Cloudy in Beijing Blogging about my time in China

Skull in a cup

The Yinxu museum in Anyang is a bit like a haunted house.

When you enter the place, you quite literally are walking through a graveyard, since the museum was built over a group of ancient tombs and sacrificial pits.

These sites all belong to the Shang Dynasty (1600 to 1046 BC). Before 1899, the dynasty was believed to be a myth. But oracle bone findings along with excavations at Anyang proved its existence, making this city the site for one of the most significant finds in Chinese history.

What surprised me the most when visiting the museum was how human sacrifice was commonly practiced in the Shang Dynasty. Slaves or captured enemies, were often slaughtered or buried alive as offerings to protect the recently deceased. Even the living wives of dead men were known to join their husbands upon burial. Dogs, horses, chariots, and elephants would also be immolated.

Human skeletons only made up a portion of the museum. A vast variety of pottery, weapons, oracle bones and other artifacts were also on display.  But this particular relic stood out.

"Yan (a type of pot) containing human skull," read this very brief exhibit display. Makes me think living during the Shang Dynasty might have been a bit of nightmare.