Found 80 skulls in the stone city of China

Archaeologists in Shaanxi Province, northwestern China, said they excavated more than 80 skulls in the Shimao ruins in China's largest stone city.

The deputy director of Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archeology, Mr. Sun Zhouyong, said the skulls were found in groups, while the bones of the limbs were not found in the area.

The first two groups of skulls were found in two holes, each containing 24 skulls, in front of the ruined eastern gate of the city, while other skulls were excavated along the eastern city wall.

Artwork: chinanews.com

Archaeologists deduce that the above skulls are likely to involve building walls. They believed that the ancients had organized religious activities or founding rituals before building new stone cities.

The group of anthropologists identified most of the skulls as young women. This suggests the explosion of mass violence and or ethnic conflict in this area, because the ancient people tended to use their enemies or those imprisoned to sacrifice gods.

The number of skulls will be important documents for the study of religious thinking and cultural activities of people living along the Yellow River basin more than 4,000 years ago.

Shimao ruins were discovered in 1976 in the form of a small town.

Archaeological group said the city was built about 4,300 years ago and was abandoned about 300 years after the Xia dynasty (2100-1600 BC), the first dynasty in China is described in ancient annals.