Huanbei () is the site of a

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

city on the northern outskirts of the modern city of Anyang in

Henan Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

province, China, discovered in 1999. The name refers to its position to the north (''běi'') of the

Huan River The Huan River (), or Anyang River (), is a river in Henan, China, and part of the Hai River basin. The river rises north of Linzhou in northwestern Henan, and joins the Wei River near Neihuang in the northeast of the province. The site of Yinx ...

. The city seems to have been burnt to the ground after 50 years of occupation, shortly before the construction on the other side of the river of the site now known as

Yinxu Yinxu (modern ; ) is the site of one of the ancient and major historical capitals of China. It is the source of the archeological discovery of oracle bones and oracle bone script, which resulted in the identification of the earliest known Chine ...

, the source of the earliest Chinese written records,

oracle bones Oracle bones () are pieces of ox scapula and turtle plastron, which were used for pyromancy – a form of divination – in ancient China, mainly during the late Shang dynasty. ''Scapulimancy'' is the correct term if ox scapulae were used for th ...

relating to the last nine kings of the

Shang dynasty The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese royal dynasty founded by Tang of Shang (Cheng Tang) that ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and ...

. Huanbei is accordingly assigned to a "Middle Shang" period. Artifacts had been recovered from the area since the 1960s. In 1999, a walled city eight feet beneath the surface was discovered in the course of a regional survey undertaken by the Institute of Archaeology at the

Chinese Academy of Social Sciences The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) is a Chinese research institute and think tank. The institution is the premier comprehensive national academic research organization in the People's Republic of China for the study in the fields of ...

and the Archaeometry Laboratory at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

. The city has since been excavated by joint teams from Institute of Archaeology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the University of Minnesota, the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, ...

and the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top thre ...

. The city has walls of pounded earth forming an approximate square oriented 13 degrees east of north, with an area of , including a palace-temple complex of . Part of the site lies under Anyang's airport, limiting the scope of excavations.

References

* * * * * * {{Prehistoric cultures of China Archaeological sites in China Ancient Chinese cities Chinese architectural history Shang dynasty Buildings and structures in Henan Anyang 14th-century BC establishments