Recovering identities, preserving memories

Remembering lives

Wen said researchers have found visible bullet holes on bones, evidence of old injuries compounded by new ones, and signs of degenerative joint disease in martyrs under age 30. Such evidence reflects the harsh conditions of military operations at the time and can contribute to a fuller understanding of the martyrs' sacrifices, both for academic research and for the public.

Alongside the scientific evidence are more intimate traces of the people themselves. Personal belongings unearthed with the remains have included ink bottles, hair oil and small pendants. Such objects, the researchers said, can make the martyrs less abstract, offering glimpses of their ordinary lives and allowing people to imagine who they were beyond the battlefield.

One discovery that drew particular attention was a rabbit-shaped jade pendant unearthed at the site in Fengtai, Anhui.

In October 1948, on the eve of the Huaihai Campaign, one of the three major campaigns in the War of Liberation (1946-49), a battle took place in Fengtai to block the enemy from moving north along the river, resulting in the deaths of 14 martyrs.