Top News Henan Business Daily reporter Yang Xiao
On January 19, a reporter from the Henan Business Daily learned from the Anyang Task Force of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences that the task force had recently discovered two ditches and more than 400 sacrificial pits in the Tomb of the Yin Ruins Shang King on the north bank of the Huan River in Anyang, Henan Province, and the surrounding area.
It is understood that the east and west ditches found in this exploration are 40 meters apart. Among them, the East Wai Ditch is completely closed, surrounding the large tomb and a large number of sacrificial pits in the eastern area of the Yin Ruins King's Mausoleum, with an east-west spacing of about 246 meters, a north-south distance of about 236 meters, and a shape of nearly square. The west weigou has been found in the north, east and south sections, around the three sides of the tomb in the west area of the Wang Ling, it has been proved that the northern section is 190 meters, the eastern section is more than 230 meters, and the southern section is 90 meters.
The number of newly discovered sacrificial pits is more than 460, and the shape is basically the same as that of the Yin Ruins period in previous archaeological excavations. These sacrificial pits are mainly located in the eastern section of the Dongwei Ditch and are densely distributed in rows in some areas.
The two newly discovered ditches surround the perimeter of the Yin Shang Tomb. The northern ends of the eastern and western sections of the Dongwei Ditch are oriented to the east, consistent with the direction of the Shang Dynasty buildings found in The Yin Ruins. Niu Shishan, a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the top news Henan Business Daily reporter that the discovery extended the area of the Shang King's Tombs 100 meters to the east.
According to Niu Shishan, the current east-west width of the Shangwangling District is 450 meters, and this new discovery has expanded the scope of the Wangling District by more than 20%.
"In addition, in the range of 350 meters east of the eastern section of the East Waigou and 90 meters south of the southern section of the Wangling District, a large range of blank areas were found, and very few remains of the late Shang Dynasty were found." Niu Shishan speculated from this that not only was there a clear plan for the ShangWang Mausoleum Park, but there was also a large area outside the cemetery that was included in the buffer zone and prohibited from being occupied by ordinary people. This discovery embodies the architectural planning ideas of the Shang Dynasty on the mainland.
In addition to the ditches and sacrificial pits, archaeologists have also found a certain number of ash pits, tombs and other remains.
It is reported that the archaeological exploration work began in mid-August 2021 and is still in progress, with a total exploration area of more than 72,900 square meters. Subsequently, archaeologists will select key points for excavation research.
Editor: Li Yingxuan Liu Mengge