A new study using ancient DNA from the Shimao site in Shaanxi province reveals that human sacrifices 4,000 years ago showed a gender bias, with males predominant in mass burials and females overwhelmingly accompanying elites. Published in Nature, the research also highlights the site's role as an early hierarchical society with patrilineal structures.
A 13-year DNA study analyzed 169 human remains excavated from the Shimao site in Shenmu, Shaanxi province, and its surroundings, a gigantic prehistoric complex covering 4 square kilometers on the northern edges of the Loess Plateau, inhabited from around 2300 to 1800 BC in the late Neolithic period.
By sequencing more than 100 ancient genomes from Shimao and satellite sites, the research team found that sacrificial victims in mass burials, likely for public rituals, were mostly male, while attendants buried with nobles or elites were overwhelmingly female. This indicates a predominantly patrilineal descent structure across Shimao communities and possibly sex-specific sacrificial rituals.
“These findings reveal a predominantly patrilineal descent structure across Shimao communities and possibly sex-specific sacrificial rituals,” the team wrote in a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature on Wednesday.
The large stone-walled site borders the northern Loess Plateau and the Ordos Desert, showing features typical of state-level societies, such as craft production like jade processing, large fortifications, high social stratification, and abundant human sacrifice. Its stone structures differ from the rammed-earth typical of most prehistoric Chinese settlements and were once mistaken for part of the nearby Great Wall, which is actually a millennium younger.
Fu Qiaomei, deputy director of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology and research leader, said at a Thursday news conference in Beijing: “It clearly showed a genetic and cultural continuity. We also found a dynamic picture that diverse groups of people got mixed. It showed Shimao was probably more than just a political and military center of the region. It could be a hub of massive, trans-regional cultural exchanges and trade.”
The study revealed genetic and cultural connections between Shimao people and the 7,000-year-old Yangshao culture along the Yellow River, as well as ties to the Taosi site in Shanxi province, northern steppe populations, and southern rice-farming communities, suggesting extensive interactions among prehistoric farming and pastoral cultures. “It demonstrated an inclusive nature of Chinese civilization even in its early stage,” Fu added.
Around 80 human skulls were found at the east gate, with nine out of 10 being male, while female sacrificial remains were associated with elite cemeteries, indicating highly structured sacrificial practices with gender-specific roles tied to distinct ritual purposes. Genetic analysis reconstructed family pedigrees spanning up to four generations, uncovering a social hierarchy organized around patrilineal descent.
“These findings transform Shimao from a grand physical heritage into a vivid entity reflecting social life,” Fu said. The site, with research starting in 2012, provides an unprecedented perspective on early Eastern Asian states and was listed by the Archaeological Institute of America as one of the world's top 10 discoveries of the decade in 2021.