This gruesome pit burial site found in southern Mongolia contains the remains of around twenty warriors brutally executed during the Han-Xiongnu wars of the second century BC.
Alexey KovalevOne of the Han warriors buried in a pit located near the Great Wall of China.
The focus of the study, which was recently published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, was the Bayanbulag archaeological site in southern Mongolia, near the Great Wall of China. It is the site of an ancient fortress believed to have been largely controlled by the Han Dynasty. Sixteen years ago, archaeologists working at the site discovered a mass grave in a nearby stream containing 20 skeletons and 33 body parts.
Archaeologists have determined that the grave contained at least 17 people, possibly more than 20. All were men between the ages of 20 and 50, and all died violent deaths, many dismembered.
“The positions of these people indicate that they were either kneeling or lying down when they were killed,” 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 and he was frozen in rigor mortis. [The other] had his head cut off and taken away as a trophy of victory.”
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