Xiaoshuangqiao () 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, located on the southern bank of the Suoxu River, 20 km northwest of Zhengzhou. At the centre of the site are rammed-earth foundations of palaces. To the north are sacrificial pits containing human remains. Further pits to the north and south contain the remains of sacrificial cattle. Many of the southern pits also contain remains of other animals, pottery, tools, ornaments and waste from bronze smelting. The pottery items bear symbols written by brush in red

cinnabar Cinnabar (), or cinnabarite (), from the grc, κιννάβαρι (), is the bright scarlet to brick-red form of mercury(II) sulfide (HgS). It is the most common source ore for refining elemental mercury and is the historic source for the bri ...

pigment. In all but a few cases, these symbols occur singly. A few resemble later characters for numerals, but most are pictorial, representing people, birds and various objects. Chronologically, the site falls between the

Zhengzhou Shang City The Zhengzhou Shang City () is an archaeological site of the Bronze Age Erligang culture in Zhengzhou, Henan, China. Studies give it 4 chronological phases from 1630 to 1400 BC. The excavation of the site is of great importance in understanding ...

and Huanbei near modern Anyang. Some scholars identify it with the city of Ao (隞) named as one of the capitals 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 ...

in Sima Qian's ''

Records of the Grand Historian ''Records of the Grand Historian'', also known by its Chinese name ''Shiji'', is a monumental history of China that is the first of China's 24 dynastic histories. The ''Records'' was written in the early 1st century by the ancient Chinese his ...

'' and the '' Bamboo Annals''.

References

* * {{Prehistoric cultures of China Archaeological sites in China Ancient Chinese cities Chinese architectural history Shang dynasty Buildings and structures in Henan