Human Sacrifices Found at Ancient China Complex

Pottery Offering

A Chinese archaeologist handles a broken pottery vessel unearthed at the Western Zhou-era sacrificial relic site recently uncovered in modern Luoyang city.

Thousands of years ago, during the Western Zhou, the Luoyang area was home to a secondary, eastern capital of China.

Regarded by Confucius and other philosophers as a "golden age" of Chinese history, the Western Zhou period ushered in many of the characteristic political and cultural institutions of Chinese civilization, Sena said.

For example, the Shangshu, or "book of history," which purportedly records the speeches and deeds of the Zhou dynasty's first kings and which later became a classic, can be traced back to this period.

Published June 15, 2010