The modern city of AnYang,
China, lies in the northern province of Henan. For centuries, its secret past lay hidden beneath the city streets, but in 1899, hundreds of
oracle bones, ornately carved tortoise shells and ox scapulas, were found, according to legend, by a doctor in search of "dragon bones" for an ill city administrator. Full scale excavations at AnYang began in 1928, and what has been revealed in the following decades is a major capital city of the
Shang Dynasty (1554 B.C. to 1045 B.C.).
AnYang was the last capital of the Shang Dynasty, and easily the most important Bronze Age site in east Asia. Since 1928, Chinese archaeologists have unearthed extensive architectural foundations, tombs, chariots, thousands of bronze vessels, almost uncountable ceramics, and about 150,000 oracle bones. The oracle bones attest to a rich written language, primarily used for divination. The occupation at AnYang includes the remains of over 50 stamp-earth foundations of temples and palaces, the largest of which measures some 230 x 130 ft. Residential and workshop areas within the city contain evidence of carving, particularly of jade; bronze casting; pottery making; and bone working. This was a sophisticated Bronze Age culture, driven by millet agriculture.
The AnYang Project
George "Rip" Rapp Jr. was kind enough to share information concerning his investigations at AnYang, part of a cooperative project between the now-defunct Archaeometry Lab of the University of Minnesota-Duluth and the Institute of Archaeology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. This project, begun in 1997 and funded by the National Science Foundation, The Luce Foundation, and the Malcolm Hewitt Wiener Foundation, involved extensive archaeological survey, including the use of core drilling, excavation, geoarchaeology, and various specialized studies in palynology, paleoethnobotany, paleopathology, DNA, and ceramic petrography. The AnYang project had a strong focus on interdisciplinary approaches to the study of human societies and landscapes during the prehistoric and early historic periods in the AnYang region; it involves both intensive and extensive archaeological survey, geoarchaeology, and various specialized studies in archaeological sciences.
Three seasons of field work were undertaken at AnYang (two in 1997, one in 1998). The fieldwork relocated many sites discovered in the 1960's and discovered dozens of new sites. Intensive survey in the spring of 1998 led to the discovery of the Huayuanzhuang site north of the Huan River. It measures up to 150 hectares in size, and is dated to the middle Shang, immediately before Yinxu--the late Shang capital, 2 miles south. This site may have been a political center during the period of middle Shang, possibly a capital city. In the spring they focused on survey methods and understanding the stratigraphy in the very large area of AnYang--indeed it may be the world's largest Bronze Age site. The 1998 fall season fell in October/November with an international symposium in late October 75th anniversary of the first scientific excavation in AnYang.
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