Ancient DNA is revealing new details about the people who lived at Shimao, one of the most important late Neolithic settlements in China. The findings, published in Nature, clarify the population’s origins, family relationships, and social organization. They also identify genetic connections with communities farther south and provide evidence that mass burials linked to human sacrifice at the site largely contained men.
The project was led by Prof. Qiaomei Fu of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Researchers from the Shaanxi Provincial Academy of Archaeology and several other institutions also contributed to the work.
Over 13 years, the team conducted large-scale, high-resolution analyses of nuclear DNA from 169 ancient human samples (144 unrelated individuals). The remains came from Shimao, nearby archaeological sites, and locations in the southern Shanxi region.
A Vast Walled Settlement in Ancient China
Shimao dates to approximately 4200-3700 years before the present and is located in northern Shaanxi Province, China. Covering about four square kilometers, the enormous stone-walled settlement was divided into separate functional areas.
Archaeological evidence indicates that Shimao had a strongly stratified society with organized political and social systems. The site has also produced extensive evidence of ritual activity and human sacrifice.
Local Roots and Distant Connections
Researchers compared the newly obtained genomes with previously published ancient DNA from populations across China. Their results indicate that most of Shimao’s inhabitants descended from local people who had lived in the region about 1,000 years earlier.
The analysis also uncovered both genetic and cultural links to Yangshao Culture, a major Neolithic civilization that developed across the Loess Plateau near the Yellow River. These connections provide important clues about where the Shimao population came from and how its society developed.
The Shimao people were also closely connected to communities associated with Taosi Culture (southern Shanxi), steppe Yumin-related groups, and southern rice-farming populations. These relationships point to extensive contact and exchange among prehistoric farming and pastoral communities across a wide geographic area.
Ancient DNA Reconstructs Shimao Families
Around 80 human skulls have been discovered near Shimao’s East Gate. Before the late Shang period, no other archaeological site in China had produced such a large collection of human skulls.
Genetic analysis allowed the researchers to reconstruct family pedigrees covering as many as four generations. The results suggest that Shimao’s social hierarchy was organized through patrilineal descent, meaning ancestry and status were traced through fathers. The population also followed patrilocal residence, in which women typically moved to live with or near the families of their male partners.
Together, these patterns offer a rare view of how family relationships may have shaped authority, inheritance, and social rank within the settlement.
Male Sacrifice at Shimao’s East Gate
The findings also overturn a long-held idea about the people sacrificed near Shimao’s East Gate. Earlier interpretations suggested that most of the victims were female, but the genetic evidence shows that nine out of ten burials examined there were male.
A clear pattern emerged across different areas of the settlement. Male sacrificial victims were concentrated near the East Gate, while female sacrificial remains were found in elite cemeteries including Huangchengtai and Hanjiagedan.
This separation suggests that sacrifice at Shimao was carefully organized. Men and women may have been selected for different ceremonies, with their roles determined by the purpose of the ritual and the location where it took place.
New Clues to the Rise of Early States
The genetic evidence indicates that Shimao’s population primarily developed from local groups with Yangshao cultural ancestry in northern Shaanxi. This establishes at least 1,000 years of cultural and genetic continuity in the region.
At the same time, the population’s links to distant communities show that Shimao was not isolated. Its people participated in broad networks connecting agricultural and pastoral societies across northern, central, and southern China.
The study also provides the first direct genetic evidence that can be used to investigate how power was inherited at Shimao, who belonged to its ruling families, and how different social classes were formed. These insights may help researchers better understand the family systems and political structures that contributed to the emergence of early states in East Asia.