Protection Top Priority for Yinxu Ruins

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, May 08, 2002

Protection Top Priority for Yinxu Ruins

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Anyang, Henan Province: Archaeologist Zheng Zhenmei remembers the disappointment back in 1976 after she and her excavation team had dug a giant hole more than 6.4 metres into the ground, deeper than the underground water level. But no tomb appeared.

So Zheng decided to use her last option, and her team pushed the two-metre-long spade into the hard soil from the centre of the hole, at the risk of damaging possible contents inside the tomb.

This time, the spade sank into the soil. "Everyone was overjoyed the moment we saw the spade sink in, which indicates the tomb has never been robbed and thus has vacant space inside," recalled Zheng, now 74, who works for the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

Water rushed out of the hole as team members jumped into the ancient tomb, where the freezing water came up to their waists.

From the dark water, they brought up bronze weapons and ritual vessels, jade statues, bone necklaces and skeletons of sacrificial men and women.

More than 2,000 artifacts were found in the tomb, which belonged to Fu Hao, a legendary woman general of the Shang Dynasty (16th - 11th centuries BC).

The excavation of Fu Hao's tomb in 1976 was a major archaeological finding made at Yinxu, the last capital of the Shang Dynasty and the most important Bronze Age site in East Asia after the founding of New China in 1949.

The tomb, hidden beneath a palace and built without passages, was among the very few tombs at Yinxu which had not been visited by tomb-raiders.

The site at Yinxu was where 12 kings of eight generations maintained their rule for less than 280 years starting from the early 11th century BC, in the nation's earliest documented dynastic rule.

However, following the dynasty's collapse, the site was robbed many times, according to ancient Chinese history.

None of the 11 royal tombs unearthed in Yinxu between 1928 and 1937 had the good fortune to evade tomb-raiders. The number of artifacts found in those tombs added up to even less than the number of artifacts found in Fu Hao's tomb.

Cultural heritage bid

Strong punitive measures have been carried out against tomb-raiders since 1949, and local residents have launched their own investigation teams to protect the treasures beneath their feet.

Today, the local government is carrying out arguably the largest protection project of Yinxu since the discovery of oracle bones in 1899.

Both local officials and residents hope to make a plausible argument to the United Nations' Education, Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO) for placing the site on the World Cultural Heritage List next year.

"Yinxu occupies an indisputable status in Chinese culture and history," said Xiao Jiye, vice-mayor of Anyang, Central China's Henan Province, where Yinxu is located. "What we have to do now is to improve our work on its protection and display."

Yinxu, covering about 24 square kilometres, has a small stream running through it. Scattered across the river are over 50 foundations of ancient palaces and royal ancestral shrines, as well as royal tombs, clan villages, family tombs and craft workshops.

The site has remained a haven for historians and archaeologists in their research. For example, residential and workshop areas at the site contain rich evidence of jade carvings, bronze casting, pottery making and bone carving.

On the north bank of the river is the oldest and most integral royal cemetery area ever discovered in China. So far, 13 royal tombs have been excavated in the area, the largest of them being 10 metres deep.

But the most important discovery at Yinxu may be the ancient pictographs inscribed on tortoise shells and bovine bones. Called jiaguwen, the oracle bone inscriptions represent the earliest Chinese written language. The modern Chinese characters in use today have evolved directly from the inscribed pictographs.

The rich ancient writing is the only one of the four ancient written languages in the world that did not vanish. It continues to be used by 1.2 billion people after 3,000 years of development.

However, to place Yinxu on the World Cultural Heritage List, the local government and local people must work extremely hard to show their resolve to better protect the ruins and improve the museum for visitors.

Until last year, houses had been built in some parts of Yinxu, and the roads leading to Yinxu were full of bumps and holes.

What's more, there was no proper museum to display the unearthed artifacts and the sites under excavation lacked official signs.

Last year, visitors to Yinxu saw a vast area of yellow soil, since all the excavated tombs had been covered with soil for better protection.

Protection plans

Xiao pledged that Anyang will invest a total of 200 million yuan (US$24 million) to demolish illegal construction, build museums and improve roads at Yinxu this year.

Enterprises and government offices at the site will move out this year, according to a special regulation recently published by the provincial government of Henan. Moreover, a Yinxu museum has been constructed and is to be enlarged.

And a protective house has been built above Fu Hao's tomb, which has been restored for visitors. On display are a pit of tortoise plastrons and ox shoulder blades, a giant royal tomb, sacrificial pits and six chariot pits.

In the palace and ancestral shrine area of Yinxu, grass and flowers are planted to mark the sites. The road leading to the area is under construction.

"This autumn, you can see Yinxu as a great park covering 414 hectares," said Xiao.

But there can be further improvements. "What they need in Yinxu is a good curator," said Andrej Mrevlje, a Slovenian visitor to Yinxu.

"The oracle bone inscriptions are very abstract concepts to foreigners, and a good curator will show how important the oracles and the site are, through illustrations, videos and audio guides," he added.

"Now we realize that the protection level weighs so much in the application that it's almost equally important with the relic's historical value," said Xiao.

His remarks show that Chinese cultural relic administrators are becoming more aware of the importance of protection, especially after UNESCO's warnings to the Wulingyuan National Park in Central China's Hunan Province and to the Chengde Royal Summer Resort in North China's Hebei Province last year.

Both of those sites, which have been placed on the World Cultural Heritage List, were given yellow cards for excessive tourism exploitation.

The warnings were followed by the launching of protection projects carried out in many of the World Cultural Heritages in China, such as Lijiang in Southwest China's Yunnan Province and the Leshan Great Buddha in Southwest China's Sichuan Province.

The UNESCO report of 2001 shows that most World Cultural Heritages in China are well protected but the conditions of some sites are worrisome.

For example, the number of tourists to the water town of Zhouzhuang in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province, exceeded 30,000 on May 1, and hundreds of cars waited in long queues before the entrance to the small town.

It took visitors more than 10 minutes to cross the three-metre-long Double Bridge in Zhouzhuang, according to the Suzhou-based newspaper, Gusu Evening.

"It is more of a responsibility than a privilege to be a World Cultural Heritage," said Xie Ninggao, a professor at Peking University.

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