A gruesome sight has met archaeologists engaged in excavations in central China - an altar devoted to human sacrifice, complete with the remains of an unfortunate victim. The discovery of the 7,000-year-old cult site, near Hongjiang city in Hunan province, may make it necessary to rewrite history, as it is the earliest human sacrificial site ever found in China.
     According to local media, the fact that the sacrificial venue contained the skeleton of a human left no doubt in the archaeologists' minds what its original use had been. Nearby was a separate sacrificial site for animals, with skeletons and bones of pigs, cattle, deer and tortoises.

Source: ABC News Online (18 May 2005)