Ancient DNA Reveals Intriguing Details About Chinese Emperor

Emperor Wu ruled China as part of the Northern Zhou dynasty from 560 to 580 and is credited with unifying the northern part of ancient China during a period of particular chaos, CNN says.

Archaeologists found his tomb in northwest China in 1996. In a study published Thursday in the journal Current Biology, researchers analyzed genetic material from his remains, which included a nearly complete skull. They collected information about his appearance, health and background.

The emperor belonged to a little-studied nomadic group called the Xianbei, who lived in what is today Mongolia and northern and northeastern China. DNA sequenced genome analysis showed that Wu had brown eyes, black hair and dark to medium skin color.

“Some scientists said that the Xianbei had an ‘exotic’ appearance, such as a thick beard, high bridge of the nose and yellow hair,” said Shaoqing Wen, study co-author and associate professor at Fudan University in Shanghai, in a press release. “Our analysis shows that Emperor Wu had facial features typical of East or Northeast Asia.”

The authors said they hoped ancient DNA could shed light on the cause of Wu’s death. According to the study, the emperor died suddenly at the age of 36. Explanations for his demise put forward in historical texts include illness and deliberate poisoning.

The team was unable to find any definitive evidence as to why he died. But the researchers said they had discovered a genetic predisposition to stroke that may explain some of the symptoms historians attribute to W: drooping eyelids, blindness and impaired gait.

Archaeologists are increasingly using ancient DNA techniques to extract information from bones, teeth, artifacts and cave dirt.

The team used genetic information from the remains, including Wu’s skull, to imagine what he would have looked like, creating a 3D facial reconstruction that humanizes the little-known figure.

“The study provides an intriguing insight into the historical figure of Emperor Wu, with the facial approximations presented looking convincingly realistic,” Tobias Holton, a lecturer in craniofacial identification and forensic imaging at the University of Dundee who has worked on facial reconstructions of historical figures, said by email. mail. He did not take part in the study.

“Details of skin, hair and eye color in particular cannot be predicted from skeletal remains alone, making genetic analysis a valuable tool.”

However, the study did not provide sufficient detail on other morphological variables, such as the thickness of the skin, muscle and fat that cover the facial bones, the location and projection of the eyeballs, the shape of the eyebrows, the width of the nose and the height of the lips, factors that can be included in facial reconstruction , Houlton emphasizes.

More interesting than the emperor’s appearance was his origins from Xianbei, according to Jeong Hongwon, an associate professor at the School of Biological Sciences at Seoul National University. Zhong, who was not involved in the new study, studied the Xiongnu, a distinct nomadic empire that pushed China to build the Great Wall.

Genetic analysis has shown that Emperor Wu intermarried with ethnic Han Chinese women, the dominant ethnic group in China today.

“I think it is important to understand the elite group to which he belonged, which resulted from the merger of the Xianbei elite groups and the local Han Chinese, rather than himself,” Jeong notes in an email. “This group has rarely been studied in genetics, and this study represents one of the first such cases.”

Chong compares the Xianbei and Xiongnu to Germanic tribes such as the Franks and Goths, who took over parts of the Roman Empire after its collapse.

He said it was notable that Emperor Wu had a relatively high percentage of ancestors from the group known as ancient North Asians, given that the Xianbei had been interacting with the dominant Han dynasty Chinese for several centuries by that point.

Wu ruled during a period of Chinese history often called the “Dark Age of Chaos,” when dynasties followed each other in rapid succession, said Brian Miller, assistant professor of Central Asian art and archeology at the University of Michigan. Miller, who was not involved in the study, said it was a historical period that requires more careful study.

“It’s interesting to look at a genetic study, but none of the results of that genetic study are surprising,” Miller said. “We know that major rulers intermarried, but what about the political substrata – to what extent were lower elites allowed to intermarry? I think this is where genetics could really start to tell an interesting story.”