In the scorching summer, the ancient Shu national treasures held hands to "go on business" to Shenzhen, setting off a wave of exhibitions in the local area.
A few days ago, the cover reporter learned from the Chengdu Jinsha Site Museum that the exhibition "Understanding Sanxingdui: Bronze, Jade, Ivory and Tiger Teeth in Sacrificial Scenes" was hosted by Shenzhen Museum and Southern University of Science and Technology, and co-organized by Sichuan Guanghan Sanxingdui Museum and Chengdu Jinsha Site Museum. It is on display at the Shenzhen Museum of Ancient Art. This "small but refined" exhibition displays 14 pieces (sets) of first-class cultural relics, including Jinsha Shangzhou's shoulder-carrying ivory human-shaped jade Zhang and Sanxingdui bronze that reproduce the sacrificial scenes of the ancient Shu Kingdom. Human masks and other artifacts.
Heavy national treasure on business trip to Shenzhen
The splendid ancient Shu civilization is an important part of the diverse and integrated Chinese civilization. Various cultural relics unearthed from the Sanxingdui site and the Jinsha site have always attracted the attention of the world.
In particular, the new round of archaeological excavations in the Sanxingdui Sacrificial Area has achieved a number of important results. The exhibition was very popular, attracting a large number of Shenzhen residents to visit the exhibition in its first weekend.
This is not the first time that Sanxingdui and Jinsha have appeared in Shenzhen.
As early as 2009, Shenzhen Museum held a large-scale cultural relic exhibition "Mysterious Ancient Shu Kingdom - Sanxingdui and Jinsha Unearthed Cultural Relics and Treasures Exhibition".
After a lapse of 13 years, the exhibition "Understanding Sanxingdui" is divided into three units: Sacrifice, Jianmu Tongtian, and Sacrifice. 15 pieces (sets) of cultural relics from Sanxingdui and Jinsha are displayed, except for those unearthed in Jinsha. The ivory has not yet been graded, and the remaining 14 pieces (sets) are first-class cultural relics, which more completely show the scene of sacrifices in the ancient Shu Kingdom more than 3,000 years ago.
Through the simulation of the exhibition and the precious unearthed cultural relics, the audience can appreciate the essence of the sacrificial culture of the ancient Shu Kingdom, and feel the exchange and integration of the bronze civilizations in the Yangtze River Basin and the Yellow River Basin.
In this exhibition, Tang Jigen, an archaeologist from South University of Science and Technology, used physical and 3D printed cultural relics to restore the Sanxingdui sacrificial scene by means of physical objects and technology.
Those incomprehensible thick fogs that shrouded Sanxingdui civilization were presented to the Shenzhen audience in this way.
3D printing to reproduce cultural relics
The 8 cultural relics presented by Sanxingdui are all first-class cultural relics unearthed from the No. 1 and No. 2 sacrificial pits in 1986, including bronze masks, bronze heads, bronze kneeling figures, bronze statues, tiger teeth and jade Zhangs.
The newly unearthed bronze statues of Altman wearing pointed hats and bronze statues with their heads turned and kneeling are displayed in the exhibition hall in the form of 3D printed cultural relics.
Among the cultural relics that Jinsha sent to the exhibition, there are not only the ivory human-shaped jade Zhang and jade shells carried on the shoulders of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, but also stone tigers, stone snakes, stone kneeling figures, small stone chimes and ivory, which complement the cultural relics unearthed in Sanxingdui.
Both Sanxingdui and Jinsha have jade pieces unearthed. The three jade pieces exhibited in this exhibition have their own merits.
In "Zhou Li", Zhang was once listed as one of the six Rui. It was an important ritual vessel in ancient Chinese sacrificial activities, and it was also a representative of social rank and power.
More than 200 jade pieces have been unearthed from the Jinsha site, with gorgeous colors, various forms, and exquisite carvings. Some of the jade pieces are decorated with multiple fine parallel straight lines or curved lines; with distinct regional characteristics.
It is worth noting that the ivory human-shaped jade bag on the shoulders presented to the exhibition at the Jinsha site has the same pattern engraved on both sides. shoulder.
Some scholars believe that this piece of jade reflects the scene of ancient Shu people carrying ivory for sacrificial activities. This vivid picture complements the sacrificial scene restored in the exhibition hall.
There is a record of beating and killing the water god with ivory in "Zhou Li Qiuguan Hu Zhuo Shi": "Hu Zhuo Shi's palm exterminates water insects, beats him with the drum of cannon soil, and throws stones at it. If you want to kill his god, If the ivory penetrates through the ivory at noon and sinks into it, the god will die, and the abyss will be the tomb.” Among them, ivory is ivory.
During the ancient Shu period, flood disasters often occurred in the Chengdu Plain.
Ancient Shu people sacrificed with ivory, perhaps hoping that ivory could kill the monsters in the river and protect their homes from flooding.
The exhibition restores the ancient Shu sacrificial scene
The academic community generally believes that the six buried pits discovered in Sanxingdui are sacrificial pits, but it has not been determined who and how to sacrifice.
Tang Jigen hopes to use the exhibition to complete the interpretation of the sacrificial phenomenon.
A complete sacrificial activity includes at least four parts: the victim, the sacrificial person, the sacrificial utensils and the sacrificial method. If the function of the burial pit is indeed sacrificial, then the corresponding sacrificial utensils and sacrificial phenomena should be found.
Therefore, the audience can see such a scene in the exhibition hall of the Shenzhen Museum: In the first unit "The Sacrifice", the bronze Dali man stands on a high platform, dressed in a dragon-patterned garment, wearing a "Heavenly Eye Crown", with a solemn expression, Holding things in both hands, they should be the people of the main sacrifice; the bronze kneeling top statue, the bronze kneeling standing statue, the bronze animal crown statue, the bronze kneeling statue, etc. are small in size, and they are also neatly dressed, pious and solemn, and should be sacrificed. people.
The second unit, "Jianmu Tongtian", takes the No. 2 bronze tree unearthed from the No. 2 sacrificial pit in Sanxingdui as the core of the display, showing that the ancient Shu people conveyed their thoughts to the sky through the sacred tree.
The human-faced bird flies between the sacrificed person and the bronze tree, showing the connection between the sacrificed person and the sacred tree, which is an important proof of "building wood to the sky".
The third unit, "Sacrificial Persons", represents the sacrificed persons with vertical-eye masks and drum-eye masks.
Through the simulation of the exhibition and the precious unearthed cultural relics, the audience can appreciate the essence of the sacrificial culture of the ancient Shu Kingdom, and feel the exchange and integration of the bronze civilizations in the Yangtze River Basin and the Yellow River Basin.
After the Shenzhen Museum's new exhibition, it attracted citizens to line up to watch the legend of ancient Shu.
From August 2 to August 31, 2022, the Shenzhen Museum of Ancient Art Museum (located at No. 6 Tongxin Road, Futian District) will advance the opening time from Tuesday to Sunday to 9:30, so that more citizens can enjoy the ancient Shu The essence of civilization.