Sanxingdui was discovered in Sichuan Province. It is the largest, longest-lasting and most culturally rich ancient city, ancient country and ancient Shu cultural site found in the southwest region, and is known as one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of mankind in the 20th century and the "source of Yangtze River civilization".
1. The location of Sanxingdui
The Sanxingdui site is located on the south bank of the Yazi River northwest of Guanghan City, Sichuan Province, China. Most of the ancient cultural relics are distributed on the high terraces on the north and south banks of the Mamu River on the south bank of the Yazi River, the surface of the site group is an irregular trapezoidal shape of south wide and north narrow, along the river area is 5 to 6 kilometers long from east to west, 2 to 3 kilometers wide from north to south, with a total area of about 1200 hectares, and more than 30 ancient cultural relics have been identified, of which "Sanxingdui" in the south, "Moon Bay" and "Zhenwu Palace" in the middle, "Xiquankan" in the north, "Lion Weir" in the east, "Hengliangzi" in the west, and "Rensheng Village" in the west. Dayan Village" and other sites are the most important.
Sanxingdui is a huge group of sites composed of many ancient cultural relics and is also the largest and most important ancient cultural relic in Sichuan.
2. Sanxingdui cultural level
Sanxingdui is divided into four phases, one for Baodun culture, two and three phases for Sanxingdui culture, and four phases for The Twelve Bridges culture. The site group dates from the late Neolithic period to the end of the Shang Dynasty and the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, and lasts for nearly 2,000 years. Among them, the cultural relics unearthed are valuable human cultural heritage and rare treasures.
3. Important relics of Sanxingdui
Important relics of Sanxingdui include:
(1) The western city wall, located on the high platform between the Duck River and the Mamu River in the northwest of the Sanxingdui site, is in a northeast-southwest direction, and the total length of the existing part of the ground is about 600 meters, the top width is about 10 to 30 meters, the bottom width is about 35 to 50 meters, and the height is about 3 to 6 meters.
(2) Moon Bay City Wall, located in the north-central part of the Sanxingdui ruins on the eastern edge of the Moon Bay Terrace, the total length of the existing part of the wall floor is about 650 meters, the top width is about 20 meters, and the height is 2.4 to 5 meters.
(3) Sacrifice pit, the famous No. 1 and No. 2 sacrifice pits are located more than 50 meters southeast of the Sanxingdui city wall, and the two pits are 25 meters apart, which is one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the Sanxingdui site.
(4) Sanxingdui city wall, according to the foundation of the city wall, the length of the Sanxingdui city wall is 260 meters, and the width of the foundation is 42 meters.
(5) Rensheng Village Cemetery, located in the northwest of the Sanxingdui site (outside the western city wall), is the first public cemetery found in the Sanxingdui site, and it is also the first time that important cultural relics have been found outside the ancient city.
(6) Qingguan Mountain Ruins, located on the terrace on the south bank of the Duck River. After archaeological excavations, a large red-burnt earth house was found. From the site disclosure part, it is speculated that the plane is rectangular, northwest-southeast direction, and the area that can be observed is now about 100 square meters.
4. Sanxingdui discovers the basic timeline
(1) The discovery of the Sanxingdui site began with a pit of jade tools accidentally discovered by local farmer Yan Daocheng when he was digging a ditch in 1929.
(2) In 1934, Ge Weihan, director of the West China University Museum, and assistant Lin Mingjun formed an archaeological team in the spring of 1934, presided over by Luo Yucang, the county magistrate of Guanghan County, and carried out a ten-day excavation near the jade ware found in Yan's family. Discover the harvest.
(3) In 1963, a joint archaeological team led by Feng Hanji and composed of the Sichuan Provincial Museum and the Department of History of Sichuan University once again excavated the Moon Bay and other sites of the Sanxingdui site, showing the basic appearance of the Sanxingdui ruins and culture.
(4) Excavations from 1980 to 1981 cleared out pieces of Neolithic housing site remains, unearthed tens of thousands of specimens, and also found a stratigraphic overlapping relationship with staging significance.
(5) In 1982 and 1984, archaeologists conducted two excavations at the southwest and West Quankan sites of the Sanxingdui site, respectively, and found the most recent remains of the Sanxingdui site.
(6) In 1986, a large number of relics and complex stratigraphic overlapping relationships were unearthed, and according to the excavation materials of this year, some archaeologists began to try to stage the Sanxingdui site. Two large Shang Dynasty sacrifice pits excavated from July to September 1986 unearthed nearly 1,000 precious cultural relics such as gold, copper, jade, stone, pottery, shells and bones. Among the thousands of bronzes, gold and jade tools unearthed from the Sanxingdui sacrifice pit, the most distinctive is the first three or four hundred bronzes.
(7) Since 1990, the exploration of Sanxingdui culture and civilization has extended from the Chengdu Plain to the Yudong region and the southern Shaanxi region. Due to the preliminary revelation of the Neolithic cultural features of the Sichuan Basin that preceded the Sanxingdui culture, there are many ancient city ruins of the Longshan era and several remnants of the transition stage from the Neolithic culture to the Sanxingdui culture.
(8) In September 2020, excavations at the Sanxingdui site started again.
(9) In May 2017, the Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Culture, Culture, Culture and Broadcasting submitted a request for approval of the "Implementation Opinions on Further Strengthening the Work of Cultural Relics (Draft for Review)", revealing that the Jinsha site and the Sanxingdui site jointly declared a world cultural heritage.
(10) On March 20, 2021, the "Archaeology China" major project work progress meeting held in Chengdu reported that archaeologists found 6 new Sanxingdui cultural "sacrifice pits" at the Sanxingdui site, and more than 500 important cultural relics such as gold mask fragments, giant bronze masks, bronze sacred trees, and ivory have been unearthed.
(11) In March 2021, a fragment of a bronze sacred tree was exposed in the center of Pit 3. As archaeological excavations progressed, the trunk of the Sacred Tree and the Sun Wheel ornaments on the Sacred Tree were fully revealed. It was not until July 15, after four months, that it was finally extracted.
(12) On May 28, 2021, the "Sanxingdui Global Culture Promotion Conference" co-sponsored by the Information Office of the State Council, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and the People's Government of Sichuan Province was held outside the archaeological greenhouse of the Guanghan Sanxingdui site. The promotion meeting announced the latest excavation progress of the six sacrificial pits at the Sanxingdui site. Six Sanxingdui sacrifice pits have extracted 534 pieces of important cultural relics such as ivory, bronze, gold and jade and nearly 2,000 fragments of broken cultural relics.
(13) On July 29, 2021, the Sichuan Provincial People's Congress passed the Regulations on the Protection of Sanxingdui Ruins in Sichuan Province.
(14) On November 18, 2020, it was elected as a "New Landmark of Bashu Cultural Tourism Corridor".
5. Summary
The Sanxingdui site is located on the south bank of the Yazi River northwest of Guanghan City, Sichuan Province, China. It began when local farmer Yan Daocheng stumbled upon it in 1929 when he was digging a ditch. After nearly a century of archaeological excavations, a large number of historical relics have been discovered and unearthed, unveiling the basic features of sanxingdui culture, and is known as one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of mankind in the 20th century and the "source of Yangtze River civilization". And has become a "new landmark of the Bashu Cultural Tourism Corridor".