The Chinese government refuses to relinquish its claim to the
repatriation of an estimated 50,000 Bronze Age relics from the Yin
Ruins, including examples of the earliest written Chinese
characters, a government cultural official said?on
Thursday.
The official with the State Administration of Cultural Heritage
was speaking as the Yin Ruins were added to the World Heritage List
at a meeting of the United Nations Environmental, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage committee, in
Lithuania's capital, Vilnius.
Located in Anyang, central China's Henan Province, the Yin Ruins are the earliest
remains of an ancient capital city in China, which can be dated
back 3,300 years to the Shang Dynasty (1,600 BC to 1,100 BC), also
known as the Yin Dynasty.
Since its excavation in the early 20th Century, over 150,000
tortoise shells and animal bones bearing inscriptions that recorded
harvests, astronomical phenomena, worship rituals and wars have
been unearthed.
Tang Jigen, an archaeologist leading the research at the
Institute of Archaeology under the Chinese Academy of Social
Sciences, said at least 50,000 relics had been stolen and smuggled
abroad since the site's discovery.
In the early 20th Century, foreign missionaries and explorers
bought a large number of antiquities of Yin Ruins from the local
residents at very low prices and smuggled them to their own
countries, said Tang.
And during the wars of foreign invasion in the first half of
20th Century, the Yin Ruins suffered greater losses, Tang said.
When the Japanese army occupied Anyang in 1937, the Yin Ruins
were looted by the invaders many times, and all of the treasures
were removed to Japan, Tang said.
More than 10,000 tortoise shells are now housed in Japan, Tang
added.
He estimated that at least 80 museums, foundations, auction
agencies and private collectors all over the world had Yin
antiquities, including precious tortoise shells, and bronze,
pottery, jade, bone and stone objects.
Tang said Japan, Canada, the United States, Britain, Germany,
France, Russia and Sweden had the largest number of collection of
Yin antiquities.
Li Peisong, vice director of Museum Department of the State
Administration of Cultural Heritage, said China retained the right
under international conventions to claim the return of the
antiquities from Yin Ruins lost overseas.
Li said although the United Nations had passed conventions on
the return of relics looted during war to the original country, the
countries that benefited from war adopted an "ambiguous"
attitude.
Their reluctance to return the treasures was the major obstacle
to fulfill the conventions, Li said.
The Yin Ruins witnessed the prime of China's Bronze Age. They
are home to the biggest bronze item ever discovered, the Simuwu
Ding, an 875-kilogram four-legged pot.
Experts say some unique Chinese traditions also originated from
the Yin Ruins, like the symmetric city layout, which has been
followed by most Chinese cities, including Beijing, for more than
3,000 years.
Tang said many of the treasures collected by Japanese, Canadian
and American museums are regarded as symbols of Yin and ancient
Chinese culture.
He said the figure of 50,000 was a conservative estimate,
because many organizations and private collectors didn't publicize
their collection.
Since the founding of New China in 1949, more than 20
excavations have been carried out at a dozen different areas of the
site. Some of the findings, such as bronze items unearthed in the
1970s from the tomb of the woman general Fuhao and the oracle bones
found near Xiaotun Village, are among China's major archaeological
discoveries.
Over 60 years of excavation and study of the site have enabled
archaeologists to identify the scope and general layout of the
ruins.
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.
Li Peisong said no further excavations would be carried out at
the Yin Ruins unless there was a special reason.
Experts believed that keeping the treasures underground and
intact is the best way to preserve them.
(Xinhua News Agency July 14, 2006)
