Full record of the excavation of Sanxingdui
China News Weekly reporter/Huang Xiaoguang
Published in the 989th issue of China News Weekly on March 29, 2020
On the south bank of the Duck River in Guanghan City, Sichuan Province, a high wall encloses the archaeological excavation area of the Sanxingdui site.
There are many guards on duty outside the wall, rejecting the approach of outsiders and strange vehicles.
Inside the wall, the excavation and extraction of cultural relics over the past few days are being carried out intensively and placed under the spotlight.
For the hundreds of staff in the wall, this is undoubtedly an archaeological feast.
The Sanxingdui archaeological excavation was led by the Sichuan Provincial Bureau of Cultural Relics and the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology was implemented. 34 scientific research institutes and universities across the country participated. The target was the newly discovered 6 sacrificial pits in Sanxingdui.
Chen Dean, the former stationmaster of the Sanxingdui Archaeological Workstation and one of the discoverers of Sacrificial Pit No. 1 and No. 2, mentioned that this year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Chinese archaeology. In this context, the excavation of the Sanxingdui New Pit is of extraordinary significance.
This is a time-consuming excavation operation.
According to interviewees, the field excavation and extraction of the Sanxingdui new pit will be completed before the end of this year. Subsequent laboratory testing, repair and arrangement of unearthed artifacts, etc., will take three to five years to complete.
The largest archaeological excavation
For experienced archaeologists, the texture and color of the soil can be distinguished only by the naked eye, and then the existence and scope of the buried pit can be judged.
"We found Pit No. 3 based on the soil conditions, but at first did not dare to conclude that there were artifacts in it." Chen De'an mentioned in an interview with China News Weekly.
In Sanxingdui National Archaeological Site Park, for a long time, the sacrificial pits 1 and 2 that were filled with treasures have been backfilled and plank roads for visitors to visit have been built.
On December 2, 2019, the staff used probe hooks to explore the corner of the plank road and touched the artifacts one meter below the ground.
They didn't dare to act rashly and invited Chen De'an in the first place.
"It's a respect, big mouth respect." The only clue was covered under the plank road, and Chen Dean could only touch it with his hands, but he was familiar with the shape and texture of Sanxingdui bronzes and still gave a decisive judgment.
After that, the plank road and other structures were quickly demolished. Archaeologists from the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology followed the vines and found six new pits in Sanxingdui in half a year.
At this time, 35 years have passed since pits 1 and 2 were excavated.
Why has the excavation of new pits stalled in the past 35 years?
In response to this question, Chen Xiandan, a researcher at the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and another excavator of Pit No. 1 and No. 2, told China News Weekly that in fact, the Sanxingdui site has never stopped excavating, but the object of excavation is not the sacrificial pit. It is the city wall, palace and other functional areas within the site.
"The principle of my country's Cultural Relics Law is that protection is first and rescue is the first. No matter how good the technology is, active excavation is not allowed. The excavation must be based on scientific research projects and be approved by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage for approval."
It was not until April 2019 that the Propaganda Department of the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee organized the implementation of the "Ancient Shu Civilization Protection and Inheritance Project", which listed the archaeological work of the Sanxingdui site as a focus, and the excavation of the new pit ushered in an opportunity.
In August of this year, the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology compiled the "Three-year Action Plan for Archaeological Work at Sanxingdui Site (2019-2022)", setting settlement archeology and social archaeology as the main work and research direction of Sanxingdui Site in the next few years, directly promoting The start of the excavation work.
According to Ran Honglin, the executive leader of the archaeological excavation team at the Sanxingdui site, settlement archaeology refers to understanding the remains of the Sanxingdui site in different periods and areas, and the various relationships between the remains; social archaeology refers to understanding the residence through the remains The identity level and ethnic composition of the Sanxingdui people.
Under the guidance of these research directions, Ran Honglin told China News Weekly that at the beginning of the implementation of the aforementioned plan, the purpose was to find Pit 3, so the discovery of the new Pit was not accidental.
This is a relay race that has continued the wishes of generations of archaeologists, and many people regard it as a lifelong career.
