China News Agency, Guanghan, August 18th: Thunderstorm: How does Sanxingdui vividly demonstrate the diversity of Chinese civilization?

  China News Agency reporter Yue Yitong

  From 1934 to the present, the Sanxingdui site located on the Yazi River in the northwest of Guanghan City, Sichuan Province has been “stunning the world”. The combination of distinctive regional culture and elements of the Central Plains culture has formed the magnificent and unique cultural characteristics of Sanxingdui, which has attracted widespread attention at home and abroad.

  Why has the archaeological history of the Sanxingdui site lasted for nearly a hundred years?

What mysteries have been revealed by the current round of excavation of the "Sacrificial Pit" at the Sanxingdui Site, and what mysteries have yet to be solved?

How does Sanxingdui vividly demonstrate the diversity and unity of Chinese civilization?

Lei Yu, the head of the Sanxingdui Site Workstation of the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the director of the Sanxingdui Museum, recently accepted an exclusive interview with China News Agency's "Dongxiwen" to conduct an in-depth analysis of the above problems.

  The following is a summary of the interview transcript:

  China News Agency reporter: Since the first excavation in 1934, why has the archaeological history of Sanxingdui lasted for nearly a hundred years?

  Thunderstorm: The Sanxingdui site has a distribution area of ​​about 12 square kilometers. It is the largest and longest pre-Qin site ever discovered in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and even in the southwest.

Among them, the core of the site, Sanxingdui Ancient City, has an area of ​​3.6 square kilometers.

The Sanxingdui culture has also lasted for a long time. The cultural accumulation has continued from the Baodun culture in the late Neolithic period to the late Shu culture in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. It is very time-consuming to excavate.

  In 1934, the West China Union University Museum (the predecessor of Sichuan University Museum) conducted the first excavation of Sanxingdui in history, which opened the archaeological prelude to the Sanxingdui site.

Later, due to historical, social and other reasons, the excavation work was temporarily suspended.

  From the 1950s to the 1970s, a number of archaeological institutions in Sichuan Province conducted several archaeological investigations at the Sanxingdui site and conducted small-scale trial excavations; from the 1980s to the 1990s, the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and other units A comprehensive and systematic archaeological survey, exploration and excavation work has been carried out on the site and its surrounding areas, and the distribution, accumulation, age range and cultural connotation of the site and the city site have been basically found out. be officially named and confirmed.

  In 1986, after the discovery of No. 1 and No. 2 "sacrificial pits", the Sanxingdui site was upgraded to a national key cultural relics protection unit, known as "one of the greatest archaeological discoveries in the 20th century", and its importance has become increasingly prominent.

Sanxingdui "Sacrificial Pit".

Photo by China News Agency reporter Zhang Lang

  This round of excavation of the "Sacrificial Pit" has come to an end, but the excavation area of ​​the Sanxingdui site is less than two thousandths of the total area.

Sites with such a long archaeological history are rare in China, and the archaeological work at Sanxingdui will continue for a long time.

  China News Agency reporter: What past mysteries have been revealed by the excavation of the "Sacrificial Pit" at the Sanxingdui Site?

What other mysteries have been raised?

  Thunderstorm: First of all, during this round of excavation, the cross-pit matching of artifacts was realized for the first time, which is of great significance for the study of the relationship between the "sacrificial pit" and the research on the unearthed artifacts.

For example, the newly discovered bronze figure with a snake body on the top of the No. 8 "Sacrificial Pit" and the remnants of the bronze bird-footed figure unearthed in the No. 2 "Sacrificial Pit" in 1986 "combined" the bird-footed figure with the curved body and the top of the god. extensive attention.

Sanxingdui Cultural Preservation Center displays the statue of the bird with its feet bent and the top of the statue.

Photo by China News Agency reporter Zhang Lang

  At the same time, through carbon 14 dating, it was found that the burial age of the "Sacrificial Pit" No. 3, No. 4, No. 7, and No. 8 was the same, except for the "Sacrificial Pit" No. 5 and No. 6 which broke the relationship. The late Shang Dynasty, about 3200 to 3000 years ago, resolved the disputes over the burial age of the "sacrificial pit" over the past 30 years.

