In April 2006, a construction site in Shangnan County, Shaanxi Province, excavated the skeleton of a teenager more than 4,000 years old, which made experts wonder what was the situation that the teenager was only 16 years old, but his height had reached 1 meter 93, and three drill holes had been drilled in the teenager's skull. What the hell is going on?
Skeletons from 4,000 years ago
In April 2006, a construction site in Shangnan County, Shaanxi Province, was digging a roadbed when workers working with an excavator found that the excavator had some large pieces of human bones mixed in in it. After discovering the situation, the workers immediately reported the situation to the person in charge of the site, who stopped the construction and reported the situation to the Cultural Relics Bureau.
Experts from the Cultural Relics Bureau arrived at the scene and found that the excavation was an old tomb, and because the tomb had been seriously damaged, the experts decided to carry out a rescue excavation of the tomb. As archaeological excavations progressed, the situation of the tomb became clearer: it was a cellar tomb from the late Longshan culture, and due to its age, there were no objects in the tomb except for a corpse.
Experts then restored the skeleton, and when the skeleton was successfully restored, the experts found that the skeleton was 1.93 meters long. The height of 1.93 meters is now, and it is definitely a tall man. In the late Yongsan culture more than 4,000 years ago, human beings were still in the stage of enlightenment, when human material life and productivity were extremely underdeveloped, and their height could grow to 1 meter 93, which was definitely a giant at that time.
Experts used instruments to test the skeleton, and to the surprise of experts, the skeleton's epiphyseal line had not yet closed, indicating that the owner of the skeleton was about 16 years old when he died. 16 years old is the golden age of a person's growth, which means that if the teenager can survive, his height will definitely exceed two meters.
The mystery of the giant's life
Archaeological results show that the average height of humans in the Hongshan culture period was about 1 meter 66. Why did this human teenager in the late Hongshan culture reach a height of 1 meter 93? Experts infer that there could be two reasons.
One is that the teenager has gigantism. Gigantism is a physiological disease caused by the excessive secretion of growth hormone by the pituitary gland, and people with gigantism will grow faster than ordinary people, especially the limbs will grow faster than other parts of the body. Experts conducted pathological tests on the skeleton of the 16-year-old teenager and found that the teenager's bones were normal and did not have symptoms of gigantism, indicating that the teenager was growing normally, so the conjecture that the teenager had gigantism was overturned.
The second is that the teenager may be a member of a giant tribe. Could it be the legendary Parsnip? The ancient book "Shuyi Ji" records: "In the windproof temple of Wuyuejian today, the earth and wood are made of its shape, the dragon's head and bull's ear, and the eyebrows are even one eye." Xi Yu will tu shan, and the jade warrior will be the one who carries the jade veil. After the Windproof Clan arrived, Yu Jiezhi, its length was three zhang, and its bones were specially cared. "Legend has it that in the Yao and Shun eras, there was a giant tribe called the "Windproof Clan", and the members of this tribe were all more than three zhang in height, which was equivalent to 9 meters today. According to ancient records, the Fengfeng Clan lived in the Fengshan area of Zhejiang, and it is obvious that this skeleton is not a giant of the Fengfeng Clan. No such tall skeleton has ever been found in the archaeological history of the Hongshan culture in the Shangnan region of Shaanxi Province, so did this skeleton come from some other giant tribe? This speculation may be true, but due to its age, it is impossible to verify.
The brain hole is wide open
Experts further studied the skeleton and found that there were three circular drill holes on the right side of the teenager's skull. This is frightening, are the three drill holes on the right side of the teenager's skull the cause of his death?
Experts examined the three drill holes and found that the diameter of the three holes was the same, indicating that the three holes were drilled using drilling tools. As for the cause of the three drills, experts also give two speculations.
One is the ancient craniotomy. Given that the three boreholes in the skull were the same size and had no signs of healing, experts deduced that the three drill holes were artificially drilled, and that the purpose of the drilling may have been an ancient craniotomy, but the craniotomy was not successful, and the teenager died on the operating table.
The second is an ancient ritual. At present, Indian, Nepalese and other tribes and clans still have the ancient ritual of drilling holes in the head, which is intended to open the "pineal gland" and make people have a clairvoyance function! Whether it was because of some ancient ritual that opened a hole in the top of the teenager's head and eventually led to the death of the teenager is impossible to verify.
epilogue
Whatever the cause of the giant boy's death is a regrettable thing, but the discovery of this skeleton has once again sparked a debate about the height of the ancients.
Most people think that ancient people were generally short in height due to material life and low productivity, but this is just a kind of speculation of people, in fact, high-stature people in ancient China abounded. For example, in the Warring States Qin family tomb excavated in Weinan, Shaanxi in the last century, the skeleton in the tomb shows that the average height of the family members at that time was about 1 meter 80, indicating that in the early years of the Qin Dynasty, the average height of people in the Guanzhong area of Shaanxi Had reached 1.80 meters.
For example, the well-known Confucius, his appearance is very different from the old man with a stooped waist and a kind eyebrow in our portrait. According to the zhou dynasty's weights and measures, Confucius was a beautiful man with a height of 2 meters 2 meters, who not only read poetry and books, but also had strong martial arts. Imagine this: the young Confucius has the height of O'Neill, the figure of Bruce Lee, carrying an ancient sword on his back, leading a group of disciples who are more effective than Tyson, and you will know why Confucius was able to travel all over the world but was able to retreat.