Ran Honglin’s hometown is in Chongqing. It was his dream to work in Sanxingdui. After graduating from Peking University in July 2013, he entered the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology as he wished and became a member of the archaeological excavation team at Sanxingdui site.
In August 2019, at the same time as the aforementioned plan was launched, Ran Honglin started the collection of the archaeological oral history of the Sanxingdui site.
"This is a process of finding out the family of the Sanxingdui site. Only by knowing what has been done before, how and why can we carry out targeted work in the future." Ran Honglin's consideration at the time was that many old archaeologists have already done so. At an advanced age, no development may leave permanent regrets.
He first visited Mr. Ao Tianzhao, who was over ninety years old.
The contrast between Tianzhao's housing conditions and his enthusiasm for Sanxingdui touched Ran Honglin.
On December 19 last year, Ao Tianzhao passed away on the eve of the excavation of Xinkeng.
From October 22, 2019 to August 8, 2020, the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the Guanghan Sanxingdui Museum carried out systematic and comprehensive archaeological exploration and excavation around the sacrifice pits 1 and 2, basically finding out the surrounding sacrifice areas The scope of the history, as well as the chronological sequence and spatial pattern of various types of remains.
During the period, 6 new pits were found one after another. They were located within 30 meters of pits 1 and 2, with a scale ranging from 3.5 square meters to 20 square meters, all of which were rectangular in shape and showed consistent orientation.
This large-scale exploration is paving the way for more significant discoveries.
Ran Honglin introduced to China News Weekly that the new round of the Sanxingdui sacrificial area excavation project is divided into two phases. The first phase is the aforementioned overall archaeological excavation of the area where the eight sacrificial pits are located.
Compared with the obvious split between the sacrificial pit and the surrounding area during the rescue excavation in 1986, he believes that the eight pits were surveyed in the first stage. Although the sacrificial pit itself has not yet been excavated, it is the most important for this systematic excavation. One step.
"If you don't have a comprehensive understanding of the area where the sacrificial pit is located, and you plunge directly into the sacrificial pit, then you are really'digging a hole'."
According to the interviewees, after the discovery of six new pits, the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology reported the situation to the State Administration of Cultural Heritage as soon as possible, and formulated the second phase excavation and protection report of the sacrificial area of the Sanxingdui site.
After the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, in October 2020, the archaeological excavation in the sacrificial area of the Sanxingdui site has advanced to the second stage.
At the invitation of the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, more than one hundred archaeologists from 34 domestic research institutes and universities gathered in Guanghan, Sichuan to jointly explore the secrets of the ancient Shu kingdom.
"Not only domestically, it may also be the world's largest archaeological excavation operation with the largest resource mobilization range. All of our country's archaeological, cultural relic protection, and scientific research forces have participated, and almost no important units are absent, which can represent the national level." Sichuan Tang Fei, president of the Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, told China News Weekly.
According to him, the archaeological funds are supported by the National Cultural Relics Bureau and the Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau, providing more than 32 million yuan in direct excavation funds, and more than 30 million yuan for cultural relics protection and multidisciplinary research.
"The 34 units are divided into several levels. The Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology acts as an organizer, Peking University, the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Sichuan University, Shanghai University, etc. belong to a cooperative relationship, and some units are cooperative relationships or provide supporting facilities. Service.” Tang Fei said, the work on site is very complicated, involving archaeology, site cleaning and protection, inspection, writing and image recording, etc.
"We roughly use 7 people as a group, and each group contains 7 types of work."
Chen Xiandan, a researcher at the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and one of the excavators of Pit No. 1 and No. 2, said that in the past, most of the excavations of cultural relics were done by the provinces themselves. Information extraction, data collection and follow-up research have the meaning of "dating" in the history of archaeology.
Ran Honglin, the executive leader of the archaeological excavation team at the Sanxingdui site, emphasized to China News Weekly that although the archaeological team involved a large number of units and people, the age structure of the team was very young: "The all-in-90s generation brings a vigorous atmosphere."
