Orthophoto of sacrificial ditch G3. Courtesy of Anyang Workstation, Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
On January 10, the reporter learned that the Anyang team of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences recently discovered a large sacrificial remains of the Yinxu period in the southeast corner of Huanbei, numbered G3, which is rare in the excavation process of Yinxu for more than 90 years.
It is reported that the large-scale sacrificial behavior of the sacrificial ditch is relatively rare in the Shang and Zhou ruins that have been discovered. In order to restore the process of sacrificial behavior, this excavation adopts a refined excavation and extraction method. Because the number of bones is large, and there is a superimposed relationship between each other, all animal bones are numbered and identified layer by layer, the uppermost skeleton has been numbered to No. 848, and the bones under the superposition are numbered as "0-xx, 1-xx, 2-xx" and so on in order according to the layers, and the on-site three-dimensional modeling is carried out before each layer is extracted, and the number of each bone is noted on the exported orthophoto. During the extraction process, archaeologists recorded the number, species, bone name, degree of completeness, and healing status of each skeleton.
From the perspective of the form and type of sacrifice, the type, scale, quantity and sacrifice method of the G3 sacrifice remains have not been seen in the previous excavations of Yinxu. In particular, the possible phenomena of burning, smoking, and ceremonial shooting have enriched the sacrificial methods of the Yinxu period.
From the perspective of the nature of Guocheng in Huanbei, the formation time of G3 sacrificial remains is later than that of L2. L2 is a road formed in the moat after the abandonment of the moat, which is formed by repeatedly stacking very dense road soil and silt until the mouth of the moat. This stratigraphic relationship provides evidence for judging the nature of the ** moat in Huanbei.
According to reports, the archaeological work is still not completed, and the drilling on the north and south sides of the sacrificial ditch can also find traces of animal bones, and the actual length and sacrifice methods and objects still need to be further confirmed.