At the beginning of 2026, a new progress made in the archaeology of Yin Xu in Anyang royal mausoleum area was announced at the 2025 Henan Archaeological Work Achievement Exchange Meeting, which attracted great attention. Three thousand years ago, the merchants of Dayi may have already had a "wildlife park" that included various rare birds and exotic animals on the Central Plains at that time. At the end of 2024, in Anyang, on the north bank of the Huan River in the royal tomb area of the Yin Ruins, the winter sun slanted into a sacrificial pit that had just been cleaned to the bottom. Li Zhipeng, a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and an animal archaeologist, squatted by the edge of the pit, leaning over a semi exposed skeleton - the contours of the skull, spine, and limbs were clearly discernible in the soil. It looks like a dog. "During the excavation, scholars who did not study animals made a preliminary inference based on their experience. Li Zhipeng remained silent and his gaze fell on a crucial part. After a few seconds, he lifted his head with a hint of excitement in his tone: "It's not a dog, it's a wolf." Inside this small sacrificial pit, there were two feline bones with wide skulls and thick and long canine teeth. Li Zhipeng quickly recognized them: "This is a tiger, and the other is a leopard." "Tigers, foxes, wolves - experts in animal research recognized these animal species, and we were all shocked." Niu Shishan, a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, recalled that afternoon when professionals from the Science and Technology Center crouched at the edge of the pit, gesturing along the outline of the bones with their fingers and pronouncing one name after another in their mouths. The others present looked at each other in confusion: How did so many wild animals appear in the sacrificial pits of the Shang Dynasty? What's even more eye opening is the complete skeleton of two pairs of holy water cows. They lay quietly at the bottom of the pit, with missing horns but intact limbs and bones. These are the only two complete surviving individuals of the Shang Dynasty's holy water buffalo known to date - the "s ì" mentioned in oracle bone inscriptions, a species that had already become extinct during the Han Dynasty. Prior to this, its image only appeared on bronze vessels - the "Niu Fang Ding" unearthed in 1935 and the only ox shaped bronze vessel discovered in the Yin Ruins, the "Ya Chang Niu Zun". At this moment, they reappear in almost complete form in the sunlight three thousand years later. In Niu Shishan's view, to some extent, they are more important cultural relics specimens than bronze ware. The "wild animals" unearthed in this batch of small and medium-sized sacrificial pits include not only holy water cows, wolves, tigers, leopards, but also deer, deer, roe deer, antelopes, wild boars, porcupines, and even birds such as swans, cranes, and geese. Some individuals have copper bell remains on their necks, which are signs of domestication. According to research, this is the earliest group of artificially raised wild animals discovered in China so far. These animals seem to be different from what was discovered before. The Yinxu Wangling District is located on the north bank of the Huan River in Anyang, Henan Province, facing the ruins of the Yinxu Palace and Ancestral Temple on the south bank of the Huan River across the river. It is the highest level sacrificial and burial site of the Shang Dynasty. In 1978, archaeologists discovered some animal worship pits here, mostly filled with horses and scattered with wild animals such as elephants and monkeys - a small number, but enough to reveal the special function of this area three thousand years ago. However, the excavation methods at that time were limited, and many questions could only be suspended. More than 40 years later, when the large-scale archaeological survey and exploration in this area resumed in 2021, the Anyang Workstation of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences discovered two trenches in the Shang Wang Mausoleum and surrounding areas of the Yin Ruins. One of the trenches is adjacent to the sacrificial pit excavated in 1978 and is almost tangent to the latter in the plane. A key question arises: Who is earlier or later, the ditch or the sacrificial pit? Is there any functional correlation between them? To determine the age of the moat, it is necessary to find geological relationships that can lock in the age, and the boundary between the sacrificial pit and the moat is precisely the key to solving this puzzle. So, Tanfang cloth was placed at that junction. On the one hand, it solves the problem of the era of ditch encirclement, while on the other hand, it uses today's means to answer questions that could not be answered back then. Today's archaeology