From "Midwife" to "Obstetrics and Gynecology"
When visiting the sacrificial pit at Sanxingdui site, the first thing you saw was an archaeological greenhouse. There were multiple archaeological excavation cabins in the greenhouse, and the six newly discovered sacrificial pits were placed in the cabins.
After entering the greenhouse, the ground leading to the excavation cabin is covered with flannel. Archaeologists need to change protective clothing and be fully armed to enter.
Although the location of the new pit is not far from the No. 1 and No. 2 pits discovered more than 30 years ago, the work scene has changed significantly.
In an interview with China News Weekly, Chen Dean likened the unearthed cultural relics to the birth of a baby: "At that time, our excavation was like a rural midwife, but now we are admitted to an obstetrics and gynecology hospital. The protective measures are very different. ."
When pits 1 and 2 were excavated in the 1980s, there were no large sheds and shelters, only fences and straw sheds.
Chen De'an clearly remembered that it was summer, and the water was easy to evaporate during the day, and they could only dig at night when the tide regained.
"Once the cultural relics are discovered, the environment changes. If there are no protective measures, it is easy to be injured in the oxidation process. The current constant temperature and humidity cabin can solve this problem. In addition, let the staff wear protective clothing to avoid it. Bring in microorganisms to ensure the purity of the sampled samples." Chen Dean said.
Xu Feihong, a lecturer at the School of Liberal Arts of Shanghai University and the person in charge of excavation of Pit 3, has participated in the excavation of many major archaeological discoveries such as the Zhougong Temple site in Qishan, Shaanxi, the Tang Dynasty Xiangshan Temple site in Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, and the tombs of Tubo nobles in Dulan, Qinghai.
"The biggest feeling that the construction site here gives me is high-tech!" In addition to the shelter, the Sichuan Archaeological Institute has also equipped an integrated excavation platform for excavation work.
According to Xu Feihong, this excavation platform consists of several major sections: one is a working platform, which can put people into the pit for hanging work like a hanging basket; the other is a crane, which can handle the extraction of various objects; Cameras and cameras are in full bloom; the fourth is a hyperspectral scanner, which helps capture the spectrum of cultural relics invisible to the naked eye.
The No. 3 pit where Xu Feihong is located is less than 15 square meters. Although the excavation is far from over, 109 bronzes, 127 ivory and 8 jade wares have been found. It is currently the most abundant sacrificial pit in the 6 new pits.
Similar to the situation in Pit 2 35 years ago, the ivory in Pit 3 was stacked on the top layer.
More than 100 ivory roots cover the surface of the pit. How to sort out the overlapping relationship with other cultural relics and clean them up is the main challenge for archaeologists.
"The ivory is not meant to be neatly arranged for you, but staggered." Xu Feihong told China News Weekly that there was a large bronze mask in Pit 3 with a U-shaped cross section and only two ears exposed. Outside, it and the ivory have at least 6 layers of overlapping relationship with each other.
“We must have a reasonable plan and constantly adjust the excavation plan to ensure that all the artifacts can be taken out organically. If the method is wrong and the order is wrong, it may not be able to get through.” Xu Feihong said.
In accordance with the previously unified plan prepared by the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, when the No. 3 pit was initially filled and excavated, the method of excavating small squares alternately in horizontal layers was adopted.
After a certain depth of excavation is completed in the square, it is necessary to take pictures, record, survey and map, and then start scraping.
After scraping the surface to find out the relic phenomenon, we can proceed to the next step.
Pit 4 is the first pit excavated in this archeology.
It took the archaeologists a week to dig 10 cm deep in Pit 4, and it took two months to clean up the fill, and then it took another month to find the artifacts.
On January 16 this year, they cleared out an arc-shaped object, which was muddy to the naked eye, but was found to be ivory after inspection.
According to Xu Feihong's introduction, the excavation method of Pit 3 has undergone adjustments from small grids to large grids and finally no grids.
They broke ground on January 9 this year, and the excavation depth was close to 75 cm on January 30, and large objects began to be exposed.
In the first adjustment, they divided the No. 3 pit into six large grids and excavated them in a staggered manner according to the large grids.
