Described by Chinese netizens as “six blind boxes”, the archaeology of the Sanxingdui site opened its latest results to the public on the 20th.
Before that, the impression of Sanxingdui could be summed up by words like “mysterious” and “novel”, and many people would wonder what kind of ancient people lived in this site, and some even speculated that Sanxingdui is the remains of aliens. However, the latest archaeological results have answered some questions to some extent.
Is Sanxingdui an extraterrestrial civilization?
The reason for this and that kind of imagination of Sanxingdui is closely related to the many cultural relics unearthed in the “Sacrificial Pit” of the site in 1986.
The tall bronze statue of god, bronze tree, exquisite gold mask, gold staff, as well as large jade, ivory …… these precious artifacts unearthed in the last century, all of them show people the huge difference between Sanxingdui and people’s impression of China’s cultural relics.
At the press conference on the morning of the 20th, Sun Hua, a professor at the School of Archaeology, Arts and Sciences of Peking University, said frankly that the discovery that year attracted great attention from domestic and foreign scholars and the public because “everyone was surprised. It seemed that China did not cast these things before.”
In short, it has the characteristics of extraterritorial civilization. As a result, various speculations follow. As a result, not only foreign claims, but also bold speculations such as “Sanxingdui is a relic of aliens” appeared.
So, is Sanxingdui really a relic outside of Chinese civilization? The answer has to be found in the archaeological evidence.
The latest archaeological results “have something to say”
In fact, the excavated artifacts from Sanxingdui that shocked the world last century are only from the No. 1 and No. 2 “sacrificial pits.” From November 2019 to May 2020, archaeologists discovered six new “sacrificial pits” of the Sanxingdui culture.
According to the State Administration of Cultural Heritage news, at present, 3, 4, 5, 6 pits have been excavated to the artifact layer, 7 and 8 pits are excavating the pit fill, has unearthed gold mask fragments, bird-shaped gold pieces, gold foil, eyes with painted bronze head, giant bronze mask, bronze tree, ivory, fine-tooth carving remnants, jade congs, jade stone tools and other important cultural relics more than 500 pieces.
In addition, Song Xinchao, deputy director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage of China, said in an interview with the media that the bronze square dzong, large bronze masks and ivory trinkets carved with diamond-shaped ornaments found there are very important new discoveries.
One thing here seems to be different from people’s inherent impression: the Sanxingdui site with obvious characteristics of extraterritorial civilization also has Fangzun that was popular outside Sichuan in ancient times?
Cultural exchange marks
Dakouzun in the southern part of the late Shang Dynasty was found in Hunan, Hubei and other places in history. At the press conference on the 20th, Zhang Changping, a professor at the School of History of Wuhan University, pointed out that this showed that Sanxingdui had the possibility of communicating with the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River at that time.
Zhang Changping also said that the local bronzes of Sanxingdui have very clear borrowings from the elements of the Central Plains culture. “For example, the cloud and thunder pattern is enlarged as a symbol of Sanxingdui.” And the cloud and thunder pattern is the representative ornament of Shang culture in the Central Plains.
Ran Honglin, the person in control of the archaeological excavation site of Sanxingdui, said at a presentation on the same afternoon that a series of bronze statues, bronze figures, and jade statues can be found at the site of Yin Ruins. It shows a kind of association with Shang culture. It is evident that there is a kind of similarity between the bronze statues, copper figures, and jade objects of the unearthed sites.
Obviously, the Sanxingdui culture is not isolated.
Ran Honglin also pointed out that from the perspective of the unearthed cultural relics, the Sanxingdui site and the Jinsha site in Sichuan are more closely related. “Whether it is the bronze, jade, and gold unearthed in the two places, or the choice of the location of the two remains, the direction of the houses and tombs, the continuity between the two can be seen. The Jinsha and Sanxingdui sites belong to the ancient Shu. Civilization is the central site of two different periods created by the same group of people.”
Unsolved mysteries and new questions
The excavations at the Sanxingdui site, which have continued for decades, have so far found no written records. Is there writing at Sanxingdui or not?
Ran Honglin revealed that archaeologists have found engraved symbols on many pottery vessels. “We tend to think that this is at least an indication that there was writing.” But what do the symbols mean? That’s another new question.
The article from the State Administration of Cultural Heritage shows that archaeologists made full use of modern technology in this excavation. It also opened the archaeologists’ eyes to the possibility of resolving some of the doubts.
Sun Hua called the excavation a “fine excavation”. An important improvement over previous excavations is that “there is a lot of organic matter that we were not able to extract in the past, but now we have the possibility of extracting it.
For example, he said, “We found so many bronze heads, what is its body? People used to speculate that it was wood, but now I see that there seems to be something wooden and body-like already being unearthed. It could be a pillar, it could be a body. I think there will definitely be new discoveries, it’s just that these discoveries are just now showing their heads.”
In addition, during the excavation, the China Silk Museum team found traces of textiles in the ashes of Pit 4 through microscopic observation, possibly attached to the surface of the bronze; the presence of silk proteins in the ash layer of Pit 4 was monitored using enzyme-linked immunoassay technology, suggesting that silk was once present in Pit 4.
Yang Zhou, director of the technical department of the Chinese Silk Museum, tends to believe that these silks were perhaps used for rituals at the time, as a vehicle to communicate between heaven and earth, man and god.
It is worth mentioning that Ran Honglin revealed that, based on the information currently available, the No. 8 pit that is being excavated and filled with soil may still be unearthed relatively rich cultural relics.
Source: China News