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20. 

in Yin-hsü were similarly used; there is good reason to believe that some of these were built for this purpose. It is however not sufficient to explain why in certain pits complete human skeletal materials were found. Some of these pits reach clearly down to the water level, and as such it is also difficult to imagine how these pits could have been used for merely storage purpose. According to Chou-li, the ancient Chinese in performing the rites of worshiping the Mountain, Forest, River and Marsh Gods, they adopted a particular method of sacrificing animals by digging into the ground to the water level, then throwing the sacrificial animal, ox or dog, down into the pit, thus burying it. Archaic characters have been discovered from the oracle bone inscriptions, which have been deciphered as pictures portraying the performance of such sacrifice. It is certainly worth considering whether some of these pits might have been such sacrificial pits, althou no complete skeleton of ox had been discovered in any of these pits. One complete skeleton of pig's skeleton was discovered; but it did not occur in any of these regular pits. The pit with human skeletal material is quite a problem in itself. Judging by all circumstances, it could not be a regular burial. Could this be taken for indicating human sacrifice in the Shang Dynasty? In this connection it is necessary to mention that in some of the cultural strata, apparently undisturbed by later intrusions, fragments of human bone were frequently found. The origin of these bones certainly deserve closs examination. 

To sum up, we may say that some of these pits might have been used as [[blue underlined]]cache[[/blue underlined]]; the most patent examples are the circular one found in La .3c B2nBn and the rectangular one in the southern section of G.C, Some, however, can not be so explained, especially those where skeletal materials were found, or deepened to the water level.

G. New Discoveries.