HISTORY
ANCIENT CHINESE WARRIORS WERE BURIED ALIVE
WORDS TOM METCALFE
A view of the city of Anyang in the Chinese province of Henan
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The 3,000-year-old tombs of a wealthy clan, including the remains of warriors and warhorses that seem to have been sacrificed at their funerals, have been unearthed in an ancient capital city of China. The complex of 24 tombs was discovered at an archaeological site within the city of Anyang in Henan province, less than two miles from the UNESCO World Heritage archaeological site of Yinxu at the city’s centre. The ruins there are from the ancient city of Yin, the capital of the Shang dynasty, which ruled between around 1600 BCE to 1046 BCE, the earliest dynasty ever recorded in China.