Henan Museum launches the first academic lecture of 2023：“New archaeological discoveries on Yin Ruins” by He Yuling

On February 6, Henan Museum launched its first academic lecture of the new year 2023, and He Yuling, deputy chief of Anyang workstation, Institute of Archaeology CASS(Chinese Academy of Social ) , was invited to lecture on “New archaeological discoveries on Yin Ruins”, by which he introduced the main archaeological achievements on Yin Ruins and its surrounding area over the past decade.

Beginning with the background information on archaeological excavation of Yin Ruins, he stressed that the archeology at Yin Ruins should be integrated into the overall research on the process of the early Chinese civilization, which features “from the known to the unknown”, meanwhile, he also considered Yin Ruins as the origin and foundation to explore China’s over 5000-year civilization. Then he specifically discussed the periodization of “middle Shang dynasty” from several aspects including basic appearance of Shang dynasty, research history on the lineage of kings in Shang dynasty as well as archaeological research, in addition, he had an interpretation on the archaeological excavation of Shang dynasty city Huanbei(middle Shang dynasty) and Yin Ruins(late Shang dynasty) in depth.

As He Yuling mentions, archaeological work with the huge responsibility is an important public and cultural undertakings, also a significant social and political work. Due to the discovery of the oracle bones in the Yin Ruins which is labeled as the cradle of Chinese archaeological, the history of China was brought backward to one thousand years earlier than previously believed. The charms of archaeology are solving the riddles, just like the detectives, making a painstaking investigation of history, reasoning step by step, this process of solving the mystery of history, let the culture continue diffusing to the outside, absorption and fusion inside. Thereby, Chinese culture is endless.

Ma Xiaolin, director of the Henan Museum, said that the comprehensiveness and meticulousness of the lecture made audience have a further understanding of the Yin Ruins, and the civilization of the Yin Ruins attests to the diversity and inclusiveness of Chinese civilization.