This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Ancient Chinese authorities used many creative ways to punish people, often with methods designed to mark them for life. One brutal example mentioned repeatedly in historical texts is cutting off a person's nose.
However, archaeologists in China have never found skeletal evidence to prove that it occurred. But that may have changed following the discovery of a skeleton of a woman who lived in China about 700 years ago. The woman's remains were excavated from the Sanzhiyuan Cemetery in Henan province in 2019.
She was found buried face down, a practice sometimes used for criminals, and there was extensive damage to her skull where her nose should have been. Out of 213 historical burials at the site, she was the only person buried face down and the only one with facial disfigurement. So, a team led by Yawei Zhou from Zhengzhou University wanted to know why.
To begin solving the mystery, the researchers first had to determine who the individual was and when she lived. Physical analysis of her skull and pelvic bones showed that she was a woman aged 40 to 45 when she died. Radiocarbon dating of a right leg bone dated her remains to about 1298–1404 CE, spanning the late Yuan and early Ming periods.
Next, the team put her skull through a CT scanner to create high-resolution images of her nasal cavity. The scans showed that part of the nasal bones and several delicate structures inside her nose had been cut away. There were no other signs of fractures or healing in the surrounding facial bones, while her front teeth were unharmed.
This potentially rules out an accident or a bad fall, in which more extensive facial injuries might be expected. Instead, the damage pointed to a deliberate cut. "The most likely reason for midface disfigurement was punitive nasal amputation," the scientists write in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.
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