From Sanxingdui to Jinsha Site, to be continued...
Whether in academia or in the public domain, Sanxingdui is the most influential archaeological site in recent years.
Sanlian Bookstore’s recently published work "In Search of Sanxingdui: Exploring the Bronze Civilization in the Yangtze River Basin" took the Sanxingdui site as the starting point and core, and conducted in-depth interviews and inspections of the Baodun and Jinsha sites, and enlarged the field of view to the entire Yangtze River Basin.
It is reported that the author team of the book rushed to the site at the first time of the excavation and interviewed scholars such as Lei Yu, the head of the Sanxingdui Archaeological Workstation, and Chen Dean, the former head of the Archaeological Workstation, as well as experts such as Professor Sun Hua of the School of Arts and Sciences of Peking University and Shi Jinsong of the Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of Social Sciences. Researchers, authoritatively interpret the Sanxingdui site from different perspectives, also involve myths and historical facts, excavate and research the history and current situation, and explore a lot of academic disputes and public doubts in more depth.
At the same time, in addition to the Sanxingdui site, it also conducted in-depth interviews and investigations on its "predecessor" Baodun site and its "post-generation" Jinsha site; thus establishing a time coordinate, aiming at Sanxingdui from a relatively complete time-space framework, rather than Observe this site in isolation.
It is not enough to stay in Sanxingdui. The authors have enlarged their vision to the entire Yangtze River basin to expand their knowledge background for readers.
The interviews with experts and scholars in the book provide a lot of authoritative information and solve many misunderstandings and mysteries that existed in the past.
Archaeology is a boring and interesting industry. As the general public, to truly understand our ancient Shu civilization and even Chinese civilization, it requires professional interpretation and popular expression. We excerpt some of the contents of the book so that readers can To understand the mystery from a broader perspective of history.
The excavations in Sanxingdui are not over yet, and what secrets remain in the ancient Shu civilization, we have not yet understood. When faced with these unearthed cultural relics, the next archaeological excavations are still worth looking forward to.
one
"Sanxingdui" is actually three mounds in the site area. Some scholars believe that these three mounds used to be a connected city wall, but now only half of the three damaged mounds are left, and the height is lower than before. A bit.
Chen Dean was the leader of the archaeological team when he excavated the "sacrifice pit" in 1986. He clearly remembered that in July of that year, golden rods, golden masks, dragon and tiger statues, and bronze statues were unearthed one after another, allowing people to see an incredible underground world. .
Just after the excavation of Pit No. 1 was completed, Pit No. 2 was discovered. The two unearthed pits in succession make them a reference to each other and provide more complementary information.
The first thing exposed in Pit No. 2 was a bronze head. Although there was only one corner, it was face up.
Bronze, gloomy, grim, expressionless portrait from more than 3,000 years ago.
Starting from this head, a larger bronze world was opened.
Compared with the total of 420 unearthed relics in Pit 1, the number of unearthed relics in Pit 2 is much larger and more exquisite. Among the 1,300 unearthed relics, 735 are bronzes, and the remaining 61 are gold and jade. 486 pieces.
Until now, everyone who sees these things in the museum still asks: Where did these bronzes come from?
What is this for?
Most accounts believe that Sanxingdui bronzes are similar to those of the Central Plains, and they are both sacrificial articles.
At the same time, the bronze ware of the Shang Dynasty in the Central Plains was more like a general intermediary between humans and gods, and it was a medium of communication.
But in the religious system of Sanxingdui, this medium is no longer a geometrical object, but a statue of a god or the ancestor itself.
"From the current archaeological point of view, no words have been found in Sanxingdui, but these idols may become the most direct channel for us to interpret Sanxingdui. The amount of information and information value it gives is different from words and bronze artifacts in the Central Plains. Other cultural needs Guess what the ruling class is, but Sanxingdui has a clear image and provides us with a lot of information about the ruling class.” Sun Hua explained.
Shi Jinsong believes that the relics in Pit 1 are mainly bronze heads, dragon pillars and golden rods. They may be the image of tribal leaders and symbols of royal power. Therefore, the artifacts in Pit 1 are buried in the ancestral temple; 2 The pit is mainly made of bronze sun-shaped objects, sacred trees, sacred birds, roosters, eye-shaped objects, and utensils representing sacrificial scenes. The theme is sun worship and comes from a temple.
It is worth mentioning that the artifacts unearthed in these two pits seem to be very rich and lively, but in fact, there are only a handful of intact artifacts, many of which are damaged and fragmented, and a lot of restoration and research work needs to be done.
Today, the relevant staff are continuing to restore the bronze pieces in the sacrifice pits No. 1 and 2.
two
More than 30 years have passed since the two "sacrifice pits" in Sanxingdui were discovered in 1986.
After being unearthed from pits 1 and 2, those bizarre bronzes pushed Sanxingdui to the forefront of the archaeological world, and made it appear in the public eye in the form of various hypotheses.
Since then, the archaeological team has been conducting surveys and excavations of the city site, trying to restore the more important appearance of this ancient city, rather than simply confining it to the study of artifacts.
After the excavation, No. 1 and No. 2 "sacrifice pits" became tourist attractions, with plank roads and small sheds for tourists to rest.
For a long time, the two pits have been visited by tourists like this, imagining that they were once filled with treasures.
In December 2019, by chance, a corner was exposed at the foot of the plank road wall. After rapid detection, the current head of Sanxingdui Archaeological Station Lei Yu and his team felt that there might be something here.
The pit where the corner is exposed is pit 3.
Chen Dean, 67 years old, was not willing to believe the emergence of the new hole at first, but he rushed to the scene as soon as possible.
The only clue is covered under the plank road, it is difficult to see clearly, can only be touched by hand.
