The human sacrifice diet
Scientists explore the lives of ancient human sacrifice victims by analyzing what they ate.
Annalee Newitz - 6/18/2017, 4:22 PM
Enlarge / Royal graves at the site of Yinxu.
During the final two centuries of the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BCE) in China, thousands of people were sacrificed at the state capital of Yinxu. Some were dispatched with great fanfare, buried with rich grave goods, while others appear to have been sacrificed with extreme prejudice and mutilated after death. Now, a new study sheds some light on these victims. Simon Fraser University bioarchaeologist Christina Cheung and her colleagues reconstructed these ancient people's' lives by discovering what they ate and when, based on chemical signatures left in their bones.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/06/the-human-sacrifice-diet/
