It was the early 1990s, barely a decade into China’s transition from planned to market economy, and grave robbing had become a lucrative cottage industry in the Chinese countryside — a rare way for villagers to get rich. So when a local farmer in northwestern China’s Gansu province uncovered bronzes while digging for oracle bones, it kicked off a feeding frenzy.
The looters who descended on the site — now known as Dabuzi — were embedded in a highly specialized chain covering target scouting, excavation, transportation, trafficking, and smuggling. At its peak, there were reportedly tens of thousands of grave robbers and dealers in Dabuzi and the surrounding Lixian County. Their numbers were so great that they generated entire side businesses, with people setting up camp near the tombs to sell them water, food, and cigarettes.