Roman descendants found in China?
Date: Tuesday, February 06th, 2007 (CST )
Topic: Ancient History
 Residents of a remote Chinese village are hoping that DNA tests will prove one of history's most unlikely legends — that they are descended from Roman legionaries lost in antiquity.
Scientists have taken blood samples from 93 people living in and around Liqian, a settlement in north-western China on the fringes of the Gobi desert, more than 200 miles from the nearest city. They are seeking an explanation for the unusual number of local people with western characteristics — green eyes, big noses, and even blonde hair — mixed with traditional Chinese features.
"I really think we are descended from the Romans," said Song Guorong, 48, who with his wavy hair, six-foot frame and strikingly long, hooked nose stands out from his short, round-faced office colleagues.
"There are
the residents with these special features, and then there are also
historical records about the existence of these people long ago," he
said.
Studies claiming that
Liqian has Roman ancestry have greatly excited the impoverished county
in which it is situated. The village is now overlooked by a pillared
portico, in the hope of attracting tourists. A statue at the entrance
of the nearby county town, Yongchang, shows a Roman legionary standing
next to a Confucian scholar and a Muslim woman, as a symbol of racial
harmony.
Even entrepreneurs have caught on: in "Imperial City Entertainment Street" there is a Caesar Karaoke bar.
The town's link with Rome
was first suggested by a professor of Chinese history at Oxford in the
1950s. Homer Dubs pulled together stories from the official histories,
which said that Liqian was founded by soldiers captured in a war
between the Chinese and the Huns in 36BC, and the legend of the missing
army of Marcus Crassus, a Roman general.
In 53BC Crassus was
defeated disastrously and beheaded by the Parthians, a tribe occupying
what is now Iran, putting an end to Rome's eastward expansion.
But stories persisted that
145 Romans were taken captive and wandered the region for years. Prof
Dubs theorised that they made their way as a mercenary troop eastwards,
which was how a troop "with a fish-scale formation" came to be captured
by the Chinese 17 years later.
He said the "fish-scale
formation" was a reference to the Roman "tortoise", a phalanx protected
by shields on all sides and from above. Gu Jianming, who lives near
Liqian, said it had come as a surprise to be told he might be descended
from a European imperial army. But then the birth of his daughter was
also a surprise. Gu Meina, now six, was born with a shock of blonde
hair. "We shaved it off a month after she was born but it just grew
back the same colour," he said. "At school they call her 'yellow hair'.
Before we were told about the Romans, we had no idea about this. We are
poor and have no family temple, so we don't know about our ancestors."
Another resident, Cai
Junnian, 38, said his ruddy skin and green eyes meant he was now
nicknamed Cai Luoma, or Cai the Roman, by friends. He has become a
local celebrity, and was recently flown to the Italian consulate in
Shanghai to meet his supposed relatives. The professor's hypothesis
took almost 40 years to reach China. During Chairman Mao's rule, ideas
of foreign ancestry were not ideologically welcome and the story was
suppressed.
Mr Cai said his
great-grandfather told him that there were Roman tombs in the Qilian
mountains a day and a half's walk away, but he had never connected them
to the unusual appearance he inherited from his father. "People thought
I had a skin problem," he said.
The blood tests are part of
a project undertaken by scientists and historians after local
authorities loosened control over genetic research. The results will be
published in a scientific journal. But Prof Xie Xiaodong, a geneticist
from Lanzhou University, cautioned against over enthusiasm.
"Even if they are
descendants of the Roman empire, it doesn't mean they are necessarily
from the Roman army," he said. "The empire covered a large area. Many
soldiers were recruited locally, so anything is possible."
The issue has split the
university's history department, with some scholars supporting the
claim, some rejecting it. Prof Wang Shaokuan poured scorn on Prof
Dubs's thesis, saying the Huns themselves included Caucasians, Asians
and Mongols.
Copyright: Telegraph
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