Shang dynasty

The Shang dynasty, also known as the Yin dynasty, was a Chinese royal dynasty that ruled in the Yellow River valley during the 2nd millennium BC. Tradition has it succeeding the Xia dynasty and being followed by the Western Zhou, and modern scholarship dates it between the 16th and 11th centuries BC. It is the earliest dynasty in traditional Chinese history firmly supported by archaeology, through the site of Yinxu near Anyang, the last Shang capital, where excavations found royal tombs, palace foundations and more than 20,000 oracle bones carrying the earliest known Chinese writing. Its fall came in the Battle of Muye.