Theory suggests 1,300-year-old murder
Texas A&M professor points to archaeological evidence
A Texas A&M University professor has uncovered a 1,300-yearold murder in a Chinese tomb.
Qian Wang, a professor of biomedical sciences at Texas A&M, made a “one of a kind discovery” — that a man previously thought to be a grave robber inside a family’s tomb was the victim of a heinous murder.
The discovery is documented in the journal Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences published in October. Wang was the lead author of the paper detailing the findings.
Workers in China’s Ningxia region unearthed the ancient tomb in 2002 during the construction of a gas pipeline. Inside were the bodies of a man, woman and child who had been dead for nearly 2,000 years.
When archaeologists were excavating the tomb seven years later, they found a robber’s shaft with the mystery man’s remains inside. Based on radiocarbon dating inside the shaft, experts determined that the man died 700 years after the three people who were buried in the tomb.
Since then, experts believed the man was a grave robber who died while trying to loot the tomb. Grave robbers have been known to die in tombs, either from fights with other thieves or from the structures collapsing on them.
Wang pointed out that the theory about the man’s criminal activity was unlikely as a grave robber wouldn’t attempt to steal from a tomb that old, especially because it had showed signs of being robbed previously.
At the end of 2019, Wang began studying the remains, but his research was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Also, because of customs issues, the bones couldn’t leave China, so Wang was given a 3D scan of the remains and the tomb to examine for bone pathology and trauma. When Wang inspected the images, he discovered cuts across the man’s torso and face. And one of his arms had a defensive fracture.
The 13 V-shaped marks on the remains were made from a sharp
object and indicated the man had died from injuries sustained in an assault, Wang deduced.
“We carefully studied the trauma, and you could see some pretty nasty cuts on his face and skull,” Wang said. “Based on what we found, he died a pretty painful death.”
He believes the man could have fallen or been dumped there, though the posture he was found in indicated that the man may have been killed inside the tomb. Wang said the man’s left arm was extended and that his right arm was covering his face as if supporting injuries to it.
“What’s interesting is that this was an older cemetery, so whoever is responsible did this intentionally to cover up the crime,” Wang said. “Hiding a body in a grave robber’s shaft would be like hiding a leaf in the forest.”
“But I can speak with confidence that he is a victim,” he said.
Wang was able to determine that the man was likely about 25 years old and healthy when he died.
The discovery poses more questions than answers, like who the man was, who his killer was and what the motive was for doing so.
“That’s all lost to history,” Wang said. “But at least we were able to clear his name.”
Wang is no stranger to major archaeological discoveries. He was on the team that uncovered the now-famous 1,500-year-old joint burial — with two skeletons locked in an eternal embrace — in August and that found evidence of one of the earliest people who intentionally altered the shape and/or size of their heads.