‘Giants’ graveyard found in China filled with 5,000-year-old skeletons nearly a FOOT taller than anybody else living locally at the time
The unusual find was made at a dig at Jiaojia village near Jinan City in eastern China's Shandong province
A GIANTS' graveyard of unusually tall and powerful people who were buried around 5,000 years ago has been uncovered by Chinese archaeologists.
Scientists working on a dig at Jiaojia village near Jinan City in eastern China's Shandong province made the incredible find.
They say that many of the men buried there were around 5ft 11in tall and some were as tall as 6ft 3in.
Although not unusually tall by modern day western standards, the men would have seemed like giants in China 5,000 years ago.
Archaeologists believe the people who lived in the village had their rich and plentiful diet to thank for their stature.
Fang Hui, head of Shandong University's school of history and culture, said millet was the major crop and people also raised pigs.
He said: "Already agricultural at that time, people had diverse and rich food resources and thus their physique changed."
The taller men were found in larger tombs, possibly because such people had a high status and were able to acquire better food.
Shandong locals believe height to be one of their defining characteristics.
Confucius (551-479 BC), a native of the region, was said to be about 1.9 metres (6ft 3ins) tall.
Official statistics back up the claim.
In 2015, the average height of men aged 18 in Shandong was 1.753 metres (5ft 9ins), compared to the national average of 1.72 meters (5ft 8ins).
Archaeologists started excavating the ruins of 104 houses, 205 graves and 20 sacrificial pits at Jiaojia village last year.
The relics are from the Longshan Culture, a late Neolithic civilisation in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, named after Mount Longshan in Zhangqiu.
MOST READ IN WORLD NEWS
Ruins of rows of houses in the area indicate that people lived quite comfortable lives, with separate bedrooms and kitchens.
Colourful pottery and jade articles have also been found, said Wang Fen, head of the Jiaojia excavation team.
The area was believed to be the political, economic and cultural centre of northern Shandong 5,000 years ago.
"Further study and excavation of the site is of great value to our understanding of the origin of culture in east China," said Zhou Xiaobo, deputy head of Shandong provincial bureau of cultural heritage.
At the weekend it was revealed that a creepy tower of skulls harvested from human sacrifices has been unearthed beneath the heart of Mexico City.
The chilling find has raised new questions about the grisly practice in the Aztec Empire after women and children were found among the hundreds embedded in the forbidding structure.
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368