Mysterious carvings and evidence of human sacrifice uncovered in ancient city

[Bayard]

Discoveries at the sprawling site have archaeologists rethinking the roots of Chinese civilization.

THE STONES DIDN’T give up their secrets easily. For decades, villagers in the dust-blown hills of China’s Loess Plateau believed that the crumbling rock walls near their homes were part of the Great Wall. It made sense. Remnants of the ancient barrier zigzag through this arid region inside the northern loop of the Yellow River, marking the frontier of Chinese rule stretching back more than 2,000 years.

But one detail was curiously out of place: Locals, and then looters, began finding in the rubble pieces of jade, some fashioned into discs and blades and scepters. Jade is not indigenous to this northernmost part of Shaanxi Province—the nearest source is almost a thousand miles away—and it was not a known feature of the Great Wall. Why was it showing up in abundance in this barren region so close to the Ordos Desert?

When a team of Chinese archaeologists came to investigate the conundrum several years ago, they began to unearth something wondrous and puzzling. The stones were not part of the Great Wall but the ruins of a magnificent fortress city. The ongoing dig has revealed more than six miles of protective walls surrounding a 230-foot-high pyramid and an inner sanctum with painted murals, jade artifacts—and gruesome evidence of human sacrifice.


https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2020/08/mysterious-carvings-evidence-human-sacrifice-uncovered-ancient-city-china/?cmpid=org=ngp::mc=crm-email::src=ngp::cmp=editorial::add=History_20200810&rid=2D7EBD8232363870D75E126868635ACF

Really fascinating article and photos.

[Wicked Blue]

1. Thank you for posting this

For some reason the carvings in the pictures remind me of carvings from Central America.

[Bayard]

3. Mayan?

I thought the same thing.

[Wicked Blue]

8. It would be very interesting if DNA could be extracted from teeth

found on the site, and compared to other human populations.

Makes me wonder -- what if some of them were ancestors of those who eventually got across the Pacific Ocean to the west coasts of the Americas?

[magicarpet]

4. Same thoughts here.....

[FirstLight]

5. I thought so too

Very interesting...

[dalton99a]

2. Kick

So much about Shimao remains cloaked in mystery, including its name. Archaeologists are still trying to understand how its economy functioned, how it interacted with other prehistoric cultures, and whether its elites possessed a writing system. “That would solve a long-standing mystery,” says Sun.

There are some clues, however, to why Shimao was abandoned after 500 years. It wasn’t earthquake, flood, or plague. A war might have helped drive them out, but scientists see more evidence that climate change played a pivotal role.

In the third millennium B.C., when Shimao was founded, a relatively warm and wet climate drew an expanding population into the Loess Plateau. Historical records show a rapid shift from 2000 to 1700 B.C. to a drier and cooler climate. Lakes dried up, forests disappeared, deserts encroached, and the people of Shimao migrated to parts unknown.

[Nevilledog]

6. Fascinating. Thank you.

[crickets]

7. Amazing. Great article - thanks for posting this! nt