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18

Immediately after my arrival I ordered my meal, and hired a cart to Hsiao-t'un. The place is about 5 [[underline]]li[[/underline]] northwest of the city, bounded by the River Huan on three sides, the east, west and the north.  In [[underline]]Chang-t'e fu Chih[[/underline]], this place is known as Hê-t'an chia City.  In the last ten years or so, tortoise shells and animal bones all have come out from this place.  In inquiring the native villagers, I was informed that about forty [[underline]]mu[[/underline]](畝) of land yield such relics.  So I went to the place and found that uninscribed shells and bones scattered in heaps everywhere in the field.  From these surface remains I picked an old animal horn, and several handful shells and bones.  Wheat and cotton are planted here.  Every year, after the cotton crop is over, native villagers gather to dig.  The deepest pit they dig measure more than two chang(丈). It is filled in as soon as the bottom is reached, so that it may be cultivated in the following season.  Beside bones and tortoise shells, there are among the finds many fresh water shells; they are equally abundant.  This I did not know before.  There are also many horns; they are not what we have in the present generation; when I visited a villager's home I was shown several tens of these, at the root of the horn, about one to two inches from the frontal bone, there is a circular knot which swells like a ring on the finger.  This,the natives call "Dragon Horn"(龍角).  I got one shell ornament carved like a piece of ancient jade in the form of P'u Pi(蒲璧), but unfortunately it is broken......."
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The above is probably the first descriptive account of the surface condition of this famous site that appeared in print since its discovery.  As far as I could judge, and apart from some inferential remarks made by the author, it is quite an accurate one.  Following this visit, Lo published "An Illustrated Catalogue of Ancient Relics from Yin-hsü (Yin-hsü Ku-ch'i-wi T'u-lu殷虛古器物圖錄) in the next year.  It is of course open to question whether these relics were really contemporanious with the inscribed bones.  This all important question seems to be taken for granted by the author.  But it does give one some general idea as to what other finds may be expected from the same site where the oracle bones are found.  It convincingly proves how worthwhile it would be to carry out some more systematic digging at this site.

That the native villager's digging for treasure was carried on every year ever since the inscribed bones got a market value seems to be out of question.  This is confirmed not only by Lo Chen-yü's account, but also all the villagers unanimously support it orally.

Transcription Notes:
chinese characters need to be added Added Chinese characters.--lingwang