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10. 

bank, and after some conference with Mr. Kuo, we decided the following methods for the first digging:

1. Method of circumscription. Taking the newly harvested cornfield as the most promising place, let it be circumscribed and have four trial pits dug on its margin; the north-east and the northwest being located on the bank of the Huan River, the southeast on the sand-hill, and the southwest in the  cornfield west of the cottonfield. By this method, it was hoped to touch on the margin of the vein of oracle bones first, then exhausting it by working gradually towards the center.

2. Trenching. Our original idea was to dig square pits, measuring ten feet each side. In this way the deeper part might be better exposed and sunlight might be utilized for photographing.But later on we learned to appreciate the advantages of the trenchings better. The pits dug by the villagers were all about seven to eight feet long,two to three feet wide. There are four good point about these elongated pits: 1. More room for the handling of spade and shovel; 2. The narrower dimension just fitted for placing the widlass, so that earth from the deep part might be raised by means of it; 3. As the width of the narrower dimension is shorter than a span, niches might be used on the sides of the pit for descending ascending. 4. Dumpings may be accumulated on the side of the trench, so that time may be economized in the filling.

The First Period: On the thirteenth of October in the seventeenth year of the Chinese Republic(1928), about thirty of us, including all the workmen, first began the excavation of Yin-hsü near the bank of the Huan River. It was started at nine in the morning and closed at four in the afternoon. The day's work was done according to the method of circumscription; four pits were opened.