China Daily Global Edition (USA)
Saving the best for last
How a foiled robbery attempt led to the unexpected discovery of a tomb full of relics that shed light on a key part of Shang history, report Yang Feiyue and Sun Ruisheng in Taiyuan.
Dozens of tombs, with more than 600 artifacts of ceremonial bronze, jade, pottery and bones, have recently been shown to the public, painting a vivid picture of a dynasty that faded into history more than 3,000 years ago.
The relics were displayed by the Archaeology Institute of Shanxi Province in December after years of studies at the Jiuwutou site in Wenxi county, Yuncheng city, North China’s Shanxi province.
The findings provide important clues to the study of the history, rituals, culture and political structure of the late stage of the Shang Dynasty (c. 16th century-11th century BC), according to the institute.
“The Shang political structure was a management model that centered on military strongholds,” says Wang Xiaoyi, president of the Shanxi archaeology institute.
“With the eastward and southward movement of the Shang Dynasty’s power, the number and scale of settlements in the southern Shanxi area during the late Shang period declined sharply, compared with those of the early Shang, and no previous archaeological work had found large-scale late Shang sites in this region. Therefore, the appearance of the burial items at Jiuwutou is of great historical and archaeological importance,” Wang says.
It was named among the country’s top 10 archaeological findings in 2018, when the judging committee said that the discovery and excavation of the cemetery was a major breakthrough in archaeological studies of the Shang period. The committee noted that the discovery ascertained the provenance of the bronze artifacts and filled a void in late Shang research in the south of Shanxi. Many of the bronze items unearthed from the tombs at Jiuwutou are carved with a Chinese character that reads like ni. The same character had earlier been found etched on bronze items on display at museums at home and abroad.
However, there were few related historical accounts of ni, and people couldn’t decipher its meaning, says Ma Sheng, who was in charge of the archaeological excavation at Jiuwutou.
Until, that is, archaeologists made new discoveries over the long course of the excavations in Shanxi.
“We found the existence of Bing, Xian, Peng, Ba and other vassal states, and by the same token, Ni was also the name of a state,” Ma explains. “It was the discovery of Ni wares that lifted the veil of the mysterious Ni clan.”
The large quantity of bronze and weapons, such as battle-axes, axes, dagger-axes and arrowheads, shows the military strength of the Ni clan.
Jiuwutou was located on the western edge of the Shang territory and surrounded by mountains to the north, east and south. Today the area is at the junction of the Yuanqu, Yuncheng and Linfen basins and adjacent to rich salt and copper resources.
The “tomb masters” are believed to have played an important role in guarding the capital and transporting resources to the leading local powers during the late Shang period. All such information led to the conclusion that the Ni clan was made of high-class nobles, appointed by the Shang king, to rule the state of Ni in Jiuwutou. Yet, the excavation of Jiuwutou only started after the site had been robbed many times.
In the second half of 2014, a gang of five “tomb raiders” ransacked an ancient tomb at the site, and each acquired a share of 20 bronze artifacts, while the remaining loot was sold for 4.3 million yuan ($615,800).
A second gang was encouraged to try their hand at raiding the site. These two acts of robbery quickly drew the attention of a local major gang, which in May 2015 extended its interest to the Shang tomb cluster at Jiuwutou. The gang used explosives to blast its way into the tombs, and the noise eventually alerted the Wenxi county public security bureau.
After arresting several suspects, local authorities found out about the existence and value of the Jiuwutou tomb cluster. The local public security bureau wasted no time in setting up a round-the-clock protection detail at the site.
In November 2016, local cultural relics and public security departments invited experts to make a preliminary determination of the history of the site. Well-known domestic archaeologists, such as Li Boqian, Liu Xu and Zhu Fenghan, investigated the area and concluded that the tomb cluster might belong to a high-ranking official of the late Shang Dynasty and should be protected and excavated as soon as possible.
“At that time, the site was riddled with holes made by the robbers during their ‘exploration’ of the tombs,” says Duan Linhui, an official of the Wenxi public security bureau, adding that they were so numerous, when those arrested were brought to the scene, even they were unable to identify which holes they had made.
Due to the seriousness of the theft, a rescue excavation was approved by the National Cultural Heritage Administration. It was launched in June 2017 by the Shanxi archaeology institute in cooperation with archaeologists from Yuncheng city and Wenxi county.
Ma, who was in charge of the excavation, recalls the first time he saw the site. “There were more than a dozen large and small holes on the surface through which robbers got in, some of which were made with explosives,” Ma says. “Everyone was overwhelmed by a sense of frustration, despair and anger.”
As archaeologists speculated, several tombs within the complex were left empty, with only a few fragments of pottery and bronze remaining, causing irreversible damage to archaeological and historical research.
It was in October 2017 when the excavation team came upon a tomb in the easternmost part of the site that had not been damaged by robbers. As the team meticulously cleaned it up, the tomb turned out to be big, featuring sacrificial animals and a pit with chariots and horses.
Judging by the shape of the tomb, and those of the excavated ornaments and bronze items, archaeologists were able to ascertain that the site was from the late Shang Dynasty, exactly as experts had predicted during the preliminary investigation.
“This made everyone exceptionally excited, because in the southern Shanxi region, the late Shang period had remained a blank spot,” says Bai Shuzhang, an expert who joined the excavation.
Most importantly, a large number of complete bronze items were unearthed in the tomb, which undoubtedly highlights the dignified status of the tomb owner.
“Everyone agreed that it was possible that the owner of the tomb was a person from the same clan as the Shang king who was sent to establish his own territory here,” Bai says.
The excavation work was completed in December 2018 and eventually uncovered 12 tombs from the late Shang Dynasty, which led to the discovery of more than 600 bronze, jade, ceramic and bone artifacts in an area of more than 5,000 square meters.
At the same time, the Shanxi authorities launched a three-year fight against the theft of cultural relics and managed to retrieve 29 of the stolen historical items, all of which were identified by archaeologists as being from Jiuwutou.
“The recovery of the artifacts has made the historical information of the Jiuwutou tomb site nearly complete,” Wang says.
“When they make their way to the museums, they will be opening a window through which the public can view and understand the material civilization and social circumstances of the time back then.”