Contemporary Stories of Chinese Archaeology
——Into the Sanxingdui Museum
Author: reporter Zhou Hongshuang Li Xiaodong Li Yun
From the north of Guanghan City, Deyang, Sichuan, go out of the city and go west along the Yazi River for 7 kilometers. The Sanxingdui Museum appears in front of you.
In the past two years, the six newly discovered sacrificial pits have unearthed a large number of rare cultural relics, which shocked the world again after the large-scale excavation of the Sanxingdui site in 1986.
In the past two years, countless experts, scholars, archaeology enthusiasts, netizens, and tourists have focused their attention on this magical land in the southwest of the motherland, and the number of visitors to the museum has soared tenfold.
Sanxingdui has become another "top class in the cultural and blog industry" that has dominated the list for a long time.
This spring, the reporter once again walked into the mysterious Sanxingdui.
Let the cultural relics get the most meticulous care
Outside the Sanxingdui Museum, golden rapeseed flowers covered the fields, and a large gray-span steel structure greenhouse stood in the middle.
"The greenhouse has played a huge role as soon as it was built." Yu Jian, director of the exhibition and storage department of Sanxingdui Museum, recalled that in August 2020, Guanghan suffered a continuous heavy rain. At that time, in order to find and confirm the sacrificial pit, many exploration holes had been drilled at the excavation site. Fortunately, there is a greenhouse to block the rain, which prevents the rainwater from immersing into the pit and damaging the cultural relics.
In the greenhouse, the six sacrificial pits are covered with transparent glass cabins to ensure their constant temperature and humidity.
Inside the cabin, archaeologists in full protective suits are busy carefully.
The reporter saw that there are manned platforms, lifting devices, texture acquisition devices, and 3D/spectral information acquisition devices in the glass cabin. …As soon as the cultural relics are unearthed, they are quickly sent to the laboratory set up on the site to maximize the preservation of the original information, and to carry out analysis and research work on it under strict protection.
"Before, we often extracted cultural relics as a whole and returned to the laboratory for research. Now, we move the laboratory to the archaeological site." said Xie Zhenbin, director of the Cultural Relics Protection Center of the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology. Precise, accurate and timely.
With such intensive use of these devices, Sanxingdui is currently an "early adopter" in the whole country and even the world.
"The ivory in the pit is stacked with ivory, and great care must be taken when extracting. At the same time, the working surface should not be opened too much, and the extraction time should not be too long, otherwise the ivory will quickly lose water and powder, so it is very important to use hand tools and skilled operation. According to Yu Jian, the archaeologists made their own tools for excavating soil, threading, cleaning, and lifting based on the protection experience and research results of ivory unearthed before.
The experience accumulated in previous archaeological work played a key role in this excavation.
Currently, hundreds of intact ivory are lying safely in a constant temperature and humidity freezer, awaiting further cleaning and restoration.
Yu Jian also told reporters that every time a layer of cultural relics is extracted in the pit, a comprehensive information collection must be carried out again to ensure that the state of the cultural relics when they are unearthed is fully recorded.
He said: "Archaeological excavation is not just a matter of our generation. There are some problems that we can't solve for the time being, but if enough information is left, future research work will have a further foundation."
The rapid advancement of science and technology has promoted the continuous progress of archaeological work.
In 1986, the rescue excavation could only be carried out by hand planing; but this excavation made a full cultural relics protection plan in advance.
Under the premise of "protection first", subject presupposition, synchronization of protection, multi-disciplinary integration, multi-team cooperation, unprecedented high-tech excavation, strive to make the unearthed cultural relics receive the most meticulous care, and strive not to lose every piece of soil that may exist. useful information.
In fact, the blessing of science and technology to the archaeology of the Sanxingdui site is only the tip of the iceberg of the national cultural relics scientific and technological innovation work.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, with cultural relics technological innovation and talent training as the "two-wheel drive", the cultural relics cause including archaeology has created a situation of great development and prosperity.
The reporter learned from the State Administration of Cultural Heritage that in 2021 alone, 61 scientific and technological innovation tasks for cultural relics will be included in the "14th Five-Year Plan" national key research and development plan, and joint laboratories such as environmental archaeology, molecular paleontology, chronology, and animal and plant archaeology will be deployed and constructed. , the development and application of proprietary equipment is also continuing to advance.
The construction of the discipline system for the protection and utilization of cultural relics is making great strides.
Demonstrating the Diversity of Chinese Civilization
In the warehouse of Sanxingdui Museum, the kneeling statue of the bronze-topped statue finally stood up!
This bronze cultural relic is 115 cm high and is composed of the upper half of the bronze statue and the lower half of the kneeling figure.
The bronze figurine sits kneeling at the lower part, with both hands clasped in front of him. A square plate on the head is connected to the upper bronze big mouth statue. The shoulders of the statue are decorated with exquisite dragon-shaped decorations.
On May 28, 2021, this cultural relic was unveiled on a big screen during the global promotion of Sanxingdui culture, stunning the world.
Wang Wei, a member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and chairman of the Chinese Archaeological Society, said that the kneeling figure on the bronze top is "the most important cultural relic in this excavation".
After the bronze-topped figure was unearthed, it "lyed" in the warehouse for several months.
"Look at the middle of it, only a small piece is connected." Yu Jian said, later experts carefully strengthened it physically and added a support column in the middle, only then did it restore its kneeling posture .
