2. The Shang City at Zhengzhou and Related Problems

Abstract

The Zhengzhou Shang dynasty site is the location of an early Shang city, vast in area and abundant in archaeological remains, which was discovered by Chinese archaeologists in the middle and lower Yellow River basin during the early fifties. Within the site there is a Shang dynasty rammed-earth wall extending north-south in a rectangular shape and having a circumference of 6960 meters. These are the earliest Shang wall remains discovered to date.

Based on the stratigraphy and vessel types discovered in the course of excavating the four sides of the wall, it is certain that this wall is slightly later than the late Erlitou period, and that construction on it began before the lower strata of the Shang Erligang period, the “Yin Ruins” at Anyang. The discovery of the Zhengzhou Shang site was definitely not accidental. It represents an important stage in the development of ancient Chinese rammed-earth wall architecture. The method of construction places it in a continuous line of development from the rammed-earth wall of the Henan area middle and late Longshan culture and the late Erlitou rammed-earth platform foundation to the rammed-earth foundations of the palaces of the Yin Ruins at Anyang.

The grand scale of the Zhengzhou Shang wall, and the fact that inside and outside the wall were found palace foundations and workshops for the production of bronze, bone, and ceramic articles as well as numerous widespread storage pits, wells, ditches, house foundations, and tombs, and that many bronze, jade, primitive porcelain, pottery, stone, bone, and clamshell artifacts have been excavated here, including also some carved ivory pieces, pottery sculpture, and inscribed bones and pottery, lead us to conclude that the Zhengzhou Shang site was one of the early Shang capitals. Whether it is to be identified as Ao or Bo we cannot now say. In any case, the discovery and excavation of this site has supplied direct evidence of the greatest importance for the history of early Shang politics, economics, cultural, and military affairs.