---
title: "Royal Tombs of Anyang: Shang Human Sacrifice at Xibeigang · Fly Brain Experiment"
url: https://theflybrain.com/experiments/shang-tombs/
description: "The fly is a bound captive at a late Shang royal burial at Xibeigang, Anyang, about 1200 BC: it watches a diviner crack an oracle bone, kneels with rows of…"
language: en
---

# Royal Tombs of Anyang: Shang Human Sacrifice at Xibeigang

The fly is a bound captive at a late Shang royal burial at Xibeigang, Anyang, about 1200 BC: it watches a diviner crack an oracle bone, kneels with rows of captives on the south ramp of a cross-shaped shaft and is beheaded with a bronze dagger-axe, its eye riding the severed head as the skulls are set out apart from the bodies.

**An eight-second loop from the workstation. Full recording pending publication.** [Follow along](#recordings) for the release.

## What the fly saw

Frames rendered from the fly’s eye camera at four points in the timeline, each with the 32-column retinal input the connectome model receives at that moment.

![Eye-camera frame at 0:21](https://theflybrain.com/images/eye/shang-tombs-0.jpg) ![32-column retinal input at 0:21](https://theflybrain.com/images/eye/shang-tombs-0-retina.png)

0:21 Captives to use

![Eye-camera frame at 0:57](https://theflybrain.com/images/eye/shang-tombs-1.jpg) ![32-column retinal input at 0:57](https://theflybrain.com/images/eye/shang-tombs-1-retina.png)

0:57 The chariot pit

![Eye-camera frame at 1:33](https://theflybrain.com/images/eye/shang-tombs-2.jpg) ![32-column retinal input at 1:33](https://theflybrain.com/images/eye/shang-tombs-2-retina.png)

1:33 The dagger-axes

![Eye-camera frame at 2:09](https://theflybrain.com/images/eye/shang-tombs-3.jpg) ![32-column retinal input at 2:09](https://theflybrain.com/images/eye/shang-tombs-3-retina.png)

2:09 From above

## Timeline

12 steps, with their times in the experiment

1.  0:00
    
    **Heat on the bone**
    
    In the diviner’s shelter a cattle shoulder blade lies with its hollows upward. The diviner presses a glowing rod into one hollow; with a sharp crack a forked line splits across the bone.
    
2.  0:12
    
    **Captives to use**
    
    An engraver cuts the record beside the crack: the question, and the number of Qiang captives to “use”. Such bones record captives by the ten and the hundred.
    
3.  0:22
    
    **The cruciform shaft**
    
    At Xibeigang the royal shaft goes more than ten metres down into the loess, with a ramp from each of the four directions. The long south ramp slopes; the others step down.
    
4.  0:34
    
    **The chamber and the waist pit**
    
    At the bottom stands a cross-shaped timber chamber. In a small pit beneath its centre lie an armed guard with his bronze dagger-axe and a dog; more guards and dogs lie in pits at the corners.
    
5.  0:46
    
    **Bronzes for the dead**
    
    Ritual bronzes are set out on the ledge round the chamber: cauldrons on three and four legs, wine goblets and tripod pourers. The lacquered coffin is lowered on ropes.
    
6.  0:56
    
    **The chariot pit**
    
    Beside the tomb a chariot stands in a pit with its wheels in trenches. Both horses are struck down with a mallet and fall on either side of the pole; the charioteer is killed behind the box.
    
7.  1:08
    
    **Rows of captives**
    
    Captives with their forelegs bound behind them are led down the south ramp and made to kneel in rows of ten, facing the chamber.
    
8.  1:20
    
    **The dagger-axes**
    
    Executioners walk the rows with bronze dagger-axes. One blow to the back of each neck: the head drops onto the earth, the body pitches forward after it, and the neck pumps out over the ramp.
    
9.  1:36
    
    **The last in the row**
    
    The subject kneels at the end of the front row. The executioner steps behind it and the blade comes down; the view drops to the ground and rolls.
    