  In addition, the discovery of silk also confirmed the conjecture that the ancient Shu Kingdom had a developed silk industry.

Take the 2.62-meter-high bronze Dali figure as an example. The Dali man is dressed in three layers of clothes and is very ornate. Now we can be sure that his clothes must include silk fabrics.

  While this round of excavations has yielded a lot, many new puzzles have also been raised.

First, the nature of the 8 pits is questioned, and the idea of ​​pure "sacrificial pits" is not very reliable.

Although it can be determined that there was sacrificial behavior when the utensils entered the pit, and the utensils in the pit are also sacrificial utensils, but the nature of the digging, smashing, burning and burying of utensils is not the same as the public understanding.

  Second, the appearance of the cross-pit pairing artifacts indicates that the pits involved were formed at the same time, suggesting that a major event might have occurred in the ancient Shu Kingdom at that time, but why were multiple pits dug to bury the things in the same temple?

What kind of etiquette or thought did the ancient Shu people reflect behind this?

Why after several years or even hundreds of years, the ancestors of ancient Shu would dig a pit again to form a pit No. 6 on the basis of the damage to the No. 7 pit in the same place?

  Third, where did the ivory at the Sanxingdui site come from?

Past research has tended to interpret it as local, but due to the sheer amount of ivory, this claim cannot be supported by the volume.

At present, scientific research institutions are conducting strontium isotope analysis on the ivory unearthed in Sanxingdui. According to the current research situation, it can be preliminarily determined that some ivory was imported through trade.

This shows that the trade channels of the ancient Shu people are very smooth, but the specific trade methods and routes need further study.

Ivory found on the rammed earth surface of Qingguanshan F3 at the Sanxingdui site.

Photo by Zhong Xin issued by China News Agency

  In addition, in the past, it was generally believed that the Sanxingdui site and the Jinsha site, the two capitals of the ancient Shu Kingdom, had a seamless relationship in terms of age.

However, according to the carbon-14 dating results, the lower age limit of Pit No. 4 has entered the Western Zhou Dynasty, and some artifacts unearthed have a relatively obvious Jinsha style.

This may mean that after the establishment of the capital of Jinsha, there are still many high-level people living in Sanxingdui.

So, could it be that the two capitals of the ancient Shu Kingdom coexisted for a period of time?

The reason behind it may be that power delivery takes time, or it may be because of power struggles.

Solving this problem is of great value to the study of ancient Shu history.

  Finally, there is the ultimate conjecture about the Sanxingdui site: Is there any text?

At present, archaeologists are expecting to find a few words on a large piece of jade in the middle of the newly discovered tortoise-shaped grid bronze.

Even if there is writing, if it is made of wood or silk, it is unlikely to be preserved. I personally prefer to believe that a developed civilization like Sanxingdui should have writing.

  China News Service reporter: How will the next archaeological excavation and research work at the Sanxingdui site be carried out?

  Thunderstorm: At present, the excavation area of ​​the Sanxingdui site is less than 2/1000 of the total area. It is necessary to continue to carry out a lot of excavation work to accumulate basic materials.

From the perspective of urban layout, Sanxingdui, as the capital of the ancient Shu Kingdom, has yet to find the high-level tomb area, bronze workshop area and other elements, which will be the focus of our future work.

  A large number of bronze wares were unearthed at the Sanxingdui site, and we have reason to believe that a considerable part must have been cast locally.

In 1963, Sichuan University conducted a small-scale trial excavation near Moon Bay Terrace and Yan's Courtyard, and it is said that slag and copper mines were discovered.

Although there were no physical materials left at that time due to various reasons, the written records left by the participating experts provided certain clues for finding the location of the bronze workshop.

  In addition to several "sacrificial pits" that have been discovered, we will also carry out larger-scale excavation and exploration in the sacrificial area, in order to clarify the spatial layout of the entire area; about the archaeological work in the "palace area", we will focus on No. 2, Related work will be carried out on the No. 3 building base; in addition, since Sanxingdui is a theocratic country, we will continue to strengthen research on the ancient Shu people's sacrificial system and religious concepts.

