\u201cI was surprised by this discovery,\u201d study co-author Qian Wang<\/a> told Gizmodo. Although nasal amputation was acknowledged as part of ancient China\u2019s \u201cFive Punishments,\u201d scientists had yet to find any scientific evidence for something that reportedly happened in history, added Wang, a paleoanthropologist at Texas A&M University.<\/p>\n The Five Punishments <\/p>\n According to the paper, mention of the Five Punishments appears in historical records as early as 2070 BCE. On a scale from (comparatively) minor to major offenses, these penalties included permanent tattoos, nasal amputation, cutting off the backside of each foot, emasculation, and the death sentence. The corresponding offenses varied throughout history; for instance, nose amputation could be dispatched for theft of livestock, desertion, or embezzlement, as per the study.<\/p>\n Of course, ancient China was far from being the only civilization at the time with gruesome physical punishments. And, much like its contemporaries, Chinese dynasties eventually phased out many of the most violent penalties. However, as records indicate, some aspects of corporal punishment persisted\u2014at the very least until between the Yuan and Ming dynasties, according to the study.<\/p>\n Marked for life Previous archaeological discoveries have suggested people survived these painful procedures, Wang explained. For instance, Wang was previously involved in the discovery<\/a> of two ancient Chinese skeletons with amputated legs. Sima Qian<\/a>, a legendary historian from the Han Dynasty, was apparently castrated and survived to tell the tale.<\/p>\n \u201cThus, we believed there was a patient care procedure for post-publishment management to stop bleeding, prevent infection, and reduce pain,\u201d Wang explained. Accordingly, this woman \u201cshould have received a certain level of medical and health management to stop bleeding, prevent infection, and increase survivability.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, signs of healing and bone spurs around the skeleton\u2019s nose-sized holes support this idea, as well as the interpretation that the injury happened while the woman was alive. The individual was also buried facing down with just a bronze hairpin and not inside a family or communal tomb, Wang added. This likely means she was \u201ccast away after death,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The mystery ensues <\/p>\n However, Wang noted that the study had a couple of limitations. For one, it\u2019s currently impossible to conduct a comparative study of the skeleton, as\u2014assuming the team\u2019s interpretation is correct\u2014this finding is the only known case of nasal amputation in China. The grave also didn\u2019t have a headstone or inscriptions, and the medical literature from the Yuan Dynasty is limited.<\/p>\n These represent hurdles to locking down the exact details of the woman\u2019s life or the medical procedures that helped her survive after her surgery, Wang said. But the discovery is part of a larger project, he added, so there\u2019s a chance we\u2019ll find more avenues for research in this area.<\/p>\n \u201cMany more skeletons will be screened in the future for diseases and trauma,\u201d he concluded. \u201cHopefully there will be more similar cases to be found in the future in a clearer archaeological context.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Literary records indicate that ancient China had five types of physical penalties. These included nasal amputation, although researchers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":856012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[224381,18380,79],"class_list":["post-856011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ancient-china","tag-archaeology","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=856011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Sima](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/sima-qian.jpg\")
Sima Qian was reportedly castrated and lived to complete his iconic historical volumes. \u00a9 Wikimedia Commons <\/p>\n![\"Tomb](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/tomb-nasal-amputation-e1790019242458-1280x684.jpg\")
The tomb and skeletons at the Sanzhiyuan site. \u00a9 Wang et al., 2026 <\/p>\n