The prehistoric village contained dozens of small one-room houses.
Credit: Photo courtesy Chinese Archaeology
Posted on 07/28/2015 9:40:40 AM PDT by BenLurkin
The bodies of juveniles, young adults and middle-age adults were packed together in the house...before it burnt down. Anthropologists who studied the remains say a "prehistoric disaster," possibly an epidemic of some sort, killed these people.
The site, whose modern-day name is "Hamin Mangha," dates back to a time before writing was used in the area, when people lived in relatively small settlements, growing crops and hunting for food. The village contains the remains of pottery, grinding instruments, arrows and spearheads, providing information on their way of life
...
An anthropological team at Jilin University in China is studying the prehistoric remains, trying to determine what happened to these people. The team has published a second study, in Chinese, in the Jilin University Journal – Social Sciences edition, on their finds.
The Jilin team found that the people in that house died as the result of a "prehistoric disaster" that resulted in dead bodies being stuffed into the house.
The dead came in faster than they could be buried. "The human bone accumulation in F40 was formed because ancient humans put remains into the house successively and stacked centrally," wrote team leaders Ya Wei Zhou and Hong Zhu in the study.
The team found that about half of the individuals were between 19 and 35 years of age. No remains of older adults were found.
The ages of the victims at Hamin Mangha are similar to those found in another prehistoric mass burial, which was previously unearthed in modern-day Miaozigou in northeast China, the researchers noted.
"This similarity may indicate that the cause of the Hamin Mangha site was similar to that of the Miaozigou sites. That is, they both possibly relate to an outbreak of an acute infectious disease," wrote Zhou and Zhu.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
ping
The local Planned Parenthood just called dibs.
Bump.
Long Ago and Far Away....
But seriously, it is interesting how the houses are all on the diagonal with all the entrances oriented in the same direction. Weird!
Winter time warmth and light into the middle of the house: They all face the directly into the sunlight.
Obviously they were worshiping Cthulhu and expected him to pop up from that direction after they sacrificed all those people.
Ah...makes perfect sense.
I wonder how well they checked the remains for signs of injury.
Not really, I don’t think. Could about where the sun is (doors facing away for heat of the day) . Or the direction of prevailing winds (doors facing away from the wind).
Though Mr. Civ might be able to shed a lot more light on the question
LOL.
Another very reasonable explanation! :-)
If they go about it the right way — the archeologists will be employed for the rest of their careers studying each and every bone.
“We found a scrape mark!”
Yeah, seen those kinds of site investigations too.
Cold kills. Heat is essential for life. Light for work and food prep and clothes and living. Being “too hot” is a problem only in desert mid-day conditions. (At night, desert cold temperatures don't “kill” like winter does, but are still very uncomfortable.)
based on shadows in photo the entrances are facing south to get the most warmth/solar exposure.
Solar Energy Pioneers! LOL!
Look at the shadows from the trees. The sunlight would have shown directly into the entrances.
Next time, I’ll scroll down, but GMTA.
Yes. i realize that now. I posted too soon.
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