Genetics of a 4,000-year-old sacrifice: what Shimao reveals about power in ancient China
About 80 human skulls were found near the East Gate of Shimao, a vast stone-walled settlement in northern Shaanxi, China, that flourished around 4,200 to 3,700 years ago. For a long time, archaeologists assumed most of them belonged to women. The assumption fit a familiar narrative: female victims in foundation sacrifices, a practice known from other early complex societies.
The DNA says otherwise.
New genetic analysis of 169 ancient human samples from Shimao and nearby sites reveals that 9 out of 10 burials near the East Gate were male. Women, meanwhile, were sacrificed in different locations, the elite cemeteries of Huangchengtai and Hanjiagedan. The pattern is not random. It reflects a society where sacrifice was carefully organized by gender, location, and ritual purpose.
The study, published in Nature (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09799-x) by a team led by Prof. Qiaomei Fu of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, with collaborators from the Shaanxi Provincial Academy of Archaeology, represents more than a decade of work extracting and analyzing high-resolution nuclear DNA from human remains.
A settlement on the edge of empire
Shimao was no ordinary village. Covering about 4 square kilometers, it was one of the largest walled settlements in East Asia during the late Neolithic period, with monumental stone architecture, a stratified social hierarchy, and evidence of long-distance trade. It sat at a crossroads between the Yellow River agricultural heartland and the steppe to the north, a position that made it both a trading hub and a frontier fortification.
Genetic analysis confirms this dual identity. Most inhabitants descended from local Yellow River farming communities of the Yangshao culture, who had lived in the region for more than 1,000 years. But Shimao also carried genetic links to the Taosi culture to the south, to steppe populations related to the Yumin people, and to rice-farming groups from southern China. The city was a genetic crossroads as much as a cultural one.
How power was inherited
The DNA allowed researchers to reconstruct pedigrees spanning up to four generations, rare resolution for ancient populations. The patterns are unambiguous: descent was patrilineal, with status and inheritance traced through fathers. Residence was patrilocal, women moved to live with or near their husbands’ families.
This is the first direct genetic evidence for how authority was transmitted at Shimao, and it aligns with what archaeologists had inferred from grave goods and settlement layout. The ruling families maintained their status across generations through a system that controlled both lineage and marriage.
The sacrificial geography
The study’s most vivid finding is the gendered geography of sacrifice. The East Gate, a monumental entrance with a massive stone platform, contained the largest known collection of human skulls in pre-Shang China, about 80 individuals. DNA shows these were overwhelmingly male. The location suggests they were part of foundation rituals, perhaps warriors captured in battle or low-status males selected for a specific ceremonial purpose.
Women, by contrast, were found in elite cemeteries. Their presence in high-status burial grounds, alongside individuals with elaborate grave goods, suggests a different kind of sacrifice, one tied to funerary rituals for the powerful rather than to civic foundation.
“This indicates carefully organized rituals where men and women were selected for different ceremonies based on location and purpose,” the authors write.
What this means for early states
Shimao existed at a pivotal moment in Chinese prehistory, just before the emergence of the first Bronze Age states. The study shows that by 4,000 years ago, northern China already had societies with strong patrilineal power structures, institutionalized human sacrifice, and genetic continuity stretching back more than a millennium.
The finding that Shimao’s ruling class maintained its genetic distinctiveness, and its control over ritual violence, for generations provides a direct window into how early political authority was consolidated. It is not simply that elites had more power. They had a system for passing it down.
Reference: Chen et al., “Ancient DNA from Shimao reveals patrilineal social organization and gendered sacrificial practices,” Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09799-x.