Yinxu Museum, 1 Yinxu Road, North Section, Xiaotun Village, Anyang, Henan.
Anyang was the last capital of the bellicose, long-lasting and highly influential Shang Dynasty. Yinxu (the ruins of Yin) has been called ‘China’s ancient Egypt’ due to the splendid underground tombs of the Shang kings found here and filled with extraordinarily beautiful objects. The site is on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.
The marvellous underground Yinxu Museum tells the story of this ancient city – its street plans, plumbing, palaces, workshops, settlements and cemeteries. The excavated material culture is rich and varied, permitting archaeologists and historians to understand much of the social organisation of the Shang period as well as its infrastructure, culture, art and religion.
The original finds at Yinxu were incised oracle bones (once thought to be dragon bones). These ‘bones’ are actually ox scapulas and turtle carapaces (2) inscribed with paired pictographs and symbols – one for meaning, one for sound. This form of writing evolved into modern Chinese. Interestingly, these inscriptions are unique in that they often present a question, the divination and then the actual result.
