Casting a lasting shadow

In spite of its unique characteristics, Shang civilization also demonstrates similarities with other ancient civilizations of its time, as an exhibition at the museum explains.

For example, the Kassite people living in Mesopotamia also had traditions involving burial chariots, building shrines and ideographic writing. India, during the early Vedic period, revealed similar settlements based on agriculture.

Ancient Egypt echoes the light of Shang civilization with its extraordinary understanding of astronomy, urban planning and construction, as pharaoh Ramses II and king Wu Ding were contemporaries, ruling their respective lands around the same era. Documentation found in Mycenaean Greece also tells of its tradition of paying tribute in bronze.

Chen therefore expects the new museum at Yinxu to be a hub, promoting international academic cooperation on studies of the Shang to broaden understanding of civilizations elsewhere, as well as exchanges of cultural heritage conservation.

Many renowned institutions around the world, including the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Freer Gallery of Art, the University of British Columbia, the University of Chicago, among others, have already contributed their resources for construction of the new museum.

"Shang is a witness to the diversity of human civilization," He says. "We also expect to one day organize a large-scale, comprehensive exhibition on Shang featuring collections of exhibits from both home and abroad."

An international database will also be established within the Yinxu Museum to facilitate digitized "returning" and studies of oracle bones that were scattered across the world.

"At the beginning of excavations at Yinxu almost a century ago, Chinese archaeologists expected to set up a large museum on the site to preserve and keep whatever was unearthed at the site in China," Chen says, emotionally. "The dream has lasted for generations, and, finally, it now comes true."