We have seen, in previous posts on this blog, that, apparently, red hair was present in the past in areas where it is not at all common today:
The Kyrgyz People, The Tarim Mummies, The Red-Haired Mummies of Peru and Chile, Did Genghis Khan and His Son Have Red Hair?
Recently, I came across the names of more ancient populations with red hair. In this post, I will simply quote what I found on Wikipedia, so that you can do your own research.
The Kipchaks or Qipchaks, also known as Kipchak Turks or Polovtsians, were a Turkic nomadic people and confederation that existed in the Middle Ages, inhabiting parts of the Eurasian Steppe. First mentioned in the 8th century as part of the Second Turkic Khaganate, they most likely inhabited the Altai region from where they expanded over the following centuries, first as part of the Kimek Khanate and later as part of a confederation with the Cumans. There were groups of Kipchaks in the Pontic–Caspian steppe, China, Syr Darya and Siberia. The Cuman–Kipchak confederation was conquered by the Mongols in the early 13th century.
The Kipchaks in Eurasia, around 1200
An early description of the physical appearance of Kipchaks comes from the Great Ming Code, the supreme legal code of the Ming dynasty of China, which was finalized in the year 1397 AD.
The Ming dynasty was dominated by the Han Chinese ethnic group, having overthrown the Mongol-dominated Yuan dynasty that came before it. The Ming government drafted a legal policy of Sinicization for Mongols and other ethnic minorities who formerly enjoyed prestige in the Yuan dynasty.
This assimilation policy required these ethnic minorities to speak Chinese. They were also required to marry members of Han Chinese ethnic group.
However, a legal exemption was made for some ethnic minorities, including the Kipchaks. These groups would not be required to marry Han Chinese people, because their physical appearance was considered unattractive, and strange. The Kipchaks are described as having blond or red hair, blue or green eyes, and an overall appearance that was considered "vile" and just too foreign to be attractive to the Han Chinese.
Thus, Kipchaks were not obligated to marry Chinese:
"if Chinese persons do not wish to marry Qincha [Kipchak] or Hui Muslims, the latter may marry among their own race."
"Huihui are shaggy, with big noses, and Kipchaks have light hair and blue eyes. Their appearance is vile and peculiar, so there are those who do not wish to marry them."
- (Da Ming lü jijie fuli 6.36b)
The 17th century Chinese author Xu Qianxue, wrote of the Kipchaks:
They customarily sleep armed and armored; by nature, they are courageous, fierce, and firm; [they are] blue/green-eyed and red-haired.
- Zizhi Tongjian Houbian
The Thracians were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Eastern and Southeastern Europe in ancient history. Thracians resided mainly in the Balkans (Mostly modern day Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece) but were also located in Anatolia (Asia Minor) and other locations in Eastern Europe.
The most famous Thracian is certainly Spartacus, the gladiator who led a large slave uprising in Sothern Italy in 73-71 BC and defeated several Roman legions in what is known as the Third Servile War.
Thrace within the Roman Empire
Several Thracian graves or tombstones have the name Rufus inscribed on them, meaning "redhead" – a common name given to people with red hair which led to associating the name with slaves when the Romans enslaved this particular group. Ancient Greek artwork often depicts Thracians as redheads. Rhesus of Thrace, a mythological Thracian king, was so named because of his red hair and is depicted on Greek pottery as having red hair and a red beard. Ancient Greek writers also described the Thracians as red-haired. A fragment by the Greek poet Xenophanes describes the Thracians as blue-eyed and red haired:
“Men make gods in their own image; those of the Ethiopians are black and snub-nosed, those of the Thracians have blue eyes and red hair.” [although some translations give the hair colour as blond and not red, or ruddy and tawny.]
Bacchylides described Theseus as wearing a hat with red hair, which classicists believe was Thracian in origin. Other ancient writers who described the hair of the Thracians as red include Hecataeus of Miletus, Galen, Clement of Alexandria, and Julius Firmicus Maternus.
A fresco of a woman in the
Ostrusha Mound in central Bulgaria
The Alat tribe was one salient Turkic tribe known from Chinese annals, which is described as resembling the Kyrghyzes, that we already know.
The New Book of Tang described the facial appearance of Alats as resembling Kyrghyzes. 9th-century author Duan Chengshi described the Kyrgyz tribe as "yellow-haired, green-eyed, red-mustached [and red-]bearded". New Book of Tang also described the Kyrghyzes "all tall, red-haired, pale-faced, green-irised"; Kyrgyzes regarded as black hair as "infelicitous" and insisted that black-eyed individuals were descendants of Han general Li Ling.
No comments:
Post a Comment