The
Xiaohe 'Little River' Tomb complex (Chinese: 小河墓地) refers to a
bronze-age burial site located near
Lop Nur, in
Xinjiang, Western
China. It is an oblong sand dune, from which more than 30 well-preserved mummies, buried in air-tight ox-hide bags, have been excavated. The mummies, the earliest of which date from around 4000 years ago, appear
Caucasoid. Genetic analysis, however, revealed an admixture of population from both the West and East, with paternal lineages being exclusively west Eurasian, and maternal lineages - a mixture of east and west Eurasian. The entire Xiaohe Tomb complex contains about 330 tombs, about 160 of which have been looted by grave robbers. The Xiaohe remains contains the largest number of mummies found at any single site in the world to date. No human settlement has been found near the tomb complex; the bodies were therefore likely to have been transported from elsewhere for burial at this site.