COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS—Live Science reports that researchers led by Qian Wang of Texas A&M University have examined the bones of a 25-year-old man discovered in 2010 in a vertical looter’s shaft above an ancient tomb in northwestern China's Shiyanzi cemetery. Radiocarbon dating indicates that the man died in the seventh century A.D., while the tomb is about 2,000 years old. The study of the bones also revealed cuts to the man’s front and back, perhaps inflicted with the sword found near his remains. Wang and his colleagues think the man was not part of the crew that looted the tomb in antiquity because more than 14 feet of dirt had accumulated in the shaft in which he was found between the time of the robbery and his death. The body and the weapon may therefore have been hidden in the cemetery by a murderer, he explained. Analysis of the remains in the 2,000-year-old tomb indicates the occupants had been a wealthy family of three. “The grave goods must have been very rich,” Wang said. To read about a medieval family mausoleum unearthed in eastern China, go to "A Family's Final Resting Place."
