DNA analysis of ancient remains from northwestern China has unveiled a chilling picture of ritualized sacrifice in a 4,000-year-old Neolithic society, where men and women met drastically different fates based on their gender. The findings, published in the prestigious journal Nature, challenge long-held assumptions about sacrificial victims and illuminate the hierarchical structures of Shimao culture during China's late Stone Age.
Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences analyzed DNA from 169 individuals excavated from the massive Shimao archaeological site and surrounding settlements in Shaanxi Province. What they discovered was a society that practiced two distinct forms of human sacrifice, each with clear gender preferences that reflected the community's social organization and ritual purposes, writes The Independent.
- Sinister Secret of the Shang Dynasty: Its Penchant for Human Sacrifice
- Pits of Skulls Found in Shimao: China's Neolithic City of Mystery
Men Sacrificed at City Gates, Women Buried with Elites
The genetic evidence overturned previous archaeological assumptions about the victims found beneath Shimao's East Gate. Contrary to earlier morphological assessments that identified most sacrificial victims as female, DNA testing revealed that nine out of ten individuals buried in these mass graves were actually male. Three individuals previously classified as female based on skeletal features turned out to be men when their genetic profiles were examined.
These male victims, likely killed during construction rituals for the city's defensive walls between 3,800 and 4,300 years ago, represent a public form of sacrifice that may have served broader community purposes. The mass burials at places like the East Gate suggest these men were offered to consecrate important civic structures in what is now recognized as one of China's earliest state-level societies.
Stone walls at the Shimao Neolithic site in Shaanxi, China. (Bilaterian/CC BY-SA 4.0)
In stark contrast, female sacrifices dominated the elite cemeteries scattered throughout Shimao city and its satellite settlements. At Hanjiagedan, a noble cemetery south of the inner enclosure, six out of seven sacrificed individuals were women. The pattern repeated at Huangchengtai, the presumed ruling-class cemetery in the city center, where 14 of 19 victims were female. These women were entombed alongside high-status individuals, suggesting their role in ancestor veneration rituals rather than public ceremonies.
- Blood for the Gods: 10 Cultures that Engaged in Ritual Sacrifice
- Sacrificed Humans Found in Ancient Chinese Tombs from the Qijia Culture
Patrilineal Society with Strict Social Hierarchies
The DNA analysis revealed more than just sacrificial patterns—it exposed the fundamental social structure of Shimao society. Researchers reconstructed family trees spanning up to four generations, discovering that both the Shimao city and its secondary settlement at Zhaishan were organized around patrilineal descent. Male tomb owners in high-status graves universally carried the same paternal haplogroup (O3a2c), while female tomb owners displayed diverse maternal lineages, indicating that women married into these communities from elsewhere.
View of some of the landscape of Shimao city. (Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology/Nature)
The Shimao settlement covered approximately four square kilometers and featured stone-walled fortifications - unusual for the period when rammed earth walls were more common in the Central Plains. The site's organization into distinct zones with craft production areas and large fortifications points to a sophisticated society with clear social stratification thousands of years before the emergence of China's first documented dynasties.
Interestingly, the genetic study also revealed that sacrificed victims showed no close familial relationships with the elite tomb owners they accompanied, suggesting strict social boundaries. However, some high-status female individuals possessed wealth comparable to male elites, indicating that while the society was predominantly patriarchal, women could still attain positions of power and influence in certain circumstances.
Challenging Assumptions About China's Past
These findings push back the timeline for certain sacrificial practices in ancient China. The phenomenon of elites being buried alongside sacrificed female companions was previously thought to have emerged during the early Iron Age period (770-221 BC), but the Shimao evidence demonstrates this practice existed more than a thousand years earlier during the late Neolithic period.
The research also uncovered evidence of long-term interaction between the Shimao inhabitants and populations related to the Yumin culture from Inner Mongolia. Several genetic outliers among both the earlier Yangshao culture (around 4,800 years ago) and later Shimao populations showed ancestry linked to these northern steppe peoples, suggesting ongoing contact between farming and pastoral communities without disrupting the genetic continuity of the dominant local population.
Scientists hope that continued excavation and DNA analysis from the region will shed further light on the origins of early East Asian states and the complex social dynamics that characterized these prehistoric communities. The Shimao site, with its extensive archaeological record and well-preserved human remains, offers an unprecedented window into how family relationships, gender roles, and ritualized violence shaped one of China's earliest urban civilizations.
Top image: Tomb owner and a sacrificed victim at Shimao necropolis. Source: Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology/Nature
By Gary Manners
References
The Independent. 2024. Ancient Chinese ritual: Women sacrifice. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/ancient-chinese-ritual-women-sacrifice-b2876275.html
Nature. 2025. Ancient DNA from Shimao city records kinship practices in Neolithic China. Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09799-x
