A decapitated skeleton sitting on its knees was discovered at an excavation of the late Shang era in Henan Province in central ancient China. The state of Shang existed on the territory of modern China from 1600 to 1046 BC. e.
The man sat facing north, with his arms crossed and tied.
Archaeologists began excavations at the Chaichuang site in 2019. The raskop covers an area of 0.2 km2. Remains of ceramics, artifacts from shells and jade, bones, remains of dwellings, wells and roads have already been found here.
Previous findings in different parts of the country indicate that human sacrifices were common in the Shang era. More than 13,000 people died as a result of ritual killings in Yinxu, the then capital of the kingdom, held for 200 years. At one time, priests killed up to 12 people. 339 bodies were found in one sacrificial pit, people were killed at the same time.
Details of how to perform the sacrificial ritual were recorded on the so – called “oracle bones.” They are flat bones of animals or pieces of a tortoise shell on which questions addressed to the deity scratched. After that, the bones were heated and the cracks formed as a result of heating were answered to their questions.
On one of these relics from Chaichuang, archaeologists discovered a symbol that they read as “Kang.” The symbol has already been found earlier on other “oracle bones” from Yinxu. He describes the method of ritual murder: a person or animal is placed in a hole in an upright position. The newly discovered skeleton was sacrificed precisely by the Kang method.
Judging by the fact that recently archaeologists are increasingly finding the remains of victims in an upright position, the Kang practice in ancient China was much more common than previously thought.
Human sacrifices were practiced in the Middle Kingdom quite often. It is known that the first emperor of China, Qin Shihuangdi, when erecting his tomb, sacrificed several thousand workers employed in construction.
