Sanxingdui archaeological use of what high-tech?
The first episode of the documentary "Treasures of Ancient Shu" was broadcast last night, detailing the excavation scene
At 8 p.m. on March 30, the first episode of the large-scale archaeological documentary "Treasures of Ancient Shu" produced by Sichuan Radio and Television Station, "Discovery and Discovery," appeared on CCTV's Documentary Channel, and was broadcast on Sichuan Satellite TV at 9:15 p.m. that night.
How are the artifacts discovered?
This documentary was shot in a panoramic field, and the excavation scene was restored in 4K in detail.
After sleeping for three thousand years, wake up and startle the world
In November 2019, Ran Honglin, then deputy head of the Sanxingdui Site Workstation of the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, started a new round of excavations in Sanxingdui with a Luoyang shovel.
Before that, Sanxingdui had been silent for more than 30 years.
In July 1986, Sanxingdui No. 1 and No. 2 sacrificial pits were accidentally discovered when the local brick factory was borrowing soil.
More than 1,700 heavyweight jade, stone and bronze wares including "Bronze Standing Figure", "Bronze God Tree" and "Bronze Mask" were unearthed during this excavation.
Due to the limited scientific and technological means at that time, the archaeological technology was quite backward. Out of the protection of cultural relics, the archaeological team did not conduct large-scale excavation of the Sanxingdui site.
Until 2019, Sichuan Province organized the implementation of the ancient Shu civilization protection and inheritance project, and a new round of discoveries was made in Sanxingdui, and the sacrificial pits from No. 3 to No. 8 were revealed one after another.
It took 33 years from the discovery of Pit 1 and Pit 2 to Pit 3.
It took only 5 months from the discovery of Pit No. 3 to Pit No. 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8.
Digital archaeology in a race against time
Archaeological work is a race against time.
For example, the excavation of silk, from discovery to extraction and excavation, to taking protective measures, needs to be completed in a very short period of time.
The excavation process is also irreversible. If you are not careful, the historical information hidden on the cultural relics will be destroyed.
The excavation has made overall planning in the early stage of data recording and hardware construction, the middle stage of cultural relic extraction, and the later stage of cultural relics protection and research.
In July 1986, Chen Dean led the team to build a grass hut and started work.
"During the thunderstorm season, we were anxious when there was a thunderstorm. We were afraid of flooding. We fought all night."
After 34 years, in July 2020, the construction of the Sanxingdui archaeological greenhouse began.
Through the latest environmental control system, the site temperature is controlled between 20-25°C and the humidity is controlled at about 80% to prevent the cultural relics from being oxidized and damaged during the excavation process.
In addition, the construction of airframes realizes non-contact archaeology, digital means to collect and organize on-site information in a timely manner, acousto-optical intelligent equipment realizes remote consultation with experts, and emergency protection laboratories ensure that archaeological excavations and cultural relics protection are carried out synchronously.
The exploration of Sanxingdui this time is a digital scientific and technological archaeology with the highest technical content, the highest specification and the highest precision.
Not only the hardware conditions are guaranteed, but the archaeological concept has also undergone new changes: the grid method is used for excavation, each layer of fill is carefully analyzed, and a more scientific and comprehensive cultural relic testing method is used for research.
All this allows archaeologists to discover more cultural and archaeological values carried by cultural relics.
This time, the residues of silk products that were invisible to the naked eye were extracted from Pit No. 4.
This means that silk fabrics were discovered in Sanxingdui for the first time, providing strong material evidence for the study of the long history of silk development in the ancient Shu Kingdom.
The golden mask unearthed in Pit No. 5 weighs more than 280 grams, which is unprecedented in both volume and weight.
Turning heads and kneeling portraits, kneeling portraits on the top, jade cong carved with a sacred tree... With a large number of unprecedented cultural relics "upgraded", the mysterious and strict ancient Shu city-state system is also slowly in front of the archaeologists. Expand.
West China Metropolis Daily-Cover reporter Zeng Jie and intern Zhu Yifan