A tiny bone missing from the skeleton of a woman buried beside a man could provide rare archaeological evidence of female human sacrifice following a male death.
This rare double burial took place in the 1st century BC near the Egyin Gol River in Mongolia. Here, the nomadic Xiongnu people buried their dead in deep pits, and raised mounds above them.
Ancient texts suggest that widows in this culture did not survive their husbands鈥� death. Now researchers at the French Archaeological Mission in Mongolia believe they may have found the first physical evidence of this.
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At the head of the man鈥檚 coffin lay an offering box, containing a human hyoid bone. This tiny horseshoe-shaped bone is found at the base of the tongue. Despite disturbance by grave robbers, all the man鈥檚 bones were found.
However, the archaeologists found no trace of the woman鈥檚 hyoid in her coffin. This suggests that her tongue had been taken out before or after her death and placed in the offering box. The researchers hope that DNA will link the hyoid bone to the female skeleton.
The two skeletons were buried at the same time with valuable grave goods. The male had a bone bow, a spearhead and arrows. The woman鈥檚 coffin contained two bone sticks to pin up a coil of hair and a piece of a precious bronze mirror.
The Chinese called the Xiongnu people 鈥淲estern Barbarians鈥�. They built the Great Wall to keep these warlike nomads at bay.
Source: Antiquity (vol 74, p 531)