Abstract:

Along with a large number of bronze ritual and musical wares and pottery, human bones called human sacrifices have been unearthed from many tombs of Eastern Zhou Period at Qixian Songzhuang cemetery in Hebi City, Henan Province. Songzhuang cemetery could provid important clues for researching the archaeological culture and political pattern in the northern Henan region of Eastern Zhou period. The purpose of this study was to describe and analyse the ethnic features of human sacrifices from Songzhuang cemetery. 7 cases of female skulls with good preservation were observed and measured. The Songzhuang female skulls were similar to Baoji group of Yangshao Culture and Chengzi Group of Dawenkou-Longshan Culture, and were also similar to Mao-Yin merged B group, Xicun Zhou group and Shuanglou group. It was preliminarily concluded that human sacrifices from Qixian Songzhuang were different from traditional residents of northern Henan and Shanxi in Eastern Zhou period in terms of physical characteristics , and were more closely related to residents in capital city of Zhou Dynasty and populations with Central Plains Culture in Zheng-Han old city and its west and north.

Key words: Qixian Songzhuang cemetery, Eastern Zhou period, Female human sacrifices, Human skulls