{"id":13155,"date":"2024-03-29T12:56:31","date_gmt":"2024-03-29T12:56:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/29\/chinese-researchers-use-dna-to-reconstruct-emperor-wus-face-as-study-sheds-light-on-his-death\/"},"modified":"2024-03-29T12:56:32","modified_gmt":"2024-03-29T12:56:32","slug":"chinese-researchers-use-dna-to-reconstruct-emperor-wus-face-as-study-sheds-light-on-his-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/29\/chinese-researchers-use-dna-to-reconstruct-emperor-wus-face-as-study-sheds-light-on-his-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese researchers use DNA to reconstruct Emperor Wu’s face as study sheds light on his death"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Chinese<\/div>\n
\n

Researchers have used DNA to reconstruct the face of a Chinese emperor and shed light on what might have caused his death.<\/p>\n

Emperor Wu was a ruler of the Northern Zhou dynasty in ancient China, reigning from 560 AD until 578, defeating the Northern Qi dynasty and unifying the northern part of the country.<\/p>\n

The emperor belonged to a rarely-studied nomadic group called the Xianbei that lived in modern-day Mongolia and northern and northeastern China.<\/p>\n

Almost 30 years after his tomb was discovered in northwestern China, researchers at Shanghai’s Fudan University used DNA and his nearly-complete skull to reconstruct his face in 3D.<\/p>\n

It shows the emperor had brown eyes, black hair and “dark to intermediate” skin. Researchers said the emperor “possessed a typical East or Northeast Asian appearance”.<\/p>\n

Pianpian Wei, the paper’s co-corresponding author at Fudan University, said: “Our work brought historical figures to life.<\/p>\n

“Previously people had to rely on historical records or murals to picture what ancient people looked like.<\/p>\n

“We are able to reveal the appearance of the Xianbei people directly.”<\/p>\n

Read more from Sky News:<\/strong>
‘Possible temple’ from 1,400 years ago uncovered<\/a>
‘Incredibly rare’ 5,000-year-old tomb discovered<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Emperor Wu died aged 36 and his son also died young, both for no obvious reason.<\/p>\n

Some archaeologists thought Wu died from illness, while others argued he was poisoned by his rivals.<\/p>\n

The researchers at Fudan, however, found he was at increased risk for a stroke.<\/p>\n

It’s a finding that is backed up by historical records describing him as having aphasia (a language disorder often caused by stroke), drooping eyelids and an abnormal way of walking.<\/p>\n

There was not enough evidence to confirm a stroke as the cause of his death, but it might have been a factor.<\/p>\n

The research is published in the journal Current Biology.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Researchers have used DNA to reconstruct the face of a Chinese emperor and shed light on what might have caused his death. Emperor Wu was a ruler of the Northern Zhou dynasty in ancient China, reigning from 560 AD until 578, defeating the Northern Qi dynasty and unifying the northern part of the country. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13156,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/03\/70x70\/skynews-emperor-wu-china-dna_6504092.jpg?20240329100429","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[607],"tags":[3394,1860,5721,4673,2086,4095,18617,1075,3114,250,18618],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13155"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13155"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13157,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13155\/revisions\/13157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}