New museum displays best of Shang Dynasty

A new museum opened its doors to the public on Monday in Anyang, Henan province, presenting the brilliance of the 3,000-year-old Shang civilization. The new building of the Yinxu Museum is China's first comprehensive archaeology museum that has on display the best of the Shang Dynasty (c. 16th to 11th century BC).

Nearly 4,000 unearthed cultural relics, including bronze wares, pieces of pottery, jade artifacts and oracle bones are on display in the museum. More than three quarters of these have never been publicly exhibited before.

The Yinxu Ruins, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2006, hosted a later period Shang capital city. First excavated in 1928, Yinxu is also the longest studied ancient capital city ruins in China, and is thus honored as one of the cradles of modern Chinese archaeology.

The site also yielded rich findings of 3,300-year-old oracle bones — the inscribed animal bones and tortoise shells used for fortune telling and recording events — revealing the oldest-known established writing system of Chinese characters.

When visiting the Yinxu Ruins in October 2022, President Xi Jinping pointed out that the Chinese characters are extraordinary and serve as a vital link in the development of the Chinese nation. He then urged attaching more importance to and putting more efforts into archaeological research to carry forward the project of tracing the origins of the Chinese civilization.

According to Yan Yalin, director of the archaeology department at the National Cultural Heritage Administration, many key archaeological breakthroughs were made in recent years at the Yinxu site and its surrounding areas.

For example, an urban road system and the remains of an artificial lake in the royal ancestral temple area were found. The oldest confirmed mausoleum of Shang kings was also found.

"Discoveries of many satellite settlements and large-size handicraft workshops around this metropolis further portrayed a grand picture of a capital city," Yan said.

"Through the exhibits, the public can comprehensively understand the achievements made by the Shang Dynasty in terms of politics, economy, agriculture, military affairs, among others," Yan added.

wangkaihao@chinadaily.com.cn