双语：甘肃古罗马军团后裔之谜尚待揭开.docx

双语：甘肃古罗马军团后裔之谜尚待揭开
甘肃古罗马军团后裔之谜尚待揭开Chinese villagers 'descended fromh green, deep-set eyes, long hooked noses and blond the villagers said they had never traveled outside the county, they worshipped bulls and their favorite game was similar to the ancient Romans' bull-fighting tests in 2005 confirmed some of the villagers were indeed of Caucasian origin, leading many experts to conclude they are descendants of an ancient Roman army headed by general Marcus 53 BC, Crassus was defeated and beheaded by the Parthians, a tribe occupying what is now Iran, putting an end to Rome's eastward a 6,000-strong army led by Crassus' eldest son apparently escaped and was never found some anthropologists are convinced the Caucasian-looking villagers in Yongchang county are the descendants of the soldiers, others are not so certain."The county is on the Silk Road, so there were many chances for trans-national marriages," said Yang Gongle, a professor at Beijing Normal University. "The 'foreign' origin of the Yongchang villagers, as proven by the DNA tests, does not necessarily mean they are of ancient Roman origin."Xie Xiaodong, a geneticist from Lanzhou University, also sounded a skeptical note."Even if they are descendants of Romans, it doesn't mean they are necessarily from that Rom