Reports on the excavations at Xiaoshuangqiao in Zhengzhou 1990~2000

Abstract
    The investigation and excavation of Xiaoshuangqiao Site started in Dec. 1989, carried out by Henan Provincial Institute of Antiquity and Archaeology ( HPIAA) . The locality of the Site is 20 kilometers northwest of Zhengzhou, the capital city of Henan Province, central China. At the northwest of the site is the Suoxu River. In the light of the latest data from the " Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties Chronology Project" , the absolute dating of Xiaoshuangqiao Site can be affirmed in 1435 ~ 1412 BC, more than 3, 400 years. And according to the freshly results from materials clearing up, the coverage of the whole site is over 1, 400, 000 square meters and the shape is a rectangular piece with a longer side from north to south.
    Xiaoshuangqiao Site had been elected as one of the Top 10 National Discoveries of Archaeology in 1995.
    In the past 2 decades, HPIAA already seized a large mount of first-hand material about Xiaoshuangqiao Site through several times serial excavations in such a great area in 1989, 1990, and 1995 to 2000. Unexpectedly, work on this report has been made much immeasurable harder than it might have been, we need to clear up and re-research on such abundant materials over 10 years and gathering from different persons to ensure the facticity and continuity of the report. At last, it has been accomplished in Dec. 2008. In accordance with new results on systematically and comprehensively cleaning up, we got preliminary impression and understanding about the importance of the site in the study of Shang Period.
    Xiaoshuangqiao Site is a key point to the culture of Mid-Shang Dynasty, and its vital significance has brightly more in recent years. It is one of the most important sites besides Zhengzhou Shang Dynasty City and Yanshi Shang Dynasty City to the chronology research on Shang Period. The core area lies in the northeast site nearly 150, 000 square meters with abundantly various Shang Period remains and the excavations in the past mainly focused on this area where unearthed a lot of valuable research material. Seriously researched on the material subsequently, a summing-up can be gotten that Xiaoshuangqiao Site might be the capital city "Ao" of Zhongding, the 11th King of Shang Dynasty, or the complex of royal palaces and the royal ancestral temples' ruin. Surely it has a great status in the evolution of the research on Shang Dynasty especially on Mid-Shang Dynasty.
    In this report, such a critical site is introduced via 7 chapters:
    First and foremost, the general picture of Xiaoshuangqiao Site will be given in Chapter 1 as the beginning of the report.  The discovery, the appearance, the developing phases in the history of Xiaoshuangqiao Village, the natural scenes, and the main different schools about the site in newly research will be detailed in this chapter. The lasting time of Xiaoshuangqiao Site is not very long even maybe no more than 30 years, but the various phenomenons accumulating in the site are the very typical relic existences of Mid-Shang Dynasty. And the most clearly evidence reasoned in the 3rd and 4th Chapters is the stratification and the obvious pottery or earth wares.
    Both the 2nd and 3rd Chapters are on the general ideas about the archaeological works in the past 2 decades like investigations and excavations. In this part, the work on the site will be fully portrayed in order to expose the site completely. The one which should be especially mentioned here is the excavations of the Zhoubo's tomb. Zhoubo was one of the famous premiers of Han Dynasty, and the highly hammer plat was thought to be the tomb buried with his clothes in the past thousand years. Investigating and drilling several times, we found a lot of baked soil on the top of the plate. Combining with other findings, we denied the possibility that it is the tomb and got new result that it maybe the special sacrificial relics where the aristocratic was worshiping the Heaven, the Earth and the ancestors in the Shang Dynasty, and it can be called "fanchai" in Chinese. And there are also many valuable findings unearthed in different years showing up in this part, from the sophisticate bronzing structure fittings to earth wares and initial porcelains.
    The situation of sub-areas and the stratification of the layers of Xiaoshuangqiao Site will be particularly displayed in the 3rd Chapter. The principle of dispatching the site and what we did in the past will be expressed circumstantially. And the stratification of the layer of Xiaoshuangqiao Site was doing as finely and delicately as possible to obtain reliable materials.
    Most importantly, the main body of the report, the 4th and 5th Chapters, is the minute and exact introduction about the relics and the findings in the light of results of stratigraphy and typological sequences theories practicing in Xiaoshuangqiao Site. In the 4 Chapter, the relics will be classified into several styles, including sacrificial relics, beast remains pits, wares pits, bronzes-smelting ruins and so on. Some remains will be deeply classified into different styles. Moreover each style will set a large amount of examples and we tried to set typical samples well preserved as many as possible to illustrate the real state of the site revealing the sacrificial situation of the Mid-Shang Dynasty thoroughly. In addition, we also introduced a lot of excavated bones dispelling randomly in the pits, most of them were used for special purposes, possibly for sacrifice.
    The 5th Chapter was mainly focused on the artifacts unearthed in Xiaoshuangqiao Site over past 2 decades and emphased the unearthed wares with different styles and usages which displayed the daily life of the common people and the mental ideas about the live and death. Pottery artifacts, as the classical standard, are also the certificates in judging the date of Xiaoshuangqiao Site in our report. In this part, abundant pictures drawn by hands and plates and photographs are accompanied with our descriptions, and they are the directly visual evidences in all expressional way.
    The 6th  Chapter may be the most interesting one in this report for the magic cinnabar inscriptions and the engraved symbols which are earlier than Oracle Inscriptions and Bronze Writings of the Late-Shang Period on the surfaces of big vats displaying the great possibility that they are the beginning of the Chinese characters with its unique calligraphy. Even some of the writing or engraving words, or say, the characters are so matured that they can be distinguished or read at once by archaeologists or skilled stuffs, but majority of them are obscure and need deeply research by the linguistics. In order to study in the future more easily and to help readers to know completely, we illustrated all of the characters in tables of our report.
    The last chapter is the conclusion discussing several important issues about sites such as the achievements of the excavations and the relationship of Xiaoshuangqiao Site, Zhengzhou Shang City and Yanshi Shang City, etc. Especially, the nature of Xiaoshuangqiao Site is the hot topic of different schools discussing and disputing for a long time, some hold the idea that it is the capital city of the king of Zhongding, some suggest that it is the place where the ancestors' temples set, and many other different opinions also trying to define it from different angles and sides combining with the unearthed materials (partly of them has been published in the past) and the records of ancient masterpieces. Although there is no decision till now, the opinion " Xiaoshuangqiao Relics maybe the ruins of capital city ' Ao' flourished with the declined and the abandoned of Zhengzhou Shang Dynasty City in the Mid-Shang Period" has carried a lot of authority in Archaeology circles.
    Finally, in this part, we are trying to advance a notion "Xiaoshuangqiao Period" instead of the old " Baijiazhuang Period" , that is, the Upper Layer Phase II of the Erligang Period of the Shang Dynasty, for the typical features of the Xiaoshuangqiao Site and it witnessed the flourishing of the Mid-Shang Dynasty.   The reasons and supporting materials will be given in the last part of the report.