A 4,100-year-old mass grave discovered in northeast China has shed light on the largest known headhunting massacre of the country’s Neolithic period, according to a study into the remains published in September.

In a dark twist, scientists discovered that all of the victims in the village of Honghe in Heilongjiang province were women and children, which they said indicated the “cruelty of ancient warfare”.
A recent study has identified a mass grave in China as the site of the largest known headhunting massacre in Neolithic Asia, dating back approximately 4,100 years. The Honghe site, located in Northeast China’s Heilongjiang province, has been the subject of six excavations since the 1990s, with the latest revealing a gruesome scene of 41 headless skeletons.