It looks like these Chinese folks had incredible sense of humor – or something… I may be at a loss for words on this one.
In the middle of a terrifying desert north of Tibet, Chinese archaeologists have
excavated an extraordinary cemetery. Its inhabitants died almost 4,000 years ago, yet their bodies have been well preserved by the dry air.
The cemetery lies in what is now China’s northwest province of Xinjiang, yet the people have European features, with brown hair and long noses. Their remains, though lying in one of the world’s largest deserts, are buried in upside-down boats. And where tombstones might stand, declaring pious hope for some god’s mercy in the afterlife, their cemetery sports instead a vigorous forest of phallic symbols, signaling an intense interest in the pleasures or utility of procreation.
Read the full article in the March 15, 2010 edition of the New York Times.