The Mummies of Urumchi, by Elizabeth Wayland Barber (Pan, £7.99 in UK)

A fascinating chapter in modern archaeology has been the discovery in an area of north-west China of perfectly preserved mummies which have been dated to the second millennium BC. These were not of people of a Chinese type, or types, but then China, though an ancient culture, has not always been Chinese. They were not a physically small people either - one male measured over six feet tall. Elizabeth Barber draws some remarkable parallels with the Hallstatt culture of pre-Christian Europe, and there are also possible links with Egypt. Links with prehistoric Europe, it seems, cannot be ruled out, and it all sounds as though certain areas of prehistory might have to be revised a little.