14th-century woman in China lost her nose to amputation — likely as punishment for stealing or adultery

A 700-year-old female skull found in a Chinese cemetery is the world's first archaeological example of punitive nose amputation, according to a new study. The middle-aged woman survived the ruthless punishment, which may have been administered for stealing or for adultery.

"We believe this woman was a kind of cast-off after death. She was buried face-down, suggesting a discriminatory attitude," study co-author Qian Wang , a biological anthropologist at Texas A&M University, told Live Science in an email. "Her burial, alone, in a place without her family or community, could be a decision of disapproval."

The woman's skeleton was discovered among 300 others in 2019 during an excavation of the Sanzhiyuan cemetery in China 's eastern Henan province, according to Wang and colleagues' study, which was published in the November issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports . She had been buried face down in a wooden coffin on the southern edge of the cemetery, with only a copper hairpin. Radiocarbon dating revealed she lived between 1298 and 1404, which corresponds to either the Yuan dynasty or the early Ming dynasty.

But because the original excavation was a rapid salvage dig ahead of construction, the unique skull was not recognized as a possible case of nasal amputation until study first author Yawei Zhou , an archaeologist at Zhengzhou University, analyzed the skeletons from the cemetery in 2024.

The most obvious indication that the skull was unique was its enlarged piriform aperture, the anatomical term for the nose opening, the researchers wrote in the study. They noticed that the woman's two nasal bones had been partially amputated, leaving only about half of the bridge of her nose. Upon closer examination, they noted that several bones inside the woman's nose had been broken, with signs of healing at the edges. These injuries would have given the middle of the woman's face a "hollow appearance," the researchers wrote.

Although they could not completely rule out the possibility that this woman's facial disfigurement was the result of a disease or a birth defect, the researchers concluded that the most likely explanation, particularly in light of her unusual face-down burial position, was a case of nasal amputation as punishment for a crime.

"In ancient China 's agriculture-based economy, theft of livestock such as cattle and donkey was not uncommon, yet there could be other reasons, such as adultery," Wang said. "At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, such a felony was punished by nasal amputation."

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