Could These Chinese Villagers Be Descendants of Roman Legionnaires?

Roman history books tell of a Legion that was led my Marcus Crassus and that was defeated in what is now Iran in 53BC, which effectively put an end to the Roman Empire's advancement eastwards.

Is it possible that survivors of this battle against the Parthians made their way east to China and settled there. This is the subject matter of an article today in the Daily Telegraph from the UK.

The theory that a band of Romans survived this defeat was first proposed by a professor of Chinese history at Oxford University, Homer Dubs, as far back as 1950. Recent DNA studies on people from the village of Liqian in North Western China shows that it is 56% Caucasian. A number of people from the village, which is on the edge of the Gobi Desert, also have Romanesque features, such as long noses, blue or green eyes and fair hair.

Chinese history records that in battles against the Huns in 36BC, they captured some troops who fought in a "fish shaped" formation, which could refer to the "tortoise" formation that was used by the Romans.

So far there is no proof of this theory however, and the history books assume that two thousand years ago east was east and west was west. Only a few merchants were thought to have traveled between the two areas, along what was known as the "Silk Road", however in the last few years we are finding more evidence that a lot more was known about the east than was earlier thought.

The Chinese are planning a number of archaeological digs along the Silk Road, to see if they can find any traces of fortifications that might have been built by Roman soldiers, or any coins, pottery etc.

Alexander The Great for example expanded his empire into what is now Northern India. There is some evidence that the Egyptians sailed across to South America. Who is to say what else we might find.

Sources:

The Daily Telegraph