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Thursday, 28 January 2010
DNA tests on possible relatives may help verify grave of Cao Cao
A group of scientists from Fudan University in Shanghai have come up with a bizarre idea to verify the authenticity of a controversial ancient tomb: test the DNA of the tomb owner’s potential modern offspring.
DNA tests on possible relatives may help verify grave of Cao Cao
Fiona Tam 28 January 2010
A group of scientists from Fudan University in Shanghai have come up with a bizarre idea to verify the authenticity of a controversial ancient tomb: test the DNA of the tomb owner’s potential modern offspring.
Anthropologists from Fudan’s School of Life Sciences were widely questioned by the public yesterday after they suggested that men surnamed either Cao or Xiahou across the country submit DNA samples to verify whether a newly discovered tomb belongs to China’s legendary ruler Cao Cao.
A war of words among Chinese historians and archaeologists has broken out since officials in Henan claimed the grave of Cao Cao had been discovered last month in Anyang county. Several top anthropologists said they suspected the province had made the claim for the sake of economic benefits, especially tourism.
Cao Cao was a warlord during the Three Kingdoms period in the late second century. He has been criticised as a tyrant but also praised as a military genius and poet.
Fudan associate professor Li Hui, who thought of the DNA test idea, said it would enable scientists to determine the authenticity of the tomb. He said people surnamed Cao or Xiahou were very probably the offspring of Cao Cao.
He had contacted authorities about collecting samples from the one male and two female bodies inside the tomb to submit them for DNA testing.
“We can determine whether the tomb is Cao Cao’s if Y-chromosome characteristics from volunteers surnamed Cao or Xiahou match,” said Fudan history professor Han Sheng, also on the research team. “If none of the DNA samples share the same characteristics ... we can say it isn’t Cao Cao’s tomb.”
Yan Shi, a researcher from the Laboratory of Contemporary Anthropology at Fudan, said his team had collected 48 DNA samples from potential offspring so far. He expected two to six months would be needed to classify the DNA sequence alignment when enough samples were collected.
The logic of the process, however, is being questioned by mainland media, which says the test could prove only whether the tomb owner was a blood relative of the Cao clan rather than identify him as Cao Cao.
Experts interviewed by the Shanghai Youth Daily said they doubted whether the DNA samples collected from the tomb could be conclusive after 1,800 years.
“There are only a few bones left after numerous tomb robberies over all those centuries. It’s very likely that remains there have also be contaminated by the robbers’ DNA,” the newspaper cited an unnamed expert as saying.
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DNA tests on possible relatives may help verify grave of Cao Cao
Fiona Tam
28 January 2010
A group of scientists from Fudan University in Shanghai have come up with a bizarre idea to verify the authenticity of a controversial ancient tomb: test the DNA of the tomb owner’s potential modern offspring.
Anthropologists from Fudan’s School of Life Sciences were widely questioned by the public yesterday after they suggested that men surnamed either Cao or Xiahou across the country submit DNA samples to verify whether a newly discovered tomb belongs to China’s legendary ruler Cao Cao.
A war of words among Chinese historians and archaeologists has broken out since officials in Henan claimed the grave of Cao Cao had been discovered last month in Anyang county. Several top anthropologists said they suspected the province had made the claim for the sake of economic benefits, especially tourism.
Cao Cao was a warlord during the Three Kingdoms period in the late second century. He has been criticised as a tyrant but also praised as a military genius and poet.
Fudan associate professor Li Hui, who thought of the DNA test idea, said it would enable scientists to determine the authenticity of the tomb. He said people surnamed Cao or Xiahou were very probably the offspring of Cao Cao.
He had contacted authorities about collecting samples from the one male and two female bodies inside the tomb to submit them for DNA testing.
“We can determine whether the tomb is Cao Cao’s if Y-chromosome characteristics from volunteers surnamed Cao or Xiahou match,” said Fudan history professor Han Sheng, also on the research team. “If none of the DNA samples share the same characteristics ... we can say it isn’t Cao Cao’s tomb.”
Yan Shi, a researcher from the Laboratory of Contemporary Anthropology at Fudan, said his team had collected 48 DNA samples from potential offspring so far. He expected two to six months would be needed to classify the DNA sequence alignment when enough samples were collected.
The logic of the process, however, is being questioned by mainland media, which says the test could prove only whether the tomb owner was a blood relative of the Cao clan rather than identify him as Cao Cao.
Experts interviewed by the Shanghai Youth Daily said they doubted whether the DNA samples collected from the tomb could be conclusive after 1,800 years.
“There are only a few bones left after numerous tomb robberies over all those centuries. It’s very likely that remains there have also be contaminated by the robbers’ DNA,” the newspaper cited an unnamed expert as saying.
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