CNN —Ancient DNA recovered from the remains of a sixth century Chinese emperor who ruled during the country’s dark ages has shed some light on what the leader may have looked like.
Emperor Wu ruled China as part of the Northern Zhou dynasty from 560 to 580 and is credited with unifying the northern part of ancient China during a particularly chaotic period.
“Our analysis shows Emperor Wu had typical East or Northeast Asian facial characteristics.”The authors said they hoped ancient DNA might shed light on Wu’s cause of death.
The genetic analysis showed that Emperor Wu intermarried with ethnically Han Chinese, China’s dominant ethnic group today.
“It’s interesting to see the genetic study, but none of the findings of this genetic study are surprising at all,” Miller said.
Persons:
Emperor Wu, Wu, ”, Shaoqing Wen, Tobias Houlton, University of Dundee , Houlton, Jeong Hoongwon, Jeong, ” Jeong, Franks, Bryan Miller, Miller, wasn’t, ” Miller, “
Organizations:
CNN, Fudan University, University of Dundee, Seoul National University’s School of Biological Sciences, Han, Central, University of Michigan
Locations:
China, Mongolia, Shanghai, Seoul, North