"When approaching the artifact layer, because of the uneven distribution of the artifacts, some grid points just fall on the artifacts, and then rigidly using the fixed grid will cause problems." In early March, they held an expert demonstration meeting and decided Adjusted to the excavation idea of "Retirement".
"At that time, there was a large bronze mask in the southern part of the entire pit, which was overlaid with a lot of ivory. We used this as the origin to clean up south and north. We called'retreat and gradually clean up'."
As the cultural relics continued to be exposed and the ivory covered the tunnels, the archaeological team finally had nowhere to settle. At this time, the aforementioned liftable workbench came in handy.
The archaeologists in Pit 3 need to lie on the workbench and use a brush and a bamboo knife thinner than chopsticks to clean up the dirt on the cultural relics a little bit.
On March 16, after several months of archaeological excavations, the original appearance of the artifacts in Pit 3 was revealed for the first time, and three-dimensional scanning modeling began.
The abundant number of bronzes and ivory were layered on top of each other, which shocked the archaeological staff on site.
"Although I watched them step by step to reveal their true faces, I still felt very shocked for the first complete display." Xu Feihong said.
Unlike the salvage excavation of pits 1 and 2 in 1986, we have fully prepared for the excavation of 6 new pits this time.
According to Xu Feihong, after the excavations in the past were completed, cultural relics and environmental samples had to be sent to the laboratory and handed over to the cultural relics protection personnel for follow-up research, analysis and protection. It took a long time. Now the archaeological excavation site in the sacrificial area of the Sanxingdui site is equipped. A laboratory with emergency protection and scientific and technological archaeological functions can obtain the excavated information in the first time.
"This archaeological excavation used many new technologies and equipment to turn the original field archaeological excavation into a laboratory archaeological excavation, which is equivalent to moving the entire excavation site into the laboratory." said Sun Hua, a professor at the School of Archaeology, Arts and Sciences, Peking University.
Participating in the excavation, Sichuan University specially organized a scientific and technological archaeology team, including experts in metallurgy, plants, environment, animals, and cultural relics protection to provide real-time support for the excavation.
Li Yuniu, a teacher at the School of Archaeology, Culture and Museum of Sichuan University, told China News Weekly that since entering the venue in December last year, his usual work is “open, eight, six, and seven days”. The provincial government organizes two or three regular meetings every week to gather various units to discuss excavations. Work is summarized, planned and adjusted.
With the support of various technologies, Xu Feihong stated that "a handful of soil will not be wasted on site, and will be used as research materials."
Lei Yu, director of the Sanxingdui site workstation, gave an example in an interview with the China News Agency that if the samples containing silk were indistinguishable by the naked eye according to previous methods, they might have thrown away the fill.
"This time we found that all six pits filled with soil, except for the topsoil and the contaminated pit mouth, all the remaining fills, we packed and sampled them back, waiting for people from various disciplines to carry out these fillings. the study."
Since the artifacts were excavated this year, Sanxingdui has brought surprises to archaeologists.
"Bumping one by one for a while, does it make people feel at ease to write a doctoral dissertation?" Ran Honglin teased in the circle of friends.
Up to now, pits 3, 4, 5, and 6 have been excavated to the artifact level, and pits 7 and 8 are being excavated to fill the pits. Fragments of gold masks, bird-shaped gold ornaments, gold leaf, and painted copper heads have been unearthed. There are more than 500 important cultural relics such as giant bronze masks, bronze sacred trees, ivory, exquisite tooth carvings, jade congs, and jade tools.
Ivory extraction puzzle
Extracting cultural relics is a technical task.
Chen Dean mentioned to China News Weekly that the cultural relics in the pit are crisscrossed and stacked on top of each other. How to avoid damage to the surrounding cultural relics during the extraction process is a difficult problem.
"It's like delivering a baby, you can't take care of one another, pick up a child, and hurt an adult."
In Pit 3, the first to be extracted was a bronze statue worth more than 200 kilograms.
It is understood that this bronze statue is the largest bronze statue discovered this time.
