Page 528 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

The Bronze Age of China

Z O U H E N G | The Bronze Age comprises three periods of Chinese history: the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynas-
ties. Archaeological investigation of the Bronze Age (sometimes referred to as "the Three Dy-
nasties") began in the 19205, but prior to 1949 no archaeological remains relating to the period
associated with the Xia culture had been found. Scholars knew of its existence from references
in historical texts; some identified the Xia culture with the Yangshao culture, while others iden-
tified it with the Longshan culture. The lack of physical evidence, however, rendered these
identifications essentially speculative.
Archaeological investigation of the Shang dynasty began with the excavation of the site
at Yinxu in Anyang, Henan province. In the course of fifteen seasons of controlled excavations,
lasting from 1928 to 1937, palace foundations and imperial mausoleums from the late Shang
period were discovered, along with thousands of inscribed oracle bones and a large number of

bronze, jade, and ceramic objects. These discoveries indicated that the capital during the late
Shang period was at the site of the present-day village of Xiaotun, Anyang, Henan province.
As for Zhou dynasty archaeology, a number of burials had been discovered in Jun, Hui, and Jin
counties, Henan province, and at Baoji, Shaanxi province, but no dwellings were found.
The archaeology of the Three Dynasties began in earnest only after 1949, but the last fifty
years have yielded an extraordinary abundance of Xia, Shang, and Zhou sites throughout the
country — and the discoveries continue. These finds have progressively resolved many scholarly
issues. The last half-century of archaeological investigation in China has been an extraordinary
time, and, particularly in respect to the work on China's Bronze Age, we may rightly call this
period the Golden Age of Chinese archaeology.

A R C H A E O L O G Y OF THE XIA DYNASTY
The earliest Chinese historical texts, such as the Shang shu (Book of documents) and the Shijing
(Classic of poetry), contain several references to the Xia dynasty. Sima Qian (145-86 BCE),
the Western Han dynasty author, described the history of the Xia dynasty in great detail and
recorded the chronology of the Xia imperial family, particularly in his Shi ji (Records of the

historian). The existence of the Xia dynasty was undeniable — at least with respect to the
written record. 1
Archaeology has provided physical corroboration of the existence of the Xia dynasty, as
it did for the Shang dynasty. Prior to the excavations at Yinxu, some scholars even doubted
whether the Shang had in fact existed; the Yinxu excavations confirmed the fact that it was a
thriving and distinct culture. Many Shang kings were named in the large number of inscribed
oracle bones discovered at Yinxu. These records of divinations conducted by the kings and
their diviners at the Shang court confirm that that the rulers named in the inscriptions by and
large correspond to those named in the chronology of the Shang imperial family recorded in
Cat. 65, detail the chapter on the Shang (Yin ben ji) of the Shi ji. The correspondence between excavated ob-

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