A nine-meter wide and 280-meter long road, a house of 16 square meters, 500 tombs and a large amount of ash pits have been excavated in a large living area of the Shang Dynasty (Yin)(BC16c.-BC11c.) in Anyang City, central China's Henan Province.
It is the first time that the road of the Shang Dynasty on such a scale has been found in China. The excavation has offered precious data to the study of urban transport in the Shang Dynasty.
The tombs, located in the Guojiawan New Village, cover an area of 6.66 hectares. The road in the eastern part of the tombs has two parts. The central part of the road is a lane for chariots and horses, is wide enough to hold two carriages side by side. The two sides of the road are 1.8-meter-wide sidewalks.
Four tracks of wheels are clearly visible on the road surface. Experts gather that at that time carriages already ran in two ways, because the distance between each pair of wheel tracks is about 1.9 meters.
The excavation identified the road as one of the Shang Dynasty, on the basis of the stratigraphic analysis, ruins of cultural relics and the run of the road.
(Xinhua 12/19/2000)
