Archaeological Sanxingdui
At the end of May, Guanghan, Sichuan, opened the wooden fence marked "Sanxingdui National Archaeological Site Park" archaeological site, stepped up to enter the archaeological greenhouse, 4 transparent working cabins, archaeological staff wearing white protective clothing or in front of the computer Processing related data, or kneeling on the suspended operating platform to take pictures to extract information...busy and orderly.
Pit No. 3 to Pit No. 8 of the Sanxingdui site in the working cabin are six newly discovered “sacrifice pits” of Sanxingdui culture from November 2019 to May 2020. On March 20 and the end of May this year, these six “sacrifice pits” New cultural relics unearthed in the "Keng", including golden mask fragments, bird-shaped gold ornaments, gold foil, giant bronze masks, bronze top statues, bronze kneeling figures, and other important cultural relics have been announced one after another. "Sanxingdui" has become a hot word on the screen.
From a geographical point of view, the Sanxingdui site is located in Sanxingdui Town, Guanghan City, Sichuan Province, on the southern bank of the Tuojiang River (Yuck River) in the northern part of the Chengdu Plain. It is the largest and highest-level central site discovered in the Xia-Shang period in the Sichuan Basin.
Sleep for thousands of years
Wake up and shock the world
When it comes to the Sanxingdui site, it is often described as "sleeping for thousands of years and shaking the world when I wake up."
Turning the clock back to the end of the 1920s, Yan Daocheng in Guanghan Taipingchang (now Nanxing Town) dredged the stream, and found dozens of bi-shaped stone rings, Shigui and Jade Cong at the bottom of the stream, which were accidentally revealed. The prelude to the great archaeological discovery of Sanxingdui.
Along the time axis of the archaeology of the Sanxingdui site, 1934 is a very important node.
That year, the American scholar Ge Weihan, who was the curator of the West China University Museum at the time, conducted the first excavation in Sanxingdui at Moon Bay, Taipingchang, Guanghan, and more than 600 artifacts and debris were unearthed.
Although the excavation lasted only about 10 days, it was of great significance.
After the founding of New China, the Sichuan Provincial Cultural Relics Department restarted the archaeological work of the Sanxingdui site.
In the early 1980s, the Sanxingdui archaeological excavators named the sites belonging to the same site group as "Sanxingdui Sites" based on the data obtained over the years, and carried out a phased study for the first time, which made people's understanding of the Sanxingdui site change from disorder to more effective. sequence.
The time came in 1986. As the brick factory workers took soil, the No. 1 and 2 "sacrifice pits" were discovered in July and August of that year. After that, rescue excavations were carried out. Bronze masks, bronze figures, bronze sacred trees, and gold were unearthed. There are more than a thousand pieces of precious cultural relics such as masks, golden rods, big jade-zhang and ivory, among which bronzes are the major ones.
Related experts believe that "most of the cultural relics have not been seen before, revealing a new face of bronze culture, and this has set off an upsurge of exploring Sanxingdui at home and abroad."
From the archaeological excavation of No. 1 and 2 "sacrifice pits" at the Sanxingdui site in 1986, which attracted the attention of the world, to the restart of the excavation of the sacrificial area in November 2019, more than 30 years have passed, and many public questions have been raised: "Why is there such a long interval? "
In this regard, Sun Hua, a professor at Peking University’s School of Archaeology, Arts and Sciences, told reporters: “The main reason was that no relevant clues were found, but during these 30 years, the archaeological work around the Sanxingdui site has continued.”
Indeed, Wan Jiao, deputy researcher of the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, in his book "A View of the Civilization Process of Chengdu Plain from the Sanxingdui Site" published in September 2020, combed the discovery and archaeological work of the Sanxingdui site in detail. Among them, There were 15 important time points from 1987 to 2014. Archaeological work included the completion of the preliminary identification of the Sanxingdui King City and the discovery of the "palace" base site on the Qingguan Mountain platform.
"Very wonderful, very unique"
Is part of Chinese civilization
On the afternoon of May 28th, at the "Chinese Culture Global Promotion Sanxingdui Promotion Conference" held in Guanghan, Hu Bing, deputy director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, introduced the latest excavations of the six newly discovered Sanxingdui cultural "sacrifice pits".
