The farmers of the Yangshao culture buried their dead in cemeteries just outside the residential areas of their villages. Infants and children were sometimes buried in urns in or between the houses.
The dead adults were usually buried in single graves, but there were sometimes multiple burials in the same grave. The bodies were normally stretched out on their backs with their heads pointing towards the west.
Sometimes they were buried wrapped in matting shrouds. Most individuals were buried with pottery vessels and some richer individuals had beads and fine pots.
Yangshao villagers often belonged to two moieties or clans, buried in separate rows within the cemetery. At Yuanjunmiao there were fifty-seven graves, most containing the bones of several individuals. The population of Yuanjunmiao had rather short lives, over a third dying before they were 15 and most of the others being dead by 40.
