Tomb of Fu Hao

This archaeological site at the ruins of the ancient Shang Dynasty capital of Yin was discovered in 1976 and identified as the final resting place of queen and military general Fu Hao, likely the Lady Hao inscribed on oracle bones by king Wu Ding and one of his many wives.

One of the best-preserved Shang royal tombs it was excavated by the Anyang Working Team of the Archaeological Institute of the Chinese Social Science Academy, extensively restored, and open to the public in 1999.

Archaeological discoveries

In 1976 archaeologists probing the area around Yinxu with a long shovel, called a Luoyang shovel, recovered some samples of red lacquer.cite web |url =http://www.cctv.com/program/travelogue/20041118/101442.shtml |title = An Yang, ancient capital of the Shang Dynasty |accessdate = August 6 |accessdaymonth = |accessmonthday = |accessyear = 2007 |author = |last = |first = |authorlink = |coauthors = |date = |year = |month = |format = |work = |publisher = China Central Television |pages = |language = English |doi = |archiveurl = |archivedate = |quote = ] The burial pit uncovered, officially titled tomb number 5, is a single pit, 5.6 meters by 4 m, just outside the main royal cemetery. The tomb has been dated to around BCE 1200 and identified, from ritual bronze inscriptions, to be that of Fu Hao.cite web |url = http://www.ancientchina.co.uk/staff/resources/background/bg7/bg7pdf.pdf |title = The Tomb of Lady Fu Hao |accessdate = August 4 |accessdaymonth = |accessmonthday = |accessyear = 2007 |author = |last = |first = |authorlink = |coauthors = |date = |year = |month = |format = |work = |publisher = British Museum |pages = |language = English |doi = |archiveurl = |archivedate = |quote = ] Keightley, David N. "Art, Ancestors, and the Origins of Writing in China," "Representations" (Number 56, Special Issue: The New Erudition, 1996): 68–95. Page 76.] Her tomb, one of the smaller tombs, is one of the best-preserved Shang Dynasty royal tombs and the only one not to have been looted before excavation.cite book
first=Patricia
last= Ebrey
year= 2006
title=The Cambridge Illustrated History of China
edition=
publisher=Cambridge University Press
location=
pages= pp 26–27
id= ISBN 0-521-43519-X ] Inside the pit was evidence of a wooden chamber 5 meters long, 3.5 m wide and 1.3 m high containing a lacquered wooden coffin that has since completely rotted away.cite web |url = http://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/archae/2fuhmain.htm |title = Shang Tomb of Fu Hao |accessdate = August 4 |accessdaymonth = |accessmonthday = |accessyear = 2007 |author = |last = Buckley Ebrey|first = Patricia |authorlink = |coauthors = |date = |year = |month = |format = |work = A Visual Sourcebook of Chinese Civilization |publisher = University of Washington |pages = |language = English |doi = |archiveurl = |archivedate = |quote = ] [* Temple, Robert. (1986). "The Genius of China: 3,000 Years of Science, Discovery, and Invention". With a forward by Joseph Needham. New York: Simon and Schuster, Inc. ISBN 0671620282. Page 75.]

The floor level housed the royal corpse and most of the utensils and implements buried with her. Rare Jade artifacts, such as those of the Liangzhu culture, were probably collected by Fu Hao as antiques and while some of the bronze artifacts were probably used by the lady and her household others inscribed with her posthumous name of Mu Xin were undoubtedly cast as grave good.cite web |url = http://www.nga.gov/education/chinatp_fu.shtm |title = Excavations at the Tomb of Fu Hao |accessdate = August 4 |accessdaymonth = |accessmonthday = |accessyear = 2007 |author = |last = |first = |authorlink = |coauthors = |date = |year = |month = |format = |work = Teaching the Golden Age of Chinese Archeology |publisher = National Gallery of Art |pages = |language = English |doi = |archiveurl = |archivedate = |quote = ] The artifacts unearthed within the grave consisted of:
*755 jade objects (including Longshan, Liangzhu, Hongshan and Shijiahe cultural artifacts)cite web |url = http://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/archae/2fuhjade.htm |title = Jade from Fu Hao's Tomb |accessdate = August 4 |accessdaymonth = |accessmonthday = |accessyear = 2007 |author = |last = Buckley Ebrey|first = Patricia |authorlink = |coauthors = |date = |year = |month = |format = |work = A Visual Sourcebook of Chinese Civilization |publisher = University of Washington |pages = |language = English |doi = |archiveurl = |archivedate = |quote = ]
*564 bone objects (including 500 hairpins and 20 arrowheads)
*468 bronze objects (including 130 weapons, 23 bells, 27 knives, 4 mirrors, and 4 tiger statues)cite web |url = http://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/archae/2fuhbron.htm |title = Bronzes from Fu Hao's Tomb |accessdate = August 4 |accessdaymonth = |accessmonthday = |accessyear = 2007 |author = |last = Buckley Ebrey|first = Patricia |authorlink = |coauthors = |date = |year = |month = |format = |work = A Visual Sourcebook of Chinese Civilization |publisher = University of Washington |pages = |language = English |doi = |archiveurl = |archivedate = |quote = ]
*63 stone objects
*11 pottery objects
*5 ivory objects
*6,900 cowry shells (Shang Dynasty currency)Below the corpse was a small pit holding the remains of six dogs, and along the edge lay the skeletons of 16 human slaves, evidence of human sacrifice.

There is also evidence above ground of a structure built over the tomb that probably served as an ancestral hall for holding memorial ceremonies; this has since been restored.cite news | first = | last = | authorlink = | author = | coauthors = | title = Lady Hao's Tomb in the Yin Ruins | url = | format =
work = | publisher = The Garden Museum of Yin Ruins | pages = | page =
date = | accessdate = | language = English | quote = Lady Hao's Tomb was a tomb of the royal family of the Yin Dynasty, which was excavated by Anyang Working Team of the Archaeological Institute of the Chinese Social Science Academy in 1976. There was a house foundation remained from the Yin Dynasty on the tomb, which was restored to be the Memorial Hall for Lady Hao during the construction of the garden museum. The coffin chamber of the tomb under the house foundation was in the shape of a small shaft with many kinds of funerary objects buried in 7 layers. There were over 1,900 pieces of objects unearthed from the tomb, including bronze vessels, jade objects, gem objects, bone implements, potteries and so on. In addition, there were over 6,880 cowry-shells as well. The coffin chamber of Lady Hao's tomb was restored in 1999. According to the epigraphs on the bronze vessels and the shapes of the objects and referring to the records concerned in the oracular inscriptions, the occupant of the tomb should be the concubine Lady Hao if the King Wuding of the Yin Dynasty. Lady Hao was the earliest woman general in China, died in the period of Wuding and was given a name of temple as Xin after her death. The discovery of Lady Hao's tomb is of important value to the research of politics, economy, culture and art, small states around, rural system, dating of the bronze vessels, ancient science and technology and so on of the Yin dynasty. ]

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