The World Heritage Committee will discuss in July whether the 3,000-year-old Yin Ruins in central China's Anyang City should be listed as a world heritage site, said a top official from Anyang on Sunday.

"The Yin Ruins are expected to be included in the list of world cultural heritage sites this year," Jin Suidong, secretary of the Anyang municipal committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), said at a forum on Yin Ruins held in Beijing, according to report of China Youth Daily.

The Yin ruins were discovered in 1899 in Anyang, capital of the Shang Dynasty (1600 BC-1100 BC). Yin was the ancient name for the Shang Dynasty.

Excavations at Yin Ruins have revealed tombs, palace and temple foundations along with, bronze ware, jade carvings, lacquer, white carved ceramics, green-glazed china, and oracle bones.

One of the major discoveries are inscribed animal bones and tortoise shells, known as oracle bones. At 3,000 years old the bones and shells, used for divination by Shang emperors, are the earliest known examples of Chinese characters.

The Standing Committee of the Henan Provincial People's Congress passed a statute protecting the Yin Ruins, Jin said.

In addition, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage has put the conservation of the Yin ruins in its 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010).
 
(Xinhua News Agency March 13, 2006)