How Neolithic China’s Liangzhu People Shaped Human Bones!
A fascinating archaeological discovery has shed new light on the mysterious Liangzhu civilisation of Neolithic China. Researchers have uncovered evidence of a remarkable and unsettling cultural practice, the systematic modification of human bones.
Published in Scientific Reports, the study describes the first and only known example of such behaviour in prehistoric China. It adds a surprising new dimension to what we know about the Liangzhu culture, which flourished in the Yangtze River Delta between roughly 5,300 and 4,500 years ago.
The Liangzhu civilisation is already renowned for its advanced urban planning, massive earthwork tombs, sophisticated water management systems, and beautifully carved jade artefacts. At its peak, it boasted large walled settlements with palaces, workshops, and cemeteries, evidence of a highly organised and socially stratified society.
Now, archaeologists have revealed a new layer to this culture: the deliberate shaping of human bones into distinctive objects.
Of the 183 human bones examined, 52 showed clear signs of modification. These remains, often found discarded in moats and canals, took a range of forms:
Skull cups, created by slicing the upper part of the skull to form bowl-like shapes
Mask-like skulls, split across the face
Mandibles with flattened bases
Limb bones shaped, possibly for use as tools
Smaller skull fragments roughly fashioned into plates
Photo Credit: J. Sawada et al., Scientific Reports (2025) / CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Among the most extraordinary finds was a child’s skull with two polished holes and surface abrasions, a unique piece with no known parallels in Chinese archaeology.
Interestingly, nearly 80% of the modified bones were left unfinished, suggesting that they were either deliberately abandoned or not regarded as rare or sacred. Many of these remains were uncovered at Zhongjiagang, a key workshop area within the Liangzhu urban complex, hinting that this was a routine practice rather than an isolated or ritual act.
Radiocarbon dating indicates that most of this activity took place between 4,800 and 4,600 years ago, during the civilisation’s cultural peak.
Unlike similar examples found elsewhere in the world, these bones show no signs of violence, dismemberment, or ritual killing. The absence of cut marks suggests that they were collected after natural decomposition, rather than as the result of conflict or sacrifice.
This points to a very different relationship with the dead, one not rooted in ancestor worship or familial ritual, as was typical of many Neolithic societies.
In smaller early farming communities, the dead were often buried with ceremony, reflecting close kinship ties. But in the large, stratified cities of Liangzhu, where populations were much bigger and more complex, this connection appears to have shifted.
Researchers believe these modified bones may have belonged to what they call the “anonymous dead”, individuals outside traditional family networks, whose remains were treated as raw material rather than sacred relics. In a rapidly urbanising world, personal identity and memory may have been fading, replaced by collective social structures.
The practice of modifying bones continued for more than two centuries, suggesting it was a longstanding cultural tradition rather than a brief experiment. Its sudden emergence, unseen in earlier Chinese prehistory, may reflect how urban life transformed social bonds and changed perceptions of death.
By placing unfinished bone objects in waterways, the Liangzhu people could have been performing symbolic or practical rituals tied to this new way of life.
This discovery challenges long-held views about early Chinese mortuary traditions. The worked bones of Liangzhu reveal how urban growth and social complexity reshaped not just how people lived, but also how they understood the dead.
In reworking human remains into everyday or symbolic forms, the Liangzhu civilisation left behind a haunting reminder of how cultural innovation and mortality were deeply intertwined in the rise of early urban societies.