The bronze plaque inlaid with turquoise unearthed at Tianshui in Gansu and those bronze plaques unearthed at Erlitou site in Yanshi have the similar form, style and design.
Based on the author' s view, these plaques belong to the Erhtou Culture period, they were mostly unearthed and resold abroad before 1950' , and be introduced to Chinese scholars in 1990' , but only stopped on their characters description.
During his visiting UK in 2002, the author collected their graphs and figures. They are precious new materials to the research of the origin and early development of Chinese civilization.
The article introduces the three bronze plaques inlaid with turquoise unearthed in Erlitou site, and compares them with the other bronze plaques. The author thinks the beast mask design of the bronze ornaments is the origin of the design decorated on the bronzes of the Shang and Zhou dynasties.
By restoring the design on the lid of incomplete vessel unearthed in the Xinzhai site, we found the restored design is similar to the design of beast mask with high crown in jade gui collected by the palace museum in Taibei. The design with distinct epochal character has the important academic val- ue of researching the origin of the bronze plaque oenament of Erlitou period and the design of beast mask with high crown.
The bronze plaque inlaid with turquoise unearthed at Tianshui in Gansu and those bronze plaques unearthed at Erlitou site in Yanshi have the similar form, style and design. Analysing the other similar articles unearthed in two areas, the author thinks the Central Plains and Northwestern area had mutual cultural exchange in Xia dynasty, and Tianshui area could be the ties of cultural exchange be- tween the Central Plains and Sichuan area.