is no longer just about excavation and dating. Ancient DNA analysis can trace the species origin of animals, isotope studies can reveal their growth environment and migration trajectory, and organic residue analysis may even restore the way animals were used in sacrificial ceremonies. A sacrificial pit was just a burial ground for a group of animals more than 40 years ago; Today, it is a multidimensional data package that can extract information such as genes, recipes, climate, royal life, religious beliefs, and more. So, the excavation began. These sacrificial pits are mostly distributed in rows in an east-west direction, divided into two types: large and medium to small. The large pit mouth is nearly square and deep, while the medium to small pit mouth is rectangular and relatively shallow. The two types of remains together reflect the complex sacrificial system of the late Shang Dynasty. We have excavated and cleared 34 new pits, and reopened 25 pits cleared in 1978. By the end of 2024, as the work approached its later stages and began to define, we found that the animals unearthed seemed to be quite different from those previously discovered, "Niu Shishan told China News Weekly. Among these bones, there is a special batch of objects that are particularly noteworthy. In the newly cleared 13 sacrificial pits, 29 bronze bells are accompanied by animal bones. Their positions are astonishingly consistent - almost every copper bell appears near the animal's neck or head. A bronze bell was unearthed from sacrificial pits such as the combination pit of holy water buffalo and porcupine in K46, the deer pit in K47, and the holy water buffalo pit in K48; Two K80 coins were unearthed from Makeng; Three wolf and large feline (leopard, tiger) combination pits were unearthed from K99, and three cow pits were unearthed from K79; Four pieces were unearthed from the K78 pit, which combines humans with large carnivorous animals (possibly tigers, leopards, or bears). K93, known as the "bird pit" by archaeologists, is scattered with bird bones of five species including swans, cranes, geese, falcons, and eagles. Unfortunately, due to poor preservation, the bones are scattered and it is impossible to distinguish how many individuals there are, and the specific binding positions of the 10 bronze bells in the pit cannot be determined. It is these exquisite copper bells that made scholars realize that the wild animals buried in the sacrificial pit were not obtained from temporary hunting. Niu Shishan, a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, confirmed this judgment from another perspective: "The probability of dogs being unearthed from Yin ruins tombs is very high, and dogs often have copper bells hanging on their necks. We have dug more, and we know that dogs must have a close relationship with humans. Dogs have been domesticated for tens of thousands of years, and people always carry them and decorate them, just like today." The same logic applies to these wild animals. What is even more intriguing is that copper bells are mostly customized and suitable for the size of animals - big animals with big bells, small animals with small bells, which further confirms that copper bells are not something that can be done on a whim, but rather details that only appear in daily breeding. There is also a more secretive evidence: almost all of these wild animals are underage individuals. None of them are adults, "Niu Shishan said. This makes one cannot help but imagine that the nobles of the Shang Dynasty began to raise these animals from a young age. At the age when they had not yet grown sharp claws, they may have once hung copper bells around their necks and played in the gardens of the Shang king, until one day they were taken into a sacrificial pit and became sacrifices to communicate with humans and gods. Maintaining an awkward posture, like rock climbing, is always exciting when archaeological discoveries are made, but the days of archaeological teams are mostly boring. Li Xiaomeng, an assistant researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, remembers only those "torturous" moments, such as confirming the opening of a pit. The filling of the sacrificial pit is too close in color to the surrounding raw soil, and the boundary is blurred to the point of headache. The only way is to sprinkle water - "spray water crazily", let the water completely seep in, make the soil completely moist, and then use a scraper to scrape the surface. The moistened soil will show a slightly reddish color, and the shape of the sacrificial pit can slowly float out. There is a pit that was scraped for three days just by scraping the surface. For the first time, Li Xiaomeng led technicians and experienced migrant workers to the battlefield, scraping out a silhouette. The second time, the intern went to