"From September 2020 until now, 34 scientific research institutions and universities have carried out archaeological excavations in the sacrificial area, and initially determined the distribution, accumulation and age of the sacrificial area. At present, the extraction of ivory in pits 3 and 4 has been basically completed. Extract the dentinal relics of the subject in one step; Pit 5 has completed the extraction of other cultural relics in the northwest region except for the circular gold foil, and it is basically confirmed that it has reached the bottom of the pit. The next step will be local laboratory archaeology; Pit 6 is undergoing pit wall And the overall extraction of the'wooden box'; Pits 7 and 8 are being excavated with soil and ash accumulation in the pits. Thousands of cultural relics such as ivory, bronze, gold and jade have been unearthed." Hu Bing said.
The unearthed cultural relics have been updated again and again, just like opening the archaeological "blind box" of the Sanxingdui site, which has caused rounds of attention.
At around 1 pm on May 30, Xu Danyang, the person in charge of the No. 4 pit of Sanxingdui site, and several staff members were "extremely excited", all staring at the extraction of the "bronze turning head and kneeling figure".
Recalling the scene at the time, the "post-95" guy told reporters: "This is the most impressive time since I participated in the excavation of Pit 4. After extracting the cultural relics, we observed that the figure of turning head and kneeling is very special. The posture, the hands are in the shape of a'next together', the head is twisted to the right side of the body, and a long strip of bronze is attached to the head. This is the first time that this type of bronze has been discovered at the Sanxingdui site. It can be said to be the most discovered in this archeological excavation. One of the important cultural relics."
The bronze top-zun portrait released earlier is also peculiar: kneeling, with hands interdigitated, head with big eyes and grin, exaggerated expression and pious demeanor.
Relevant experts commented that the bronze top-zun portrait combines the unique portrait shape of Sanxingdui with the zun shape, highlighting the close connection between Sanxingdui and the Central Plains Shang Dynasty, depicting the pious and sacred sacrificial scene of Sanxingdui, and showing the unique world of faith in Sanxingdui.
"Sanxingdui is very strange and unique, and it is an important part of Chinese civilization." At the "China Culture Promotion Conference on Sanxingdui," Wang Wei, chairman of the Chinese Society of Archaeology, described Sanxingdui in this way.
"Unique" is also the first reaction of the audience who stepped into the Sanxingdui Museum and saw the cultural relics in the museum.
“I’ve already felt amazing when I saw the bronze statues, but when I saw the later exhibits such as bronze vertical-eye masks and bronze crown-shaped vertical-eye masks, I was really shocked every time.” On the morning of May 28th, I specially selected it. Wang Mei (pseudonym) who visited the museum on weekdays said that she was "shocked". She did not expect that there would be so many audiences.
In Sun Hua’s view, the uniqueness of Sanxingdui is that the Sanxingdui site is not only a typical site containing three continuous archaeological cultures, but also an ancient Shu cultural center capital that is different from the Central Plains culture. Worship has a unique city site created by itself.
"For example, the urban planning of Sanxingdui Ancient City contains the thought of Faxiang Tianhan, which has a great influence on the planning of the capitals of the ancient Shu Kingdom. The Chengdu Jinsha Site that appeared immediately after Sanxingdui Ancient City, and the latest Enlightened Dynasty of the Ancient Shu Kingdom The relics of the capital city of Chengdu can be found. Moreover, the capital planning thought of the ancient Shu kingdom did not disappear after the Qin eradicated Bashu, but was integrated into the Qin and Han cultural system. Da Xianyang and Chang'an City in the Western Han Dynasty were built after the reunification of the Qin Dynasty. Even in Luoyang City in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, you can still see the relics of such planning ideas." Sun Hua said.
Empirical Chinese Civilization
Diversified and integrated development
With the publication of the six newly discovered archaeological results of "sacrifice pits" one after another, "how to explain these results" has attracted the attention of academic circles.
Song Xinchao, deputy director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, said that the new discoveries enriched the value of the Sanxingdui site and helped deepen our understanding of the cultural relationship between the Chengdu Plain and its surrounding areas.
He emphasized that the archaeological achievements of the Sanxingdui site fully demonstrated the important contributions of the ancient Shu civilization and the Yangtze River culture to the Chinese civilization, and were an important physical example of the development model of the pluralistic integration of Chinese civilization.
