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What can a 3,000-year-old grave tell us about life during the Shang Dynasty? In November 2000, archaeologists with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences began preliminary investigations at a site in the central Chinese province of Henan. Using a specialized tool known as the “Luoyang shovel” — an innovation of grave robbers later adopted by archaeologists — they drilled into the hard early winter earth. The object of their search? Relics connected to the ancient Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC) capital of Yinxu, near what is today the city of Anyang. They struck gold almost immediately, pinpointing a tomb that they labeled M54. With temperatures falling, the team eventually decided to postpone the tomb’s excavation until the spring thaw. But by mid-December, word of the find had begun to spread, and grave robbers had begun to circle. Worried the tomb would be looted, the archaeologists on site resolved to push ahead and salvage what they could before it was too late. It too
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