Many of the Tang generals and soldiers stationed Placing in the region were ethnically Turkic , and the prevalence of Indo-European languages in Central Asia declined Cause_change_of_position_on_a_scale with acceleration Cause_change_of_position_on_a_scale of Turkic migration .

The oldest Tarim mummies , found Know in the Tarim Basin , are dated to the 2nd millennium BCE , when the Indo-European Tocharians inhabited the Tarim Basin .

In the first millennium BCE the Tarim Basin was inhabited by the Indo-European Yuezhi nomads .