China News Service, Guanghan, May 28 (Reporter Yue Yitong) Zhou Yang, director of the key scientific research base of the State Administration of Cultural Relics for Textile Cultural Relics, recently disclosed to reporters the latest progress in the textile archaeological work of the sacrificial pit at the Sanxingdui site in Guanghan, Sichuan.
Following the first extraction of silk protein from the ashes of Sacrificial Pit No. 4, archaeologists have tested more than one hundred samples taken from Sacrificial Pit No. 1 to No. 6 since March 20. , No. 6 sacrificial pit once again found the remains of textiles.
Traces of textiles found along the mouth of the bronze statue.
Photo courtesy of Zhou Yang
Zhou Yang told reporters that the samples were taken from the soil in the sacrificial pit or from the surface of unearthed relics. The artifacts with fabric structure were found to include bronze human heads, animal masks, copper eye bubbles, bronze statues, and fish-shaped copper foil pieces.
These new discoveries once again verified the view that the silk in the Sanxingdui site was used as a sacrificial article and had a unique role in communicating the heavens, the earth, the people and the gods.
"This is exhilarating."
Traces of textiles found on bronze turtle-back pendants.
Photo courtesy of Zhou Yang
It is worth mentioning that the excavation of the sacrificial pits No. 1 and No. 2 at the Sanxingdui site was as early as 1986. After 35 years, the remains of textiles can be detected from the artifacts unearthed in the sacrificial pit No. 2. Zhou Yang Frankly very pleasantly surprised.
According to her, among the 16 samples selected from the No. 2 sacrificial pit, 40% of them have found traces of textiles, which is a very high proportion.
"This is due to the protection of the textiles by the copper ions on the bronzes."
Why was silk found in some sacrificial pits, but no "signals" in some sacrificial pits?
Could the unearthed textiles be hemp?
Zhou Yang told reporters that in the next step, archaeologists will conduct a comprehensive investigation and research and carry out a carpet search.
It is hoped that through the medium of silk, the characteristics of the various sacrificial pits in Sanxingdui will be explored in order to solve the above problems.
Remains of textiles were found on the surface of the bronze.
Photo by Lei Yu
"Our ultimate goal is to find words." Zhou Yang said that no words were found on the bronzes unearthed at the Sanxingdui site, so would silk be the carrier of words?
Cinnabar was unearthed from several sacrificial pits in Sanxingdui. Could these cinnabar be writing materials?
"With the development of science and technology, various test results are becoming more and more accurate, and everything is possible. Bold guesses and careful verification. Next, we will continue to carry out a lot of work in this direction." (End)