Construction work uncovers buried treasures in Henan's provincial capital

However, it turns out that the site still has stories to tell. In a news conference with the National Cultural Heritage Administration in Beijing on Friday, a Shang Dynasty graveyard of social elites unearthed from Shuyuan Street of Zhengzhou was unveiled to the public.

Discovered accidentally during urban construction, the site was scrutinized by researchers of Zhengzhou Municipal Research Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology from May to August.

According to Huang Fucheng, a leading archaeologist on the site, 25 tombs, within an area of 10,000 square meters, remain intact and three of them contain bronzeware burial items.

Unlike contemporaneous discoveries in West Asia, where the bronzeware unearthed are statues or items considered to have been for daily use, Chinese bronzeware of the time was used in rituals to indicate people's high social status.