China recently unearthed again inscribed oracle bones, or inscribed
tortoise shells or animal bones, of the Shang Dynasty (c. 16th-11th
century BC) in Daxinzhuang Shang ruins, more than 100 years later
of the nation's first discovery of inscribed animal bones and
tortoise shells in Anyang City of central China's
Henan
Province.
This time's excavation area is located at the south-east of
Daxinzhuang ruins, and 30 "tanfang" (artificial pits in dimension
of 10*10 meter or 5*5 meter, as a method in archaeological works)
were excavated, said professor Fang Hui of archaeological
department of Shandong University at a news briefing on April 8,
who is in charge of the excavation work.
The inscribed bones found this time are from four "tanfang" of
Shang culture layers. Eight pieces carrying Chinese characters have
been sorted out, four of them could be pieced together into a whole
page, including 25 characters. They have been confirmed, through
the shape of bones, character and grammar, to belong to the same
group of inscriptions unearthed in Anyang City a century ago.
Judging from their location, character and other data, the
Daxinzhuang bones should be no later than the third-stage of Shang
ruins culture, about 3200 years from today.
The first discovery of Anyang inscribed bones in 1899 shocked the
world. After that archaeological workers have been searching for
similar bones out of the main area of Yin ruins, but found
nothing.
Li
Xueqin, chief scientist of the state's research project on the
history of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, was quite excited
about the discovery. "Today is very important for China's
archaeological works and studies, this is the second discovery 104
years later of the Anyang inscribed bones. This is a landmark in
China's archaeological history and will surely cast long-term
impact on studies of ancient Chinese history and oracle pieces", he
said.
Located at the Licheng district of Jinan City, Shandong
Province, the Daxinzhuang ruins is a relic of Shang culture
founded in the 1930s. Then cultural relic departments of the
province and Shandong University conducted many investigation over
the site and proved an area over 300,000 square meters, the biggest
Shang ruins known to the province.
(People's Daily April 10, 2003)