The Tomb of Fu Hao, discovered intact in 1976 within the Yinxu precinct, is one of the most important Bronze Age burials ever found in China. Unlike the larger royal tombs at Yinxu, Fu Hao's burial chamber escaped the looters who emptied the others over subsequent centuries, and its contents give a uniquely complete picture of a high-ranking Shang person's material world. The tomb contained 1,928 objects: bronze vessels, jade figurines, bone hairpins, ivory cups, cowrie shells, and weapons including bronze axes that inscriptions confirm she actually used in battle.
The display within the Yinxu site shows a reconstruction of the burial chamber alongside many original finds. Fu Hao was not merely a consort — oracle bone inscriptions attest to her roles as military commander, ritual officiant, and estate manager, making her a figure of extraordinary historical interest even by the standards of her remarkable period. The bronze ware from her tomb represents some of the finest Shang casting work: the paired owl-shaped wine vessels, called fuhao owl zuns, are among the most recognisable objects from Chinese antiquity and appear in virtually every textbook treatment of Bronze Age art.