"Lonely, it is the only thing that crushes others, no one crushes it, so only if you take it out can you continue to do other tasks." Xu Feihong said.
He introduced to China News Weekly that the protection of bronzes has a mature system from cleaning, splicing fragments, correction and restoration, to the final archaeological record.
Before extracting this bronze ware, archaeologists poured it with plaster.
Ran Honglin said that how to safely extract such a heavy bronze statue to the ground is a big problem and challenge.
They applied 3D printing technology to the extraction of copperware for the first time—scanning the copperware to obtain a model of the same scale, and then using the model to generate a thin silicone body covering the surface of the copper statue, hoping to protect the copper statue during extraction.
"Scanned on the 16th, customized the isolation layer, and again carried out detailed cleaning on the 18th and 19th, and made a wooden box for fixing on the 20th." Xu Feihong told China News Weekly, on March 21st, archaeological team members The extraction was successful and it took 6 days before and after.
"For such a big thing, in the live broadcast environment, there is always some worry. If something goes wrong, the scene will be difficult to clean up." Xu Feihong said.
Many interviewees, including him, believe that compared with the mature bronze extraction technology, the next extraction of the object teeth is the biggest problem facing them.
Among the 6 sacrificial pits in Sanxingdui, ivory or ivory products were excavated in pits 3, 4, 5, and 8.
Xu Feihong said that there are currently 127 ivory exposed in Pit 3.
Existing reports mentioned that only the Sanxingdui and Jinsha sites in China have unearthed such concentrated ivory through archaeological excavations.
The jade zhang with ivory pattern on the shoulders unearthed at the Jinsha site depicts two groups of portraits with high crowns, square ears, robes and ivory on their shoulders. This pattern is similar to the pattern on the jade border zhang of Sanxingdui "Mountain Sacrifice" Similarly, it shows the scene of ancient Shu people using ivory to perform sacrificial activities.
Where does the large number of ivory come from is still a mystery.
For the archaeologists on the scene, what is more important now is how to successfully remove these ivory from the pit.
"There are relatively few ivory at archaeological sites, and relatively little experience, and this thing is more difficult to serve." Xu Feihong mentioned that ivory buried in the ground for thousands of years contains a lot of water, and once exposed to the air, it will quickly lose weight. The water is cracking.
"It has a thin shell on the surface, the texture is very crisp, just like the layer of chocolate on the outside of ice cream, it will puncture accidentally."
For this reason, the ivory needs to be reinforced when it is extracted.
"I communicated with the teacher who works as a cultural protection teacher. He said that this is like a doctor's treatment, and reinforcement is equivalent to prescribing a prescription. The question is, what is the cause of its crispness? We have no clear research conclusions yet." Xu Feihong emphasized, quantity Custom-made ivory reinforcement materials require a long period of time, and this is also an unsolved problem internationally.
The CCTV live broadcast on March 21 showed that the archaeological team extracted a whole ivory weighing more than 100 kilograms and more than 1.2 meters long from Pit 4.
The ivory was wrapped in plaster and was lifted out of the pit by two people.
"After getting it back, further protective measures must be taken in the laboratory, replacing the original moisture and injecting a new protective liquid to keep it at a certain humidity and not let it fall apart." When an officer was interviewed, Said.
In order to reduce the time the ivory was exposed to the air, the archaeological team covered the ivory in the pit with plastic wrap, wet towels and plastic sheets.
"Through this triple protection, we can ensure the humidity of the ivory as much as possible." Xu Feihong said, what they can do is to shorten the excavation time at the site as much as possible to buy time for subsequent extraction.
When can the extraction of more than 120 ivory in Pit 3 be completed?
Xu Feihong has no answer yet.
"There will be a very long process. For example, the cultural preservation force of the Chengdu Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology is relatively strong. They have extracted ivory from the Jinsha site before, and the preservation of more than a dozen ivory is better than that of Pit 3 ivory. , But it took a week to extract the first root."
Ran Honglin told China News Weekly that the experts will discuss the issue of the extraction of cultural relics.
