A museum displaying bronzeware unearthed from a tomb dating back to the Shang Dynasty (16-11 BC) opened Sunday in Xingan County of Jiangxi Province, east China.
Chinese archaeologists unearthed in September 1989 more than 2,000 pieces of brass, jade, pottery, bone and porcelain from the tomb in Chengjia Village, Dayangzhou Town. The findings include more than 470 bronzeware.
The discovery of a bronze plowshare re-established the date marking the start of cultivation with the use of the plow from the Western Zhou (11-771 BC) to the Shang Dynasty, said a Chinese archaeologist.
The construction of the Dayangzhou Shang Dynasty Bronzeware Museum, which occupies an area of 1,580 square meters, costs 12 million yuan (US$1.4 million). It is part of a cultural park in Xingan County, known as "the Kingdom of bronzeware at the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River."
(Xinhua News Agency June 9, 2003)