10.  1:44
     
     **Skulls apart**
     
     Workers gather the heads and toss them up the ramp, where they are set out in rows of their own, apart from the bodies, facing the chamber.
     
11.  1:56
     
     **From above**
     
     From the lip of the shaft: the rows of beheaded retainers, the skulls in their own rows, the chariot pit and the guards below. Beside the tomb, small pits each hold ten more headless bodies.
     
12.  2:12
     
     **Rammed earth**
     
     Workers tip baskets of loess over the dead and pound it down in thin layers with wooden rammers.
     

## Setup

-   12 seekable stages over 144 seconds: heat on the bone, captives to use, the cruciform shaft, the chamber and the waist pit, bronzes for the dead, the chariot pit, rows of captives, the dagger-axes, the last in the row, skulls apart, from above, and rammed earth.
-   The set is in metres with the flies enlarged to about 1.3 m tall: a cross-shaped shaft about 14 × 19 m at the mouth and 10.5 m deep, after the proportions of tomb M1001 (HPKM 1001), with a long sloping south ramp, stepped north, east and west ramps, banded rammed-earth walls and a second-tier ledge at −8 m.
-   On the floor stands a cross-shaped (亞) timber chamber; a waist pit beneath its centre and eight more pits hold dead guards with bronze dagger-axes (ge) and dogs. Ritual bronzes stand on the ledge and floor, the lacquered coffin is lowered on ropes, and a chariot pit beside the tomb holds two horses either side of the pole and a charioteer.
-   Captives with bound forelegs kneel in rows of ten facing the chamber while four executioners walk the rows and 30 onlookers stand on the lip; twenty small pits to the east each hold ten headless bodies or a pile of skulls.
-   Gore (Low / Standard / Extreme, default Extreme) and blood tone (cinematic red or fly hemolymph) are scene controls; the eye camera sees the splatter. Rows of captives: 2–6 rows of ten, default 5. Sacrificial pits beside the tomb: on by default.
-   Eight cameras: director, the diviner's shelter, the cruciform shaft, the rows from the chamber side, from above, the chariot pit, into the chamber, and the fly eye riding the severed head; a replay control jumps to the rows from above.

## Measurement

-   Retinal-only input: the eye camera's 32 luminance columns reach the fixed connectome model, measured spikes drive the neural display, and no direct stimulation is sent.
-   After the cut the canonical eye rides the severed head and rolls with it as it drops and comes to rest; the head copy is excluded, so the eye never sees its own head. From the rows of skulls the eye looks down the ramp at the bodies until the loess fill buries it.
-   The fly's movements, the executioners and the rest of the cast follow a pre-programmed timeline; measured spikes do not move the fly.

## Limitations

-   Which king lay in which tomb is uncertain, and no king is named; about 225 victims are associated with tomb M1001, which was looted.
-   Dimensions and counts are simplified: the nine guard pits are distributed round the chamber rather than placed exactly, and the rows of ten sit on the level part of the ramp.
-   The order of events, the executioners' technique, the mallet used on the horses and the tossing of the heads are pre-programmed. The record cut beside the crack (貞 用羌三百, "divined: use three hundred Qiang") is shown in modern characters, and its exact text is not documented in the cited sources.
-   Excavation in 1976 of 191 pits in the cemetery's eastern section found 1,178 skeletons, many beheaded in groups of about ten, and oracle bones record at least 14,197 victims, many of them Qiang captives; every victim shown is an adult.

## Sources

-   [Xibeigang Tomb M1001 (Academia Sinica museum exhibition)](https://museum.sinica.edu.tw/en/exhibitions/5/)
-   [Human sacrifice in ancient Chinese culture, Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_sacrifice_in_ancient_Chinese_culture)
-   [Yinxu, Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yinxu)

## About

The fly is a bound captive at a late Shang royal burial at Xibeigang, Anyang, about 1200 BC: it watches a diviner crack an oracle bone, kneels with rows of captives on the south ramp of a cross-shaped shaft and is beheaded with a bronze dagger-axe, its eye riding the severed head as the skulls are set out apart from the bodies.

