Archaeologists in China have discovered Shang dynasty tombs containing more than 200 valuable grave goods. See them here

Chinese archaeologists working on the Loess Plateau in north-central China have uncovered a vast site of adobe buildings, cemeteries and bronze-casting workshops dating back to around 3,200 years ago.

The site, which spans 11 hills and is located in present-day Shaanxi province, was home to a regional power during the Shang Dynasty, a Bronze Age period spanning from 1600 to 1046 BCE. It was heralded as a major breakthrough in Shang dynasty archaeology.

Since work began in June 2022, archaeologists have discovered more than 200 grave goods. They hope to better understand the site’s political and cultural relationship to the Shang dynasty capital, Yinxu, located about 350 miles east on the banks of the Yellow River in China’s central plains.

A copper ornament with turquoise inlay found in Shaanxi province. Photo: Shaanxi Academy of Archeology on WeChat.

It is the largest such site discovered in the region and archaeologists are particularly interested in the nine tombs they have excavated which belonged to high-ranking nobility. Inside they found a multitude of valuable objects, including accessories attached to horses and chariots, a swallow-shaped ornament with turquoise encrustation, bone tools marked with animal motifs, earrings gold ears, copper arrowheads and axes, and lacquer.

This is the first time horse and chariot accessories from the late Shang dynasty have been found on the Loess Plateau and may help explain how burial customs developed. The researchers also noted considerable stylistic similarities in bronzelacquer and bone objects to those previously found at other Shang dynasty sites, including Yinxu.

A jade bird unearthed in Shaanxi province. Photo: Shaanxi Academy of Archeology on WeChat.

“Preliminary archaeological work has revealed the highly developed Bronze Civilization that existed in northern Shaanxi at the end of the Shang Dynasty, a civilization closely related to the Yinxu culture of the Central Plains, far exceeding previous understanding,” wrote Shaanxi Academy of Archeology in a post on WeChat, the all-in-one social media app in China. “The archeology of the Shang dynasty in northern Shaanxi is of great significance for exploring the political and geographical structure of the Shang dynasty.”

The Shang dynasty, which is China’s oldest with solid archaeological and textual evidence, is currently experiencing something of a renaissance of rediscovery, with the Shaanxi excavations being one of four recently explored by archaeologists. Others were discovered in the capital Beijing, Hebei province and Henan province, according to National Cultural Heritage Administration of China.

See more images of the finds below.