The plan of the excavation area of ​​the sacrificial area at the Sanxingdui site.

Photo courtesy of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage issued by China News Service

  China News Service reporter: Why does Sanxingdui vividly demonstrate the unity of diversity in Chinese civilization?

  Thunderstorm: Chinese civilization was diverse in its origin and development stage, and finally achieved a unified pattern in the Qin and Han dynasties, moving towards unity.

The ancient Shu civilization represented by Sanxingdui culture is the most unique regional civilization in the origin and development period of Chinese civilization. It has a relatively independent development process, and its regional characteristics are its greatest characteristic.

  Sanxingdui's distinctive geographical features and complex cultural landscape are a vivid example of the diversity and openness of the early stage of Chinese civilization.

Judging from the current archaeological achievements, bronze sculptures represented by sacred trees, altars, human (god) images, human heads, human faces (tools), and half-human and half-god statues are unprecedented in the eastern bronze civilization. See; the splendid gold craftsmanship shown by the gold ware represented by the golden rod, the golden mask and the golden mask is extremely unique in the eastern farming civilization; the jade ware with very rich types and shapes, and the almost wild phenomenon of using jade, It is very prominent in Chinese bronze civilization; the phenomenon of concentrated burial of an amazing number of ivory and seashells is very rare in the history of world bronze civilization.

  While clarifying the uniqueness of Sanxingdui culture, it should also clearly see its unity with Chinese civilization.

If the early Chinese civilization is a puzzle with rich contents, Sanxingdui is a unique and indispensable piece of it.

  Archaeological research has found that the Sanxingdui Culture has extensively absorbed the bronze casting technology, ritual system, pattern aesthetics and jade tradition from the Xia and Shang civilizations in the Yellow River Basin.

At the same time, concepts, systems, techniques and specific objects such as jade cong and jade cones from the Liangzhu Culture in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, gray-white pottery, wall-building techniques and rice-cropping techniques from the Shijiahe Culture in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River also reflect The ancient Shu civilization has a profound connection with the ancient civilizations in these areas.

The head of a bronze man unearthed from the Sacrificial Pit No. 8 at the Sanxingdui Site.

Photo by China News Agency reporter Zhang Lang

  The Sanxingdui culture also had a considerable influence on the surrounding culture, ranging from the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River in the east, the Guanzhong area in the north, the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau in the south to the northern part of Vietnam.

Yuzhang, which originated from the Central Plains culture, has been unearthed in Sanxingdui and Jinsha sites.

After these Yuzhangs were introduced to Shu, the ancient Shu people transformed them and formed the Shu-style Yazhang with local characteristics.

The spread of this kind of Yazhang is very wide, and it has been found in Hong Kong, Guangxi and even northern Vietnam.

  Sanxingdui culture is an inseparable part of Chinese civilization.

Even the seemingly peculiar objects, such as the yazhang held in the hands of the bronze kneeling figure, the statues of different shapes on the top of the head, the images of dragons and phoenixes that appear in large numbers, the bronze ornaments of Shang culture, etc., All of them reflect the classic elements of Chinese civilization, which fully shows that the ancestors of ancient Shu possessed the cultural genes of the Chinese nation.

  Sanxingdui culture is undoubtedly a demonstration of the diversity, unity, openness and inclusiveness of Chinese civilization.

The current understanding of Sanxingdui is only the tip of the iceberg. With the continuous development of future archaeological excavations and research work, the Sanxingdui site will further improve and enrich the understanding and interpretation of the origin of Chinese civilization.

(Finish)

Interviewee Profile:

Photo by China News Agency reporter Zhang Lang

   Lei Yu, the head of the Sanxingdui Site Workstation of the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, the director of the Sanxingdui Museum, and the excavation team leader of the Sanxingdui Site, has been involved in the Chinese civilization exploration project since 2013. He has been engaged in archaeological work for nearly 40 years and has rich field archaeological experience.