New museum to display best of Shang civilization

A new museum will soon open in Anyang, Henan province, to display the brilliance of the 3,000-year-old Shang civilization, the National Cultural Heritage Administration announced at a news conference in Beijing on Monday.

The Yinxu Museum, which will open to public on Feb 26, is China's first comprehensive archaeology museum that will unveil the panorama of the Shang Dynasty (c.16th to 11th century BC).

Online reservation for the new museum will open on Thursday through its official website ayyx.com.

Nearly 4,000 unearthed cultural relics, including bronze wares, pieces of pottery, jade artifacts and oracle bones will be displayed in the museum. More than three quarters of these have never been publicly exhibited before.

The Yinxu Ruins, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2006, hosted a later period Shang capital city. First excavated in 1928, Yinxu has also been the longest studied ancient capital city ruins in China, and is thus honored as one of the cradles of modern Chinese archaeology.

Some of the Shang civilization artifacts that will be on display at the new Yinxu Museum in Anyang, Henan province. The museum will open to public on Monday. (Photo provided to China Daily)

The site also yielded rich findings of 3,300-year-old oracle bones — the inscribed animal bones and tortoise shells used for fortunetelling and recording events — revealing the oldest-known established writing system of Chinese characters.

When visiting the Yinxu Ruins in October 2022, President Xi Jinping pointed out that the Chinese characters are extraordinary and serve as a vital link in the development of the Chinese nation. He then urged attaching more importance to and putting more efforts into archaeological research to carry forward the project of tracing the origins of the Chinese civilization.

According to Yan Yalin, director of the archaeology department at the National Cultural Heritage Administration, many key archaeological breakthroughs were made in recent years at the Yinxu site and its surrounding areas.

For example, an urban road system and the remains of an artificial lake in the royal ancestral temple area were found. The oldest confirmed mausoleum of Shang kings was also found.

"Discoveries of many satellite settlements and large-size handicraft workshops around this metropolis further portrayed a grand picture of a capital city," Yan said.

The 23 chariots unearthed from Yinxu will be the highlights in the new galleries. Legendary Shang general Ya Zhang's life will be reflected through a whole set of objects excavated from his tomb.

Also on display will be Shang relics collected from across the rest of present-day China.