Zhengzhou Shang City


The Zhengzhou Shang City is an archaeological site in Zhengzhou, Henan, China. Based upon examination of the soil in the walls of the site, it was built about 3,570 years ago, during the early Shang dynasty. The excavation of the site is of great importance in understanding the history of Shang dynasty.

Excavations

Archaeologist Han Weizhou discovered the site in 1950. In the spring of 1951, a group of archaeologists from the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Sciences came to research in Zhengzhou. They collected some specimens and confirmed that it was indeed of Shang dynasty, and older than the Shang city of Yinxu in Anyang.
Erligang is the type site of Erligang culture. This is the area located outside the giant walls of the ancient city. Starting in 1952, the first formal archaeological excavations at Erligang began. Also the east area of Luoyang was explored. In 1954, the archaeologist An Jinhuai and staff conducted a large-scale excavation in this area. The site of the city walls was identified to be of Shang dynasty in 1955. The living area of the royal families was found in the northeast part of Shang City. The excavation was forced to stop because of the Cultural Revolution.
In 1971, An Jinhuai reorganized the archaeological group to continue excavations when he had a chance to go back to Zhengzhou. In 1973, they found ruins of many buildings of differing sizes made of hangtu. This turned out to be the palace area. Archaeologists found numerous other sites in this area. The excavations are difficult because the modern city covers most of the ancient city area.

Layout

The city was in a rectangular form. And the perimeter of the city walls is 6960 meters with 11 gaps that might be city gates. The wall of the north city was about 1690 meters. The west one was about 1870 meters while the south one and east one were both 1700 meters. The base width of the wall was around 20 meters. The top width was more than 5 meters and it might be about 10 meters when it was built. The palaces were located in the northeast of the city, and inside there were facilities to store water made of stones. There were also some small buildings. They were considered to be the places where the slaves lived. People also found the living area of civilians inside the city. There was an agricultural land, and that was a characteristic of early cities. Out of city, there was a site of handiwork workshop.