"It's a deity, a big mouth." With years of archaeological experience and the feel of all the artifacts in Pit No. 1 and 2, he is familiar with the bronzes of Sanxingdui, any shape and texture.
Before that, almost no one believed that there would be new discoveries here.
Leiyu and his colleagues quickly entered the survey stage. The openings of six new pits were discovered one after another, almost sandwiched within 30 meters between pits 1 and 2. Similarly, the small ones are square.
Why are the 8 pits next to each other, but it took more than 30 years to find the other 6?
Leiyu explained that at first no one believed that there would be "sacrifice pits", and some scholars would look forward to finding the royal tombs or burial pits; coupled with the construction of tourist facilities, these 6 pits were completely covered.
In this way, they slept underground for decades.
three
In the 1980s, not only Sanxingdui, but also the golden age of prehistoric and pre-Qin archaeology in all regions of the country. There were major archaeological discoveries in Hongshan in Northeast China, Liangzhu in Zhejiang, and Jieshi Palace in Liaoning, which were rich and diverse three to five thousand years ago. Gradually emerged.
In 1981, the archaeologist Su Bingqi published an article "On the issue of the types of archaeological culture."
Prior to this, he had put forward the concept of "cultural district type" and proposed six major cultural districts to establish a general temporal and spatial framework for the development and evolution of Chinese prehistoric culture.
Since the beginning of the archaeology of Yin Ruins in the 1920s and 1930s, Yin Ruins has become a frame of reference for archaeology in other regions.
If the pre-Qin archaeology represented by the archaeology of Yin Ruins in the 1920s and 1930s was a nationalist approach to finding roots in China, then in the 1980s, archaeology in various regions with the background of the "flora type theory" was a kind of regional root finding. , To prove the pluralistic and integrated Chinese nation.
It is like we once thought that China should be a big river with several tributaries, but in the 1980s, perhaps the rich cultural scene thousands of years ago should be regarded as several small rivers flowing side by side, and finally converging into a big river.
Looking at the archaeology of Sanxingdui from this background, the value of Sanxingdui can be more clarified.
According to Mr. Zhang Guangzhi, the thousands of cities dotted on the political map of the "Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties" are connected by various intangible bonds to form a hierarchical system of administrative control and wealth distribution; while the hierarchical system of cities is roughly The above is consistent with the grading and stratification of clans and clan.
Each "country" in ancient China was a network of cities and towns of different levels.
At the beginning of the three generations, there were many such countries, and each country may include a small number of cities.
After wars and conquests and annexations, the number of countries has decreased, while the remaining cities in each country have increased.
The interactive behaviors between cities and towns at all levels include political alliances, trade exchanges, offensives and wars, marriages and marriages. These factors are also continuously contributing to the reduction of "nation".
In the three eras of "Xia, Shang, Zhou", it seems that there was a country occupying a dominant position, but this country was only the most prominent country in their era, not the only country.
The ancient Shu Kingdom to which Sanxingdui belongs is such an ancient country coexisting and independent of the Central Plains dynasty, and it is an uninterrupted and self-contained civilization system.
Four
The Jinsha site was first valued because of the discovery of jade artifacts that were previously only discovered at the Sanxingdui site.
With the unfolding of archaeological excavations, the similarity of some artifacts in the two sites has attracted more and more attention: What is the relationship between the Sanxingdui site and the Jinsha site?
Sun Hua, who has been studying the Sanxingdui site for a long time, said that the Jinsha Site and Sanxingdui's instrumental systems are very similar. The sharp-eyed deity. Although there is no big deity in Jinsha, the small deity is in the same shape. The Sanxingdui site has stone kneeling figures with hands tied up, stone snakes, stone tigers, and braids on the head like an open book The stone statues are also common in Jinsha, and more... It shows that the Jinsha site is another cultural center that has emerged after the Sanxingdui culture on the Chengdu Plain."
Through the comparative analysis of the large number of bronze figures unearthed from the two artifact pits of Sanxingdui, Sun Hua found that the ruling class in Sanxingdui was clearly divided into two ethnic groups: braided hair and velvet hair. The former represented the secular aristocracy with administrative or military power. The latter represents the clergy and aristocrats who hold religious powers such as sacrifices.
In the Jinsha period, whether it was a small bronze statue or a low-status stone kneeling figure with hands tied back, they were all braided and never seen.
How did this change come about?
From the abandonment of the Sanxingdui site to the rise of the Jinsha site, what happened?
Compared with the theory of foreign invasion and catastrophe, Sun Hua believes that this is a product of internal conflicts in the Sanxingdui Kingdom. "Since Sanxingdui is an ancient country governed by two ethnic groups, joint governance means a balance. Once the balance is broken, it is easy to appear. problem".
Archaeologists have discovered the same bronzes and pottery as those from the end of the Sanxingdui Culture and the Twelve Bridge Culture in the Chengyang Bronze Group in the Hanshui River Basin in Southern Shaanxi, the Baoshan Site in Chenggu County, and the Baima Stone Site in Ziyang County.
In the picture of the decline and fall of the Sanxingdui Kingdom described by Sun Hua, a group of Sanxingdui people crossed the Daba Mountains into the Hanshui Valley and then into Guanzhong; the group left on the Chengdu Plain moved to the downtown area of Chengdu, contributing to the prosperity of the Jinsha Site Center .
But from Sanxingdui to Jinsha, considering the strong heritage color, if the Jinsha site is regarded as a political center, the city wall is never found, which is also incomprehensible.
With the new archaeological excavations of the Sanxingdui site, from Sanxingdui to Jinsha, the mysteries about the ancient Shu civilization may be revealed and bring people more new understanding.
(Organized from "Pursuing Sanxingdui: Exploring the Bronze Civilization in the Yangtze River Valley")