A woman who lived in China about 700 years ago had her nose cleanly sliced off, perhaps as punishment for stealing horses or cattle. She lived for at least a few years after the incident and may have worn a prosthetic nose over the hole. The archaeologists who found her remains, buried face down in a cemetery, think this may be the only known physical evidence of punitive nasal amputation from ancient China.
“I suspect she lived a difficult life, facing stigma and social challenges,” says at Harvard University, who wasn’t involved in the study. “Facial deformities can profoundly affect identity, social interaction and a person’s place within a community. In this sense, this archaeological finding connects very directly with challenges that people continue to face today.”
Ancient Chinese legal texts describe cutting off a person’s nose as one of the “Five Punishments”, along with decapitation, limb amputation, castration and facial tattooing. By the end of the , the law prescribed it mainly for theft of high-value livestock, or for repeated offenses involving the theft of less valuable animals.
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Yet despite ancient texts documenting thousands of cases, there’s never been physical evidence of it actually happening, says at Texas A&M University.
In 2018, surveys ahead of construction of a trade school in central China’s Henan province uncovered a cemetery containing 299 tombs. at the nearby Sanmenxia Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and colleagues rapidly excavated the site and stored the skeletons at Zhengzhou University. An archaeologist there, , noticed one skull had a strangely wide nasal opening with missing bone and healed edges, suggesting the woman’s nose had been cut off during life.
By 2024, Wang had joined the investigation. The researchers identified the remains as belonging to a woman by features of the pelvis and skull, while tooth wear and skeletal indicators put her age at 40 to 45. Radiocarbon dating of her right femur placed her death between 1298 and 1404, spanning the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties. The design of the tomb itself is consistent with the Yuan – the Mongol dynasty founded by Kublai Khan.
Isotope analysis of the skeletal remains suggested the woman ate mostly millet and little animal protein, consistent with relatively low socioeconomic status.
CT scans revealed that large amounts of bone and other tissue around and inside her nose had been cut away, apparently from bottom to top, says Wang. The healed and remodeled edges showed she survived for years afterwards, although probably with difficulty breathing and moving her upper lip.
The woman must have had good medical care: the fact that she survived suggests caregivers controlled bleeding, prevented infection and probably managed her pain, says Wang.
“If initially bleeding was controlled, the wound would slowly heal on its own over several months,” says Shaye.
Small lumps of extra bone – known as bone spurs – formed around the nasal opening. These could reflect chronic inflammation, but it’s also possible they chronicle pressure from an artificial nose. “This woman had a normal diet for a commoner and might have worn a nasal prosthesis to cover the scar – indicating that she tried to get back to normal life,” says Wang.
Only later, examining the lone photograph from the hasty excavation, did the team realise the woman had been buried face down, says Wang. None of the other bodies in the cemetery was buried this way. The practice is sometimes associated with punishment during the Yuan dynasty. Wang suspects she was buried isolated from her family or community, possibly face down to hide her disfigurement.
“We believed there was a discriminatory attitude,” he says. “It could be a decision of disapproval.”
Wang adds that there may be other explanations for the woman’s injury, including disease, accident or even self-mutilation. However, the researchers found no telltale signs of such alternatives. If their interpretation is correct, the skeleton provides the first physical evidence of punitive nasal amputation in ancient China.
Beyond showing that a gruesome punishment described in historical texts was actually carried out, the discovery offers a rare glimpse into how the ancient Chinese punished, treated and ultimately regarded convicted criminals, says Wang.
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2026.106031
