An ancient carved stone at the Shimao archaeological site in China.
A genetic study of 80 skulls found in a Stone Age city in China revealed that the people sacrificed there were mostly men – suggesting sex-specific sacrificial rituals.
Archaeologists found, outside the “gate” of the ancient city of Shimao, a pit filled with 80 skulls of human sacrifice victims, and discovered a surprising fact about the victims: 90% were men.
In a study last week in Natureresearchers analyzed DNA collected from skeletons found in and around the 4,000-year-old Chinese city to determine the social and kinship structure of this Neolithic society.
As , the ancient walled city of Shimao was first discovered in Shaanxi province in 2018. Occupied between around 2300 and 1800 BC, the city featured a large stepped pyramid, areas of artisanal specialization and two cemeteries.
Discriminatory sacrifices
Archaeologists had already found two different forms of human sacrifice: one involving the heads of decapitated individualsburied in “skull pits” near the city gate; and another involving the burial of a lower-status individual — typically a woman — as a sacrifice at the burial of a person of higher status.
In the new study, researchers used DNA analysis to determine the biological sex of skulls in the pit discovered beneath the foundation of Shimao’s Dongmen (East Gate).
“In contrast to previous archaeological reports linking these sacrifices to women, in the study, the new DNA results “did not show any evidence of female bias, with 90% of victims to be men”, said the researchers, cited by Live Science.
This discovery surprised archaeologists, who, in , explain that the sacrifices associated with elite burials in Shimao and its satellite locations were predominantly female: “These mostly female sacrificial patterns contrast sharply with Dongmen, in which decapitation and mass burial involved mostly male samples.”
“This suggests that Shimao sacrificial practices were highly structured, with specific gender roles linked to specific rituals and locations”, they add.
