Spread across the north and south banks of the Huanhe River in the suburbs of Anyang, Yinxu covers about 30 square kilometers. Since it was excavated in the 1920s, Chinese archaeologists have studied the site for nearly a century, making it a sacred place for archaeological studies in the country. In 2006, Yinxu was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
In the past, archaeological work was largely carried out in the south bank area. Therefore, the team has turned its attention to the north bank since 2021, especially around the royal mausoleum area, leading to a series of new discoveries.
For example, they found two encircling ditches in the royal mausoleum area, believed to be part of a moat system designed to protect the mausoleums. This was listed as one of China's top 10 archaeological discoveries in 2022.
Continued study of the ditches led archaeologists to identify the fifth locus within the royal mausoleum area. There, they found that the western ditch had deliberately curved around some sacrificial pits, suggesting a relative chronological sequence between the two.
The team excavated the area to better understand the western ditch and its relationship with the nearby pits — work that ultimately resulted in the latest animal discoveries, says Li Xiaomeng.
Li Zhipeng says zooarchaeological research forms part of the "Yinxu traditions" that highlight multidisciplinary research in archaeological studies. As one of the earliest large-scale, systematic excavations undertaken by Chinese archaeologists, work at Yinxu helped establish the core paradigms, methods and academic foundations of modern Chinese archaeology.
"At the very beginning of the Yinxu excavations, visionary scholars like Li Ji, Liang Siyong and Shi Zhangru paid close attention to collecting animal materials and sent them to paleontologists for research," says Li Zhipeng. "That laid a solid foundation for subsequent research on animal materials at Yinxu."
Over the years, zooarchaeologists working at the Yinxu Ruins have developed a detailed understanding of how people in the late Shang Dynasty used animals. Evidence shows that pigs, dogs, cattle, sheep, and horses had already been domesticated, and that Shang society employed them in diverse and sophisticated ways.
Li Zhipeng also notes that archaeological findings do not entirely align with later historical texts. Written records suggest that during the Western Zhou period (c. 11th century–771 BC), people commonly placed animals' forelegs in tombs as funerary offerings, while Shang rituals were believed to favor rear legs — reflecting differences between Shang and Zhou ceremonial systems.
However, his research indicates that when the Shang people selected limbs from domesticated animals for burial purposes, they overwhelmingly chose the left foreleg. This pattern suggests that the use of the left foreleg was likely a standardized ritual convention. Because Zhou burials also show a preference for forelegs, the evidence points to continuity, rather than rupture, in ritual practice between the two dynasties.
"Animals were a vital resource for ancient people," says Li Zhipeng. "In life, they provided wool, milk and labor. In death, they supplied meat as food and bones as raw materials for crafting artifacts and tools."
Given the many roles animals played, research on faunal remains offers a distinctive window into Shang society, he adds.
"Even the birth of jiaguwen was closely tied to people's use of animals, as the inscribed oracle bones were often made of cow's shoulder blades and tortoise shells," he notes.
