On September 16th, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage held a regular press conference in Beijing in the third quarter to introduce the important progress of the major project “Archaeological China”. Among them, the Shang Dynasty cemetery in Shangdu Shuyuan Street, Zhengzhou, exposed a “Jin Mianju” for the first time, which was earlier than the gold mask unearthed at Sanxingdui site in the late Shang Dynasty.
Shangdu Site in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, is the capital site of the early and middle Shang Dynasty. It is generally regarded as the capital of Bo founded by Tang, the first king of the Shang Dynasty, about 3,600 years ago. From May, 2021 to August, 2022, Zhengzhou Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology discovered a high-level noble burial area in Baijiazhuang period in the middle Shang Dynasty. The burial area is located in the south of East Street, east of Zijingshan Road and north of Shuyuan Street in Zhengzhou, about 200 meters away from the south wall of Zhengzhou Mall and 450 meters away from the east wall. It is called the Shang Dynasty noble burial area of Shuyuan Street in Shangdu Ruins, Zhengzhou.
Huang Fucheng, a researcher at Zhengzhou Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, introduced that the remaining area of the cemetery is about 10,000 square meters. A total of 25 tombs have been found, of which 3 tombs have unearthed bronzes, 6 are suspected sacrificial pits, and the remaining 16 are presumed to be buried tombs.
Among them, Tomb No.2 is the tomb with the largest number of funerary objects, the richest types and the highest level found in Zhengzhou Mall. More than 200 pieces of bronze ritual vessels, weapons, jade, gold, shell coins, turquoise-inlaid ornaments and other utensils were unearthed, which fully demonstrated the high-level noble status of the tomb owner.
Among the funerary objects, the one that arouses the public’s attention most is a gold cover that has been buried for thousands of years and still shines with golden light, covering the face of the tomb owner. According to measurement, the gold-coated surface is 18.3cm long and 14.5cm wide, weighs about 40g, and contains 88% gold. This is the first time and the only time that a gold-coated surface has been found in all Shang cultural sites in China. It is also the first time that a large number of gold is used for burial in tombs.
Huang Fucheng said that the Shang Dynasty cemetery in Shangdu Shuyuan Street, Zhengzhou further enriched the content of the culture in the middle of the Shang Dynasty, and was an important evidence of the functional evolution and historical evolution of Zhengzhou Mall site. Many gold articles unearthed from the tombs of high-ranking nobles reflect the cultural exchanges and close ties between the East and the West in the Shang Dynasty.
Reporter Jiang Xiaobin