“Ancient Mystery Unveiled: Gruesome Mass Grave of Dismembered Han Warriors Discovered Near Great Wall”
Analysis Of The Ancient Mass Grave Found In Southern Mongolia
Alexey KovalevOne of the Han warriors buried in the pit located near the Great Wall of China.
The focus of the study, recently published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, was the archaeological site of Bayanbulag in southern Mongolia, not far from the Great Wall of China. This was the site of an ancient fortress, largely believed to have been controlled by the Han. Sixteen years ago, archaeologists working at the site found a mass grave in a nearby streambank containing 20 skeletons and 33 body fragments.
Archaeologists determined that there were at least 17 people in the grave, and perhaps more than two dozen. They were all men between the ages of 20 and 50 years old, and they’d all died violent deaths, with many dismembered.
“Judging by the poses of these people, they were kneeling when they were killed, or lying [down],” study co-author Alexey Kovalev told All That’s Interesting in an email. “One was lying on his back and trying to cover himself with his hands, so his arms and legs were cut off, so he stiffened in rigor mortis. [Another’s] head was cut off and taken away as proof of victory.”
Alexey KovalevThe skeletons reveal that many of these men died grisly deaths via dismemberment.
Indeed, archaeologists suspected that the men had been butchered during one of the many clashes between the Han and the nomadic Xiongnu people that took place during this era. But were the men in the mass grave Han or Xiongnu?
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