The tomb of Fu Hao
A Shang queen buried with 130 weapons, and the oracle bones record her leading armies.
- When
- Known to
- ± 50 years
- Era
- Iron Age, Holocene
Fu Hao, consort of King Wu Ding, appears repeatedly in the oracle bones commanding troops on campaign, conducting rituals and holding her own estate. Her tomb, found intact at Anyang in 1976, contained over 1,600 bronzes, 755 jades, 6,900 cowrie shells and sixteen sacrificed humans. It is the only undisturbed Shang royal burial ever excavated, and it corroborates the written record about a specific named individual.