Tang Fei, president of the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, revealed to China News Weekly that since the press conference, some cultural relics have been extracted slowly, and the extraction will be temporarily suspended, focusing on refined cleaning or on-site research.
The 6 "Blind Boxes" of Ancient Shu Civilization
Since Sichuan announced the progress of the excavation of the Sanxingdui new pit on March 20, photos of the newly unearthed cultural relics have been widely circulated on the Internet, and the six new pits of Sanxingdui have received unprecedented attention.
"Silkworm Cong and Yufu, how at a loss to found the country. Six blind boxes of ancient Shu civilization can be said to be very much looking forward to." A netizen left a message.
Unlike most archeology, from the moment when a large number of bronze masks and bizarre statues were unearthed in the 1980s, Sanxingdui quickly entered the public eye with a mysterious posture.
In this round of excavation of 6 new pits, novel artifacts that have never appeared before in pits 1 and 2 continue to emerge, once again pushing the sound of ancient Shu civilization to a climax.
"When we are used to seeing the set of altars and pots in the Central Plains, we find it strange when we look at Sanxingdui. It shocks us and feels that we have never seen it before. It casts people, gods, and gods together. It They all use images to show us the social life of Sanxingdui people at that time." said Sun Hua, a professor at the School of Archaeology, Culture and Museum of Peking University.
The six "blind boxes" that are being opened one by one have their own characteristics.
Except for the No. 7 and No. 8 pits that are still in the stage of excavating the fill layer, the No. 3, 4, 5, and 6 pits that have been excavated to the artifact layer have all brought extraordinary surprises.
Among the 6 sacrificial pits, Pit 3 is currently the most abundant one.
Xu Feihong told China News Weekly that because the shape, size, and direction of Pit 3 are very similar to Pit 2, he and the team were worried about the similarities in the artifacts. Unexpectedly, Pit 3 will bring them many surprises.
Among them, in addition to the aforementioned 120 ivory, a top bronze figure with slender arms and bare feet curled up is the most conspicuous.
The difference between this bronze statue is that its shoulders have some dragon-shaped decorations, and the bottom of the bronze statue has a copper plate that is gathered downward.
Further down, the ear of a person under the copper plate is connected to the hand of the bronze figure. This confirms that the bronze statue and the bronze figure are a piece of artifacts, so a whole piece of artifact is unearthed-it turns out that this is a "bronze figure". Top respect".
Xu Feihong described it.
After preliminary measurements, the bronze figure has a height of 1.15 meters.
"Human being the main body of bronze ware is not the tradition of the bronze civilization of the Central Plains, but the strength of Sanxingdui." said Lei Yu, head of the archaeological workstation of the Sanxingdui site.
He said that the current relationship between Dingzun and Tongren has not been fully determined. If it is confirmed, it will be an unprecedented "national treasure-level cultural relic".
Another cultural relic worthy of attention is the silk unearthed in Pit 4—to be precise, the invisible silk product residue extracted from the black ashes of Pit 4.
Experts say that it has never appeared in the previous Sanxingdui archaeology, which is enough to show that ancient Shu is one of the important origins of ancient Chinese silk.
With the assistance of the China National Silk Museum, the function, material analysis and subsequent preservation of silk are currently underway.
"Many of the things unearthed in the sacrificial pit are unique. This event really fully demonstrates the ingenuity of the ancient Shu people, the wealth and power of the country, and their unique aesthetics and religious consciousness." Lei Yu said.
During this excavation, the first half of the golden mask to be extracted was never seen before.
This half of the mask is about 23 cm wide and 28 cm high, with a gold content of about 85% and a silver content of 13% to 14%.
"Based on the half of the mask found so far, it is speculated that the complete weight of this golden mask should exceed 500 grams." Lei Yu said that if a complete golden mask can be found, it will not only be the largest golden mask of the same period found in China, It will also be the heaviest gold object of the same period discovered in the country.
Li Yuniu, the Sanxingdui working group of the School of Archaeology, Culture, and Science, Sichuan University, witnessed the entire process of the discovery of the golden mask.
