CHINA ARQUEOLOGIA golden-age-chinese-archayeolog

TOMB 5
AND OTHER
DISCOVERIES
AT XIAOTUN,
ANYANG,
HENAN PROVINCE
The Anyang excavations of 1928 -1937 created "Shang archaeology," simultaneously restoring
the second of the traditional Three Dynasties to history. 1 In conjunction with studies of the
oracle-bone inscriptions (cats. 55-56), archaeologists substantiated the last segment of Shang
dynastic history, when eight or nine self-styled kings (wang) divined at Anyang. However, the
Anyang excavations posed many questions that were unanswerable given the limited evidence:
Where had the Shang come from? How had their culture and their state developed over time?
What were their relations with other, contemporaneous groups, presumably the descendants
of the Xia and the ancestors of the Zhou?
One of the main achievements of Chinese archaeologists working since 1950 has been a
range of plausible responses to many of these important questions. We now have at least a general
understanding of the long-term growth of the culture that became the "Late Shang." Most
Chinese scholars believe that remains of the Xia have been identified at the Erlitou type site
(cats. 37-40), and many discoveries over the breadth of China proper have gone a long way
toward defining an "Early Shang culture" and the Late Shang state's position in relation
to other contemporaneous groups.
All the Anyang sites had been so badly looted that it seemed to some observers in the
19305 that the "ruins of Yin" (Yinxu) were nearly exhausted, at least with respect to the most
precious items. That expectation has been proved wrong several times, first by a large find
of oracle bones in 1973 and continuing in 1976 with the richest royal tomb ever excavated at
the site: Tomb 5. Both discoveries were made within a few steps of the Anyang Work Station,
where a permanent archaeological team assigned to the site resides. Still more recent finds,
again including oracle bones and richly furnished burials, testify to the long-term potential
for archaeology of all kinds at Anyang. 2
Subsequently known as the tomb of Fu Hao from more than one hundred inscriptions
of that name on bronze vessels, the assemblage in Tomb 5 can be dated to the reign of the first
Shang king certain to have reigned at Yin, Wu Ding (c. 1200 BCE). 3 Most scholars believe Fu
Hao was a royal consort or queen of Wu Ding — one of the king's three consorts now known
from archaeological remains; she apparently died before the king. Fu Hao is the first truly
historical Shang figure well documented both through material remains and contemporary
inscriptions. Her tomb held more than 200 bronze ritual vessels (6 of which are included in
this exhibition); about 250 other bronze objects, including bells, tools, and weapons; some
750 jades; more than 100 stone and semiprecious stone carvings; more than 560 bone carvings;
3 ivory goblets; n ceramics; and 6,800 cowries. As the only unlooted royal burial from the Shang
center at Anyang, Fu Hao's tomb has opened a unique window on the life of the Shang elite.
The assemblage of more than two hundred bronze ritual vessels found in the Fu Hao tomb
has revolutionized our understanding of Shang bronzecasting. 4 Many of the vessels, presumably
made during the lifetime of this consort, were inscribed with her name. Others bear inscriptions
indicating they were made for and belonged to other contemporary lineages and may
162 BRONZE ACE CHINA