The Princess of Xiaohe, also called the Little River Princess, lived around 1800 BC. She was discovered in 2003 at the Xiaohe Cemetery in Lop Nur, Xinjiang. She is one of the Tarim mummies and is known as M11 because she was found in Tomb M11. She was buried about 1800 BC. Her body shows she had European and Siberian genes, and she had white skin and red hair. Her body is very well preserved, and her clothes, hair, and eyelashes are still in good condition.

Discovery

The Princess of Xiaohe was discovered by archaeologists from the Xinjiang Institute of Archaeology at Xiaohe Cemetery Number 5, Tomb 11, located 102 km (63 mi) west of Loulan, Lop Nur, Xinjiang in 2003. She was given the name "Princess of Xiaohe" because she was very well preserved and looked beautiful, not because of her social importance. There is no evidence she was more significant than the other mummies buried nearby. She belonged to the Xiaohe culture and was buried around 1800 BC. Her body is unusually well preserved, with long eyelashes, clothing, and hair still intact. Scientists think this is because of the dry and salty desert environment and the tightly sealed coffins, which were wrapped in cowhide before burial. As the cowhide dried, it tightened and sealed the coffins. Her body was not treated with chemicals, but it naturally mummified because of the climate and burial method.

Appearances and grave goods

The Princess had long hair and eyelashes. Some of her facial features, such as high cheekbones, were more similar to Ancient North Eurasians than to modern people in the region where she was found. She appeared to be smiling slightly. She was 1.52 meters (5 feet 0 inches) tall. She was buried wearing a white felt hat, a white wool cloak with tassels, and a string skirt. She wore fur-lined leather boots on her feet. A red rope necklace and a bracelet with one jade bead were on her right arm. She was buried with wooden pins and three small pouches of ephedra. Twigs and branches of ephedra were placed beside her body. Wheat and millet grains, strings made from animal tendons, and animal ears were spread over her body. A wooden phallic object was placed between her breasts. Like other mummies in the Xiaohe Cemetery, she was buried in a boat-shaped coffin with a standing wooden pole above it. Her grave had not been disturbed since her burial, which was discovered by archaeologists in 2003.

Chunks of cheese were found on her neck and chest, possibly as food for the afterlife. Archaeologists were initially unsure what the clumps on her body were. However, a 2014 study led by Andrej Shevchenko showed that the clumps were cheese. The cheese found on the mummies in this cemetery is the oldest preserved cheese in the world, likely made with a kefir starter. Her entire body and boots were also coated in a white substance, likely a dairy product, but its exact origin is still unknown.

Exhibitions

In 2010, she was displayed at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, California, the Houston Museum of Natural Science, and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. In 2019, she was shown at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Art and Archaeology at Peking University. She appeared in the first episode of the documentary series New Silk Road.