Just outside the gates of China’s 4,000-year-old city, archaeologists have discovered a pit filled with 80 skulls of human sacrifice victims. Now, new research has revealed surprising facts about the victims. Nine out of ten were men.
In the study, published Nov. 26 in the journal Nature, researchers analyzed DNA collected from human bones found in the ancient city of Shimao and its satellite cities to uncover the social and kinship structure of this Neolithic society.
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Archaeologists also discovered two different forms of human sacrifice. One concerned the heads of decapitated people buried in “skull holes” near the city gates. The other is the burial of a lower status individual (usually a woman) as a burial sacrifice for a higher status person.
In a new study, researchers used DNA analysis to resolve the biological sex of a skull found in a hole found beneath the foundation of Shimao’s East Gate (East Gate).
“In contrast to previous archaeological reports that identified these sacrifices as being by women,” the researchers wrote in their study, the new DNA results “showed no evidence of female bias, with 9 out of 10 victims being male.”
This discovery surprised archaeologists because the sacrifices associated with elite burials at Shimao and its satellite cities were mainly female.
“These patterns of predominantly female sacrifice are in clear contrast to the sampled East Gate, where decapitations and mass burials were primarily performed by men,” the researchers wrote. “This suggests that Shimao’s sacrificial practices were highly structured, with gender roles tied to distinct ritual purposes and locations,” the Chinese Academy of Sciences said in a statement.
Furthermore, when researchers examined the DNA of the male victims, they found no differences in their ancestry compared to that of the occupants of elite tombs, meaning that the sacrificial victims were not “outsiders.”
The reasons for gender-based sacrificial practices are not yet clear, but researchers have offered several possible explanations.
The researchers said the sacrifices in the cemetery “may represent ancestor worship, where women were sacrificed to honor elite aristocrats and rulers,” while the sacrificial skulls in the pits were “likely associated with wall and gate construction rituals.”
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