scratch again and found that the scope had changed. The third time, Niu Shishan and Li Xiaomeng scraped, with a different range. Perhaps it was due to insufficient watering during the second scraping, as the soil had already dried up by the time it was scraped. Archaeology often involves this kind of thing, where no one is right or wrong, it just needs to be repeatedly verified, "Li Xiaomeng told China Newsweek. Finally, everyone decided to let the pit soak for a day, continuously watering it until the water completely seeps down, and then scraping it the next day. This time, the contour changed again, and it was exactly the same as the first time. After "tinkering" three times, the range expanded by five centimeters. The cleaning of K73 is another form of torture. This sacrificial pit is nearly 4 meters long and 2.57 meters deep, making it one of the largest pits in the Wangling District. In 1978, this pit was cleared to a depth of nearly 1.25 meters. Archaeologists at the time discovered some broken bones and speculated that the sacrificial pit may have been stolen, so excavation was stopped. The briefing at the time marked "suspected one horse bone". After re excavating in 2021, the archaeological team found that the bottom of the pit was not undisturbed soil, so they continued to dig downwards and discovered human and elephant bones at the bottom of the pit. There were copper bells under the neck of the elephant bones, which were ultimately confirmed to be a combination of three people and one elephant. Li Xiaomeng remembers that when cleaning up to the bottom, there were faint black carbonation marks in the fill soil - like mats. They didn't dare to be careless, so they put on bamboo sticks and slowly cleared away the surrounding soil. As the exposed area expanded, the scars almost covered the entire bottom of the pit. But cleaning the mat marks is an extremely laborious task: bamboo sticks must precisely avoid the surrounding bones, sometimes elephant bones or human bones are nearby, and a slight deviation may damage the remains. What's even more troublesome is that the cleaned area cannot be stepped on anymore, and the entire pit bottom can only be pushed in one direction, with very few people able to work at the same time. Archaeological team members and technicians take turns going down the pit, and Li Xiaomeng particularly admires one technician in the team, who squatted in the pit for two or three hours to clear. Li Xiaomeng should go down by herself and hold on for at most 20 minutes, otherwise her waist won't be able to handle it. When you get tired from squatting, kneel down. If you can't kneel, then squat halfway. Sometimes you step on two barely able bumps on the pit wall, keep your body half suspended, and maintain an awkward posture, like climbing a rock, slowly digging the soil. After cleaning up, my waist is no longer mine. Everyone takes turns to fight. ”Li Xiaomeng said. The scholars of the archaeological team cleared for a while, technicians and migrant workers took over, and students replaced them - like a relay, just to bring out the thin layer of bedding patterns from three thousand years ago from the soil. Under the mat, there are elephants, people, and a Shang Dynasty that we can never fully reach. And what the ancients could do was to use bamboo sticks, water, and patiently search for an opening in three days, getting closer to it bit by bit. The young elephant in K73, along with other tropical and subtropical species such as sacred water buffalo, tigers, leopards, and antelopes unearthed from sacrificial pits, creates an intriguing scene. They are not only rare birds and exotic animals kept in captivity in the Shang Wang Garden, but also opened a window for modern people to glimpse the climate and environment three thousand years ago. There have been many discussions in academia about the climate of the Shang Dynasty. There are many records of extreme weather in the passed down literature - in the late summer and early Shang Dynasty, after the Shang Tang conquered Xia, it suffered from years of severe drought, and there is even a legend of "praying for rain in mulberry forests"; At the end of the Shang Dynasty, during the reign of Emperor Wending, the Huan River experienced three blockages in one day, and the river even dried up several times at that time. Niu Shishan, a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, has also confirmed this point through years of archaeological investigations in the Yin Ruins: "We investigated water wells in the Shang Dynasty and only found water at a depth of eleven or twelve meters. By 1976, this was already a primary industrial society with a groundwater level of only six meters." These clues point to a conclusion: in the late Shang Dynasty, the Anyang area may have been in a relatively dry period. meteorology