Guo Hanzhong is a senior expert who has been engaged in the restoration of cultural relics in Sanxingdui for more than 30 years and has restored more than 6,000 cultural relics.
He said that the restoration of cultural relics is to restore their original appearance.
For this cultural relic, standing is its original appearance, and standing can make us more truly appreciate the lofty status of the mouth.
"Look now, stand up, that kind of momentum will come out!"
Zun, in ancient times, was a wine vessel, which reflected respect and respect in sacrificial activities.
The bronze-topped statue of a kneeling figure reproduces the solemn scene of the ancient Shu sacrificial ceremony.
Wang Wei said that this cultural relic is not only huge in size, but also has deep meaning in shape. The bronze figurine is wearing a bronze ritual vessel invented by the Shang Dynasty. Evidence of a close relationship with the Shang Dynasty."
Hu Bing, deputy director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, said that with the unremitting efforts of several generations of archaeologists, the Sanxingdui site has basically established a chronology and chronology system, showing the relationship between the Sichuan Basin and the Central Plains, Guanzhong, and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. cultural ties.
Unearthed from the Sanxingdui site, the round-mouthed square statues, bronze-topped altar figures, large bronze masks, bronze sacred trees, bronze altars, and jade cong with sacred tree patterns have been unearthed in succession. The themes are unique and the details are rich. showed close ties with other civilizations of the time.
These different cultural relics have become a powerful proof of the diversity and unity of Chinese civilization.
To trace the origin is to look to the future; to look back to the past is to look further.
The dazzling achievements of the Sanxingdui site archaeology are not isolated cases.
In recent years, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage has continued to promote the "Archaeological China" major project, focusing on key areas such as the origin of human beings in China, the origin of civilization, the formation of Chinese civilization, the establishment and development of a unified multi-ethnic country, and the important position of Chinese civilization in world civilization.
Through the unremitting efforts of archaeologists, key projects such as "Research on the Settlement and Society in the Hetao Region", "Research on the Civilization Model in the Lower Yangtze River Region", "Research on the Civilization Process in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River", and "Research on the Civilization Process in the Central Plains", as well as Xinjiang, Tibet, Ali and other frontier areas Archaeological work has achieved worldwide attention.
Earth-shattering discoveries like Sanxingdui have made the world turn its attention to the ancient country of the East again and again.
To add luster to the people's better life
In the Sanxingdui Cultural Relics Protection and Restoration Museum, a transparent glass curtain wall separates the working area from the visiting area.
Inside the curtain wall, the staff are concentrating on cleaning up the cultural relics.
Outside the curtain wall, tourists are bustling, witnessing the miracle of "resurrection" of damaged cultural relics.
Sanxingdui Cultural Relics Protection and Restoration Museum was enthusiastically sought after by the audience during its trial operation. After its official opening on December 18, 2021, it has received numerous praises.
"This open cultural relic protection and restoration hall will frequently update and display the cultural relics in the cabinets, allowing the audience to share the latest results of the Sanxingdui archaeological excavation and cultural relics protection as soon as possible." Yu Jian said.
The reporter saw that there is a storage area for cultural relics in the work area. Pottery, jade, metal, ivory and other cultural relics have their own restoration rooms. Through the glass, the audience can observe the process of cultural relic restoration and understand the technical methods of cultural relic restoration.
The visiting area is equipped with a graphic introduction wall and a physical display cabinet. The cartoons and videos on the wall vividly and intuitively introduce "how to protect and restore diseased cultural relics", "the application of modern detection and analysis technology in the protection and restoration of cultural relics", "No. 3 sacred tree". 3D Restoration Exhibition” and other content, to build a knowledge framework for the restoration of cultural relics for the audience.
National treasure-level cultural relics such as the jade cong with divine tree pattern, the complete golden mask, the bronze figure with its head turned and kneeling, and the bronze figure with a bird standing upright, which have just been cleaned up and restored, have all been shown to the audience in the physical display cabinet.
In the exhibition hall, the world's largest bronze mask enjoys a huge showcase.
After its appearance on CCTV Spring Festival Gala in the Year of the Tiger, it became a traffic star.
Tourists approached to watch, took pictures with them, and exclaimed from time to time.
For many tourists, in Sanxingdui, the Cultural and Creative Museum is also a must-see check-in place.
Mask ice cream, archaeological blind boxes, trendy accessories, office stationery and other cultural and creative products satisfy their wish to "bring cultural relics home".
Recently, a tourist from Pengzhou City, Chengdu chose a stamp book and left with satisfaction after collecting the image seals such as the bronze sacred tree, the Zong-eye mask, the Dali man, etc., and said: "This is Sanxingduiliu. Best souvenir for me!"
In recent years, the public's enthusiasm for paying attention to cultural relics and archaeology and visiting cultural museum venues has continued to grow.
Cultural relic brand programs such as "China Archaeological Conference", "If National Treasures Can Talk", and "China National Treasure Conference" have successfully attracted countless fans; from the archaeological blind box that is popular all over the country, to the popularity of "Miss Tang Palace Night Banquet", and then to this year The digital cultural relics collection that was launched during the Spring Festival and instantly disappeared in seconds, even directly "lives" the cultural relics into "fires" the cultural relics.
Crossing borders and breaking the circle, the cultural relics originally hidden in the academic ivory tower are more and more "showing up", telling Chinese stories, and making cultural self-confidence also subtly established.
(Reporter Zhou Hongshuang Li Xiaodong Li Yun)