When we think of the crossbow we imagine all those great medieval battles and sieges of castles. But, in fact, crossbow was invented at least a thousand years before the arrival of Middle Ages. The mystery of its origins still remains, but most historians believe that crossbow first appeared in China or cultures neighboring it. Earliest Chinese manuscripts describe the giant crossbow catapult used in military campaigns around sixth century BC. Other manuscripts state that crossbow was not just used as a military weapon but also as a toy and for setting up traps for hunting purposes.

A century later Chinese manuscripts already describe a crossbow as a hand held military weapon used for ambush. And in the third century BC, Chinese crossbow was already well developed and used quite widely all over the empire. Archaeologists unearthed the remains of multiple crossbows during the discovery of the famous Terracotta Army in the tomb of Chinese emperor who ruled in the third century BC.

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There are even more mysteries that surround the origin of the Silk Road network. Nobody could clearly explain one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the twentieth century - so called Tarim mummies. The number of mummies were found deep in China, they date from 1800 BC to AD 200. And all found corpses exhibit Caucasoid physical type. Many of discovered mummies were found in amazingly great condition. They have their hair physically intact, ranging in color from blond to red to deep brown, and generally long, curly and braided. And what is even more amazing - their costumes indicate a common origin with Indo-European neolithic clothing techniques.

Another mystery that supports the theories of early human contacts between East and West were several discoveries of Chinese silk remnants. These remnants have been found in Ancient Egypt from 1070 BC and later.

I mentioned in the previous entry ancient Scythians. It seems that they brought from the West and introduced in China the most valuable metal of all - gold. This probably happened around eight century BC. It seems that the impact was deep because Chinese jade carvers began to use gold to make imitation Scythian designs of the steppes. They easily adopted the Scythian style animal art like descriptions of animals locked in combat. Scientists also found in China imitations of Scythian rectangular belt plaques made of gold and bronze with alternate versions in jade and steatite.