西安市莲湖区三民村一带原属唐长安城西北近郊，为唐代宫人埋葬之地，称作“宫人斜”。唐长安城作为隋唐时期的国都，人口众多，其中宫人是后宫中人数最多的特殊女性群体。本文参照《人体测量手册》所列方法对西安三民村唐代宫人墓地出土人骨进行颅面形态分析。结果表明，三民村墓地女性颅骨各项特征分布较为集中，与唐代北方女性居民整体颅面形态特征相似，仅在额部、上面部存在差异。结合墓志和文献资料，研究认为初唐乃至整个唐代，宫人应主要来源于北方地区。同时，在选拔宫人时应存在一定的标准和审美偏好，额部更宽、上面部更狭窄的女性可能有一定的被选优势，与初唐时期的社会审美相符。

The Sanmin Village cemetery is situated in Sanmin Village, Zaoyuan Street, Lianhu District, Xi’an City, Shaanxi Province. In this cemetery, fifty-seven tombs of palace maids from the early Tang Dynasty have been discovered. These tombs are neatly arranged and uniformly shaped. The area surrounding Sanmin Village was originally located in the southwest suburbs of Chang’an City during the Tang Dynasty. Multiple discoveries of palace maids’ tombs and related epitaphs have been made here, and it is known as “Gongrenxie,” the burial place for Tang Dynasty palace maids.

As the capital of the Sui and Tang dynasties, Chang’an City had a large population, among which palace maids were the most numerous special group of women in the harem. In the past, research on Tang Dynasty palace maids was mostly based on traditional literature and palace maid poems rather than on physical characteristics. A total of twenty-nine specimens were extracted from the Tang Dynasty palace maids’ tombs in the Sanmin Village cemetery, including six female skulls that could be observed and measured for craniofacial features. All of these were concentrated in the young and post-adolescent periods.

This article refers to the methods listed in the “Anthropometric Manual” to analyze the craniofacial morphological characteristics of human bones unearthed from the Tang Dynasty palace tombs in Sanmin Village. The results show that the distribution of various features of the female skulls in the Sanmin Village cemetery is relatively concentrated. It is similar to the overall craniofacial morphology of female residents in the northern part of the Tang Dynasty, with only differences in facial width, forehead shape, and orbital shape. Compared to other female groups in the Tang Dynasty, women in the Sanmin Village cemetery have a narrower upper face, a wider forehead shape, and a higher orbital shape. However, these differences are not significant enough to exceed the overall characteristics of northern women in the Tang Dynasty. Based on epitaphs and literature, it is further speculated that in the early Tang Dynasty and even throughout the entire Tang Dynasty, palace maids mainly came from the north. There should be certain standards and aesthetic preferences in the selection of palace maids in the Tang Dynasty. Women with a wider forehead and a narrower upper face may have certain advantages in selection, which is consistent with the social aesthetics of the early Tang Dynasty reflected in the female figurines and murals of Tang Dynasty tombs.