Shang dynasty

史The dynasty

The Shang is the earliest dynasty whose existence is unambiguous from archaeology and its own writing. The oracle bone inscriptions discovered at Anyang from 1899 onwards — incised on turtle plastrons and ox scapulae used in pyromantic divination — are the direct ancestor of modern Chinese script and the first sustained body of Chinese-language text.

Shang civilisation was urban, ritual-heavy, and technologically advanced. Bronze casting at Anyang reached a sophistication unmatched anywhere else in the contemporary world; the Tomb of Lady Hao alone yielded hundreds of bronze ritual vessels and jade and ivory artefacts when excavated intact in 1976. The Shang state was loosely-federated rather than centralised, with the king's authority projected through royal hunts, sacrificial ritual, and military campaigns against rival peoples to the west and north.

Human sacrifice was a regular feature of Shang ritual, and large-scale slave societies underpinned the production of luxury goods. The dynasty fell to the Zhou in 1046 BCE, traditionally at the Battle of Muye.