"If you use one sentence to describe the characteristics of Sanxingdui culture, it is a multicultural face dominated by regional characteristics." At the "Chinese Culture Global Promotion Sanxingdui Promotion Conference", Lei Yu, a researcher at the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the head of the Sanxingdui workstation, said When answering a question from the media, he said, “The cultural relics of the Sanxingdui site are first based on regional characteristics and deeply imprinted with the cultural imprints of other regions, which reflects the openness, adsorption and absorption capacity of the Sanxingdui culture.”
He further gave examples, first of all, the Xia and Shang culture in the Central Plains had a great influence on it.
The bronze ornaments with turquoise inlaid with turquoise, the bronze bells, the jade ge and the jade wares unearthed from the Sanxingdui site, and the pottery and goblets used by the common people are all influenced by the Erlitou culture.
During the Shang Dynasty, the bronze vessels of Sanxingdui, such as bronze statues, bronze lilies, and bronze casting techniques, especially fan casting techniques, also originated from Shang culture.
As for the weird bronzes that have not been seen in other regions before, there are also a large number of common patterns from the Shang culture, such as cloud and thunder patterns, animal face patterns, and key patterns.
Secondly, the Liangzhu culture in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River is also one of the important sources of Sanxingdui culture.
Although they belong to different ages, the jade cones of the two places are very similar.
"The current speculation is that after the demise of the Liangzhu culture, some of the ancestors of Liangzhu arrived in the Central Plains. In this way, cultural factors have been transferred from the Central Plains to the western Sichuan region." Lei Yu said, "There is also the ramming technology of the Sanxingdui site that deserves attention. The traditions of rice cultivation and early gray-white pottery are all derived from Shijiahe culture."
In Wang Wei's view, Sanxingdui not only has unique cultural features such as bronze masks and bronze sacred trees, but also has a close relationship with the Xia and Shang dynasties. He learned from the ritual system of the Xia and Shang dynasties, such as jade, Yazhang, and Yu Ge. The ceremonial system represented by the representative, the ritual system represented by the bronze vessel in the Shang Dynasty, etc.
"It can be seen that Sanxingdui not only absorbs foreign culture, but also innovates and develops. In particular, the metallurgical technology spread to Sanxingdui and developed into bronze statues and bronze sacred trees such as casting techniques are remarkable inventions and creations. The ancient Shu civilization was open to openness. The attitude of actively absorbing, and innovative development, that is why it is so developed and presents a strong color." Wang Wei said.
Xu Danyang told reporters that one could use a wider field of vision to see the new archaeological discoveries at Sanxingdui site.
"For example, Yuzhang, Yuge, etc. have also been found in other regions and other civilizations; for example, bronze statues and bronze lei are also affected by other regions. Although the shapes of artifacts such as bronze masks and bronze sacred trees are unique The post-casting cutting and opening technology is also unique, but from the perspective of the bronze casting method and technology, it should be affected by the Central Plains region." Xu Danyang said.
Sun Hua believes that the Sanxingdui civilization was born under the joint action of the civilization of the Central Plains, the civilization of the Yellow River basin and the civilization of the Yangtze River basin.
Although Sanxingdui was developed later, it has a long-term continuity and the most distinctive features. It includes both learning and imitation, as well as creation and development.
"It can be said that it is a convergence of multiple cultures, which later merged into the Qin and Han cultures, which influenced Chinese civilization."
What are the answers
Not yet uncovered
On the afternoon of May 18, 2021, Sun Hua was invited to give a report at Nanjing Normal University entitled "Exploring the Code of Ancient Shu Civilization-"Viewing Ancient Shu Civilization from Sanxingdui Burial Pit"".
Regarding the term "buried pit", Sun Hua said that the basic knowledge of the academic circle has focused on the two aspects of "sacrifice pit" and "buried pit" in terms of the nature of buried pits.
The “sacrifice pit theory” believes that these two pits are the remains of the special sacrificial activities of the Sanxingdui people, which is the most common mainstream knowledge in the academic circles; the “buried pit theory” believes that these two pits are the burial of the temple’s furnishings that were destroyed after a major accident in Sanxingdui. .