He told China News Weekly that when it was cleared to a position 50 centimeters from the pit mouth on January 5, a small piece of gold was exposed in the southwest of the middle of the pit.
Because a lot of gold discs had been unearthed before this, they didn't care and continued to clean up layer by layer according to the process.
After a few days, the scope of the gold article gradually expanded, and they realized that this might not be an ordinary gold article.
“At that time, we made some preliminary speculations on the scene with two teachers from Shanghai University, Lei Yu and Ran Honglin, and we thought that golden masks, golden rods, and even quadruples were possible.” By early January, Gold Foil The whole body has been completely exposed. Because it was folded and squeezed, it looked like a wrinkled gold leaf. However, the experienced experts at the scene immediately deduced that it was a golden mask.
On February 2, this golden mask was successfully taken out.
The square face, big hollow eyes, triangular nose bridge and wide ears. This style is very similar to the style of the gold mask and the Jinsha Dajin mask unearthed in Sanxingdui before. It also provides a basis for the inheritance relationship between Sanxingdui and Jinsha. .
"Previously, gold masks, gold rods, gold leaf ornaments, gold blocks and gold leaf fragments were discovered in the Sanxingdui site. Not only are they rich in variety, they are large in quantity, and they are used in ceremonial ceremonies as a symbol of power. They all embody the worship of gold wares of ancient Shu people.” Lei Yu said, the golden mask discovered this time adds another great evidence for the worship of gold wares in ancient Shu civilization.
"Whether it is an exceptionally heavy golden mask fragment, or a silk residue that has never been seen before in Sanxingdui archaeology; whether it is a weird, lovely and beloved human-shaped bronze ware, or an ivory product engraved with exquisite cloud and thunder patterns... …The objects that you saw when you opened the “blind box” of the cultural relics amazed the time and tendered the years.” CCTV commented.
"The archaeological results of the Sanxingdui site fully reflect the important contributions of ancient Shu civilization and the Yangtze River culture to Chinese civilization, and are an important physical example of the multi-integrated development model of Chinese civilization." Song Xinchao, deputy director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, said in an interview with the media.
The expectation of the new pit
These unearthed artifacts envelop the already confusing archaeological problem even more mysterious.
In 2016, on the 30th anniversary of the discovery of the sacrificial pit of Sanxingdui, more than one hundred Chinese and foreign experts in Sanxingdui gathered at the seminar. Many unsolved mysteries were once again brought up, and once again stopped in controversy.
Today, during the excavation of the Sanxingdui new pit, archaeologists release materials and share the progress of the excavation at any time, pushing the research of Sanxingdui to a new climax.
"The technical and economic conditions of the excavation of Pit No. 1 and No. 2 in 1986 were far from the present. At that time, many phenomena were not clarified and the information was incomplete. In particular, many organic cultural relics were not put forward, resulting in a lot of information from being excavated. They slipped out of their hands.” Sun Hua, a professor at the School of Archaeology, Culture and Science, Peking University, told China News Weekly that since many previous research results and speculations were based on the archaeological excavations of the two pits 1 and 2, there were deviations.
As the cultural relics of Xinkeng are unearthed one after another, many unsolved mysteries will enter a new round of discussion; with the cooperation of national archaeological forces and the blessing of high technology, some past questions are expected to be answered.
Around the Sanxingdui site, there are many long-standing unsolved academic issues, such as the most basic issues of age and nature.
"If you can't even set the basic age, you can't conduct historical research." Sun Hua hopes that this archeology can solve the problem of dating.
"Its mission is very important: one is to expose the newly discovered things completely, comprehensively and more carefully; the other is to use materials to make up for the lack of understanding in the past, so that everyone can reach a consensus on basic issues."
With the discovery of the six new pits, whether it is the soil characteristics, location and distribution of the six new pits, or the information displayed by the excavated artifacts, they have provided the previous academic controversy around Sanxingdui, especially the age and nature of the artifact pits. New reference basis.
"This excavation is conservative, and it has a direct role in determining the nature and chronology of these pits. Many explanations back then were based on two pits, but now there are 6 out of them, which is a great influence on previous views. Challenge." Lei Yu said.
