Yi Zun, a wine vessel from the Western Zhou Dynasty, one of the earliest bronzeware in the Shanxi Bronze Museum. [Photo by Sun Ruisheng/China Daily]

Shanxi has at least six Bronze Age ruins that are of national importance. They have yielded a large amount of ancient bronzeware since the 1950s, which have become important physical evidence to study almost all aspects of life at all levels of society in that time, especially as most carry inscriptions, most of which are still readable.

The most valuable pieces among those retrieved are a pair of statues forged during the Western Zhou Dynasty (c.11th century-771 BC), which had been sold to Hong Kong, according to Han, who says the two statues are important for the study of the dynasty, as the inscriptions on them record tribal migration of the time in great detail.

The police have seized thousands of artifacts from 171 gangs involved in the unlawful trade of cultural relics since the once rampant ransacking of ancient tombs had been stymied and the Shanxi public security department launched a special campaign early last year. Another 800 pieces, seized by the police during the campaign, will soon be added to the exhibition, according to the Shanxi public security department.