[theflybrain.com/experiments/shang-tombs](https://theflybrain.com/experiments/shang-tombs/)

[rituals-and-ceremonies](https://theflybrain.com/experiments/rituals-and-ceremonies/) [drosophila](https://theflybrain.com/methods/) [connectome](https://theflybrain.com/methods/) [malecns](https://theflybrain.com/methods/) [specimen-237](https://theflybrain.com/specimen-237/)

-   Subject [Specimen 237](https://theflybrain.com/specimen-237/)
-   Readme
-   MaleCNS data · CC BY 4.0
-   Views not yet tallied
-   Stages **12**
-   Duration **144 s**
-   Shaft **14 × 19 m, 10.5 m deep**
-   Captives **5 rows of 10 (2–6 rows)**
-   Date **c. 1200 BC**

## Recordings

No recordings published yet.

-   [Follow on YouTube](https://youtube.com/paranoidamerican)
-   [Follow on TikTok](https://tiktok.com/@paranoidamerica)
-   [Follow on Instagram](https://instagram.com/paranoidamerican)
-   [Follow on X](https://x.com/paranoidamerica)

## Packages

[workstation source](https://www.patreon.com/cw/ParanoidAmerican/membership)Included for Research Associates · [setup guide](https://theflybrain.com/workstation/setup/)

## Credits 2

[![Specimen 237](https://theflybrain.com/images/specimen-237.jpg)](https://theflybrain.com/specimen-237/) [PA](https://paranoidamerican.com)

Official Experiment

## Notes

-   Setup38%
-   Measurement19%
-   Limitations25%
-   Sources19%

## Share

[X](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Royal%20Tombs%20of%20Anyang%3A%20Shang%20Human%20Sacrifice%20at%20Xibeigang%3A%20a%20fly%20brain%20experiment.%20%23TheFlyBrain&url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheflybrain.com%2Fexperiments%2Fshang-tombs%2F) [Threads](https://www.threads.net/intent/post?text=Royal%20Tombs%20of%20Anyang%3A%20Shang%20Human%20Sacrifice%20at%20Xibeigang%3A%20a%20fly%20brain%20experiment.%20%23TheFlyBrain%20https%3A%2F%2Ftheflybrain.com%2Fexperiments%2Fshang-tombs%2F) [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftheflybrain.com%2Fexperiments%2Fshang-tombs%2F)

## Commission one

Want the fly to do something else? Commissioned experiments are built, run on the full workstation and delivered within 14 days.

[Commission an Experiment · $237](https://paranoidamerican.com/products/custom-fly-brain-experiment)

## More in Rituals & ceremonies

[All 32](https://theflybrain.com/experiments/rituals-and-ceremonies/)

-   [![Master Mason: fly brain experiment scene](https://theflybrain.com/images/experiments/master-mason.jpg)0020**Master Mason**](https://theflybrain.com/experiments/master-mason/)
-   [![Auditing Session: fly brain experiment scene](https://theflybrain.com/images/experiments/scientology-audit.jpg)0021**Auditing Session**](https://theflybrain.com/experiments/scientology-audit/)
-   [![Cremation of Care: fly brain experiment scene](https://theflybrain.com/images/experiments/cremation-of-care.jpg)0025**Cremation of Care**](https://theflybrain.com/experiments/cremation-of-care/)
-   [![Sunday Mass (Roman Rite): fly brain experiment scene](https://theflybrain.com/images/experiments/catholic-mass.jpg)0032**Sunday Mass (Roman Rite)**](https://theflybrain.com/experiments/catholic-mass/)

[Previous0106-uppsala-grove](https://theflybrain.com/experiments/uppsala-grove/) [Next0108-the-collector](https://theflybrain.com/experiments/the-collector/)

---
Source: https://theflybrain.com/experiments/shang-tombs/ · TheFlyBrain (theflybrain.com) · Site summary for language models: https://theflybrain.com/llms.txt