Bronze age continues to astound

According to Sun, during the late Shang period, many local states appeared surrounding the central regime, with its central area located in Henan province. They had been conquered by Shang and then coexisted with the central regime by presenting tribute to it or rising in rebellions against it. Jiaguwen, or oracle bone inscriptions, the earliest known Chinese writing, record that, in the west and north of the central regime, there were nearly 70 states, but the whereabouts of them remain a mystery.

Lei Xingshan, a professor at the Capital Normal University in Beijing, points out that a grand tomb with a tomb passage often belongs to king of a state, and "when we find a tomb of this type, it almost certainly means a state has been discovered as well".

From the tombs, a large number of exquisite bronzeware, jadeware, bone artifacts, lacquerware and tortoise shells were unearthed, and are similar to those found in the past from aristocratic tombs in the Yinxu Ruins, the site of the capital of the late Shang period.

It suggests this area had been in close communication with the central regime, and showed the strong influence exerted on this area by the regime, says Sun Hua, an archaeology professor at Peking University.