"According to this new archaeological discovery, there may be new advances in this issue." Sun Hua said.
The new discoveries in the Sanxingdui Sacrificial Area can help solve some long-standing academic problems. This is the consensus of the academic community. For example, it is hoped that the most basic chronological and nature problems can be clarified.
"In the past, we only found two pits. This time the new discovery has increased from two pits to 8 pits, and detailed exploration of the surrounding areas has helped to restore the space inside the'temple' or'sacrifice area' at that time. It provides important information for a complete understanding of the etiquette space, religious thoughts, and even the reflected cosmic concept at that time." Sun Hua said.
From what the famous unearthed cultural relics are in the hands of the large bronze statues to whether there will be written discoveries, from how to understand the relationship of several "sacrifice pits" to where Sanxingdui originated, and how to absorb the ancient Shu culture in the exchange of civilizations Whether there will be new evidence to support long-distance trade... There are still many puzzles to be solved in Sanxingdui.
As Xu Danyang said: “Many artifacts that have not been seen before were unearthed in the six newly discovered'sacrifice pits', which solved some problems, but at the same time they also created more new problems, such as how are the newly unearthed artifacts? It is made, where is it produced, what is the ancestor type, and who is using it... We explore with such curiosity, but it may take a long time to do basic sorting and research work."
What's exciting is that this Sanxingdui archaeological excavation work adheres to the concept of "subject presetting, protection synchronization, multi-disciplinary integration, and multi-team cooperation", which demonstrates the new progress of Chinese archaeological concepts and archaeological technology.
At the archaeological site, the reporter found that not far from the working cabin, there is an emergency detection and analysis room, an emergency protection room for micro-trace objects, etc., realizing a seamless connection between archaeological excavations and cultural relic protection.
"It is estimated that the excavation of the archaeological site in the Sanxingdui Sacrifice Area will be completed before October, but the subsequent finishing may take more than seven or eight years." Sun Hua said.
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Sanxingdui Culture
Involved in a wider range
From the 1980s to the present, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage has guided Sichuan Province to carry out large-scale surveys, explorations and excavations, and has successively discovered important relics such as the ancient city of Sanxingdui, the small city of Moon Bay, the small city of Cangbaobao, the foundation site of large-scale buildings on Qingguan Mountain, and the cemetery of Rensheng Village. Constantly clarify the distribution range and structural layout of the Sanxingdui site.
Archaeologists have successively discovered relevant sites of the Sanxingdui culture or slightly later than the Sanxingdui culture in the Chengdu Plain, along the Yangtze River in Fuling, Chongqing, the Jialing River Basin, the Fujiang River Basin, and the Dadu River Basin. The close relationship between Xia and Shang culture in the Central Plains.
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Sanxingdui dragon shape
The shape of the dragon was discovered in China from the late Neolithic Age to the Bronze Age. It is one of the iconic shapes of Chinese civilization and is interpreted as a symbol of the Chinese nation in later generations.
Sanxingdui decorated the shape of the dragon on the shoulders of the bronze statues on top of the kneeling people's heads, and it is much larger than the ordinary bronze statues, which is a very unique cultural phenomenon.
This is the outstanding performance of Sanxingdui civilization while absorbing and learning from other regional civilization factors while exerting creativity.
Further reading
Integrated application of multi-technological means
The archaeological excavation coordinated the participation of many domestic scientific research institutions and universities such as the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Peking University, and the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, forming a joint archaeological, conservation and research team.
Archaeologists make full use of modern science and technology to build archaeological site protection sheds, use multi-functional archaeological excavation operation platforms, and build archaeological site cultural relic emergency protection laboratories. With the support of a multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional professional team, they constitute traditional archaeology, The in-depth integration of laboratory archaeology, scientific and technological archaeology, and cultural relic protection has realized the combination of archaeological excavation, systematic scientific research and timely and effective protection of the site, ensuring the high quality and high level of archaeological work.
Corroboration of the existing civilization
There is a strange and unique manifestation
There are 6 newly discovered "sacrifice pits" of Sanxingdui culture. The unearthed cultural relics provide more complete information, enrich the connotation of ancient Shu civilization, and further clarify the status of ancient Shu civilization as an important pole of Chinese civilization.