According to Sun Hua, different from the past carbon 14 dating at Sanxingdui No. 1 and No. 2 pits, this time Sanxingdui archaeology has a larger number of specimens and more appropriate selection of specimens. In terms of specimen measurement, accuracy and sensitivity are used. Higher accelerator mass spectrometers can control the dating error within plus or minus 25 years.
Ran Honglin further stated to China News Weekly that the controversy over the age of the Sanxingdui artifacts is expected to come to an end.
In addition, he also revealed that this excavation specifically designed the excavation method for the question of how the sacrificial pit was formed, which helped to answer how they were buried from scratch.
At present, the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and Peking University have analyzed 73 charcoal samples from the 6 newly discovered pits at the Sanxingdui site using the carbon 14 dating method to determine the age distribution interval. Among them, K4 pit The date is most likely to be between 1199 BC and 1017 BC, which is about 3200 to 3000 years ago.
This confirms that the chronology of the newly discovered No. 4 pit carbon 14 in Sanxingdui belongs to the late Shang Dynasty.
As for the nature of the several artifact pits in Sanxingdui, interviews found that from the sacrificial pits, tomb burial pits to the burial pits of national treasures, academic circles still have different opinions.
"'Sacrifice pit' is a omnipotent saying, it can explain everything that is not a cemetery or a church sacrifice, but maybe there are other possibilities?" Sun Hua tends to think that these pits are not the burial of ordinary sacrifices, but a special event Of burial.
Chen Xiandan told China News Weekly that the excavation did not change his view of the "sacrifice pits": "Why do I still think they are sacrificial pits, or called sacrificial pits? First, these do not matter. It is gold, bronze, and ivory. They are all very precious objects. They can only be used for ancestor worship, god worship, or other important events. Second, what is the purpose of burning these precious objects? This way is We call it the Liao Sacrifice to reach the sky by the instrument. Third, all the pits have the same direction and form, and a certain ritual has been held. The things are buried in order, and the small ones are thrown down first. Then there is a bronze ware with ivory on the top, as in Pits 2, 3, and 4."
During the excavation in Sanxingdui, archaeologists continued to solve mysteries and constantly ushered in new puzzles.
"These 6 pits may solve some old problems, such as whether it is the same age and the same batch. But more new problems are brought out, such as those artifacts. Before unearthed, we imagine There will never be such a peculiar shape, and this will bring us unlimited reverie." Chen Xiandan said.
Many interviewees, including him, mentioned the same expectation: to see the appearance of Bashu characters during the excavation of new pits in the future.
The archaeological team did not stop at the research of artifacts, but hoped to restore the more important appearance of this ancient city through new pits and artifacts.
In the "Three-Year Action Plan for Archaeological Work at Sanxingdui Site (2019-2022)", the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology will set settlement archaeology and social archaeology as the main work and research directions for the Sanxingdui site in the next few years.
In this regard, Ran Honglin believes that the current excavation work can serve these directions.
"As far as settlement archeology is concerned, after the discovery of 6 new pits this time, it is basically possible to clarify where the sacrificial area of the Sanxingdui site and the relationship between the sacrificial area and other functional areas of this site in time and space. In addition, because this sacrificial remains can reflect The sacrificial behaviors or sacrificial rituals at that time, and then to study the identity level and social attributes of these people who performed sacrificial rituals, will also greatly promote social archaeological research."
Lei Yu said that in accordance with the plan of the "Archaeological China" project, the next step will continue to carry out fine archaeological excavations, cultural relic protection, and multidisciplinary research on the newly discovered sacrificial pits, and explore and excavate the periphery of the sacrificial pits in order to systematically and comprehensively grasp the ancient Sacrificial system of Shu civilization.
"The long march of cultural relics protection and follow-up research has just started." Xie Zhenbin, director of the Cultural Protection Center of the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, told China News Weekly.
China News Weekly, Issue 11, 2021
Statement: The publication of the "China News Weekly" manuscript is authorized in writing