In older literature, is often spoken of Tuhhara or Toyapot. ) For these Tocharians was a strain or a dynasty - the Kushan ( Kushana also geschr. ) - shows that n in the 1st century BC, a kingdom in Bactria built. The kingdom of Kushan later extended over large areas of Central Asia and reached its greatest extent under Kanishka I..

Language

In 1900, European and Japanese researchers discovered in the Tarim Basin scrolls mostly religious, in particular Buddhist content. To Turpan in the Northeast found on the scrolls, the German researchers in the central northern and northeastern Tarim Basin in the oasis cities of Aksu and environment in the West Kuqa, Karashahr and the 6th - 8th Century AD could be dated, it was discovered in Indian writing an unknown language that was later recognized as Indo-European, but no closer relationship to the Indo-European languages ​​had, which were narrower or wider adjacent. Due to a translator remark in a altuigurischen text, it was found that the Uyghur called this language as twgry, and set up a relationship with the Tocharians ago. This assignment, however, was controversial from the beginning. Some basics of this assignment were subsequently disproved and suspected an association between these languages ​​to the Wusun.

To the astonishment of linguists, it was a so-called " Kentum " language, a phonetic expression, which was known only for western branches of the Indo-European until then. Today, the Tocharian is considered ancient Indo-European language, which has been solved by the Hittite from the common development of the later differentiated Indo-European languages ​​. From about 800 AD, the void that existed next to the altuigurischen literature Literature in Tocharian language. The extent to which it has traded at this time a living language, and whether it was attributable to a particular ethnic group, is unclear.

Some scientists suspect relations with westindoeuropäischen or Finno-Ugric languages. This is due in part to isoglosses are these westindoeuropäischen languages ​​and Tocharian together, secondly, that the Tocharian has lost its primary Indo-European case inflection probably under the influence of an agglutinative language, as it is the Uralic languages ​​and from by secondary Kasusbildung agglutinating type has replaced.

Mummy finds

The " Tocharians " as the speakers of the Tocharian languages ​​are also mummies of people with Caucasoid appearance often attributed to that found in the Tarim Basin.

In the Ördek necropolis and some other places of discovery in the northeastern Tarim Basin between the oasis cities of Turfan and Kucha mummified corpses were examined in dry, sandy desert climate of the Taklamakan Desert and the Lop Nor. The older mummies were relatively large (eg 1.76 m) and with Western facial features and light hair colors, whereas the younger mummies more East Asian. The regular funeral was in grave chambers. The mummies dated to periods from 1800 BC to 1200 BC and 200 BC to 800 AD Due to the location of the necropolis they are assigned to populations of Kucha and Turfan. Your anthropology and Textilwebtechnik let immigration from the West suspect. Also carried out gene analyzes support the classification. Whether ethnic relations with the Tocharians exist and which connections to the Indo-European peoples are ever to accept, is debatable.

It is believed that the cultural and linguistic profile of this population BC took shape in the late first millennium, possibly. Associated with the Afanasevo culture in the Altai Mountains and the valley of the Yenisei From there, migrated to an archaeologically substantiated hypothesis may Afanasevo people of culture in the 2nd millennium BC to the Tarim Basin.

Some mummies have sutures that were made with horse hair. Female mummies had bags with them containing healing plants, and a small knife, presumably to mince them.