Discovering strange points on 5,000-year-old remains, experts are shocked by the ancient person's physique

What is it about those skeletons that makes experts so confused?

Strange skeletons

In 1987, archaeologists discovered an ancient site in a field near Jiaojia Village, Jinan City, Shandong Province, China. A large number of stone tools, pottery, axes, sickles, knives and many other cultural relics were found. The relics belonged to an ancient culture called Longshan Culture that existed during the Stone Age 5,000 years ago. Among the series of archaeological sites excavated, scientists also found many ancient human skeletons.

More surprisingly, archaeologists discovered that the skeletons they found were all taller than the vast majority of humans today. One skeleton reached 1.9m, while many others were 1.8m tall or even taller.

One of the skeletons found in Shandong, China. (Photo: Sohu)

During an excavation at the site of 'Ubeidiya, in the Jordan Valley, which straddles Israel, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, archaeologists found a 1.5 million-year-old fossilized vertebra of a young boy. Modern techniques have helped to reconstruct the physical characteristics of the boy, who was 9-12 years old when he died, as well as calculate what he would have looked like as an adult.

The results showed that when he grew up, he would have been 1.98m tall.

When villagers in Scaieni in the Buzaului Mountains, Romania, dug up the ground to plant an apple orchard, they were surprised to discover huge skeletons up to 2.4m tall, along with pieces of pottery, jewelry and strange metal statues about 1m high.

A 1.5 million-year-old fossilized vertebra of a boy was found at the 'Ubeidiya site in the Jordan Valley. (Photo: Internet).

These findings are completely puzzling because most known ancient humans were shorter than modern humans. This is because they lived in extremely harsh environments, lacked nutrition, and had to work very hard to find food. Considering the history of human development, human height has increased over the years, so ancient humans should have been shorter than modern humans.

The discovery of ruins in Xiaojia Village and many other places in the world has overturned the perception of scientists. From here, we have a new perspective to better understand the physical development of ancient humans.

Expert speculation

After a period of research, Vuong Phan, professor of Cultural History at Shandong University, and many other experts have come up with two different hypotheses.

First , the ancient people were so tall thanks to nutrition from food. According to Chinese history, the Longshan culture belonged to the Five Emperors period, the climate at that time was warmer than today. In the book "Lu shi xuan thu - co nhac" it was recorded that "Merchants chased elephants to the East. They went all the way down to the south of the Yangtze River and lived there." The existence of elephants at that time also explained the weather conditions at that time. Even the expert on oracle bone inscriptions (inscriptions on turtle shells and animal bones during the Shang Dynasty) Hu Hou also acknowledged that "the climate during the Five Emperors period was not only warm but also much hotter than today".

From the excavated skeletons, it can be seen that ancient people were very tall. (Photo: Sohu)

Experts speculate that in addition to farming, the ancients also raised livestock to have a stable food supply. Moreover, the climate conditions at that time also greatly affected the food source. At that time, the climate in the area around Tieu Gia village was very warm and humid, so plants grew easily and livestock was also very favorable. Thanks to the abundant supply, the ancient surplus people had enough nutrition to grow so tall.

Second , human height has changed . According to historical documents describing the height of people in the Qin and Han dynasties, Confucius was 1.82m tall; Xiang Yu was 1.9m tall; Liu Bei was about 1.82m tall; Zhuge Liang was 1.94m tall; Guan Yu was 2.18m tall. even the short Cao Cao was 1.69m tall.

According to descriptions in historical documents, Guan Yu and Liu Bei were both over 1m8 tall. (Photo: Sohu)

Archaeologists have calculated the height of ancient people based on excavated bone fragments. The surprising conclusion is that from the pre-Qin period to the Western Han period, the average height of men was about 1.66m , slightly shorter than modern people.

This result is reflected in the terracotta warriors and horses of Qin Shi Huang. These statues are all made to scale, and the average height of the terracotta warriors is 1.7m to 1.81m (after removing the base). Considering the physical requirements for Qin soldiers, it is normal for them to be slightly above average in height. Therefore, the height of men in the Qin and Han dynasties was around 1.66m.

The average height of the terracotta warriors is 1.7m to 1.81m. (Photo: Sohu)

However, the skeletons of the Five Emperors period were clearly taller . Perhaps, the height of people in later periods gradually decreased. And according to the speculation of archaeologists, the emergence of classes and the increase in population after entering these periods made the food and nutrition sources for common people less. Therefore, the body shape of people in ancient times had such a big change.