Cover news reporter Dai Zhuxin Yang Tao video Gao Huazeng
In 2021, "Sanxingdui" has undoubtedly become the top of the archaeological community, and every release of results has occupied half of the hot search list. Ran Honglin, 34, director of the Sanxingdui Archaeological Research Institute of the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, has become a veritable "internet celebrity" this year, and several data can confirm:
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In one year, in addition to coordinating the progress of archaeological excavations at the site of the Sanxingdui Sacrifice Area, he also participated in more than 80 public archaeological activities of various sizes and interpreted Sanxingdui externally. He devotes himself to Sanxingdui for at least 300 days a year, 365 days a year. He used to come home once every six months, but now he can only ask his wife to take time to visit the construction site.
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If the sanxingdui sacrifice area archaeology project is a complex circuit system, Ran Honglin is the transit station in that system, uploading and dispatching, all the current needs to flow through him, and then output by him to different links.
A year later, the discovery of the new pit and the continuous excavation of exquisite cultural relics made him feel excited and joyful. On the other hand, how to systematically organize after excavation? How to digest the follow-up information? Ran Honglin was also anxious about this. After the hustle and bustle, everything will fall silent, and that is the daily routine of more archaeological work.
Figure according to respondents
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After the new pit of SamsungDui emerged
It was released for the first time in more than a year
Everything has to start on December 2, 2019.
In Ran Honglin's archaeological work diary that day, he wrote: At 14:13 p.m., the first bronze artifact was found in the southeast of the 3rd floor, which was confirmed by Chen De'an's former station master that it should be a bronze statue, but it has just emerged and has not been completely cleared out, so that the pit is undoubtedly a "sacrifice pit".
Archaeologists need to keep objective records when writing their work diaries. Behind this seemingly calm text, Ran Honglin was already excited. After about a year of trial excavation and preparation, on March 20, 2021, Sanxingdui officially released new results to the public, detonated the whole network, and became a "top stream".
In Ran Honglin's view, Samsung's "out of the circle" is not an accident. When the trench that exposed the corners of the bronze appeared, everything today can be almost expected. "The excavation of the two pits in 1986 has attracted widespread attention, and the newly discovered pits will undoubtedly attract public attention again." Ran Honglin said that this is also the reason why after the new discovery emerged, it began to prepare for more than a year before it was released to the public.
Photography by Yu Jia
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After Samsung piled up the fire
Happiness is accompanied by anxiety
Since Sanxingdui first opened the blind box in March 2021, a large number of exquisite cultural relics have been continuously updated in the past year, and social attention has repeatedly climbed, which makes Ran Honglin very happy. And with that comes a lot of anxiety. Such a huge number of exquisite cultural relics have been unearthed, how to systematically sort out after the excavation? How to do the protection repair work? How to digest the follow-up information? How to display cultural relics in museums is better? How to make the public better understand Sanxingdui? A barrage of questions struck him.
"If you crash like a headless fly and don't do these jobs well, it will be impossible for society, for scholars, and for the public." Ran Honglin said archaeologists must be responsible. Not only to be responsible for history, but also for the future.
These questions often swirled around in his head. As the executive team leader, despite the entanglement of affairs, Ran Honglin still insisted on trying to understand the excavation situation on the spot every day, and to understand the overall progress and main gains. In fact, as early as the beginning of the excavation, the archaeologists had already carried out a complete set of excavation plans. For example, for the restoration of cultural relics, the relevant units have set up a cultural relics restoration center in the Sanxingdui Museum, which is open to the public while restoring. These foundational work is proceeding in an orderly and step-by-step manner. At the same time, as the archaeological work continues, the archaeologists also gradually adjust their plans and programs according to the actual situation.
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Field archaeology is endless
It takes time to restore the historical truth
In fact, sanxingdui's archaeological work is far more than what the media has paid attention to. In July 2013, Ran Honglin graduated from Peking University's School of Archaeology with a master's degree and chose to return to his hometown in Southwest China. In his field of archaeology in the Xia Shang Zhou, Sanxingdui is undoubtedly one of the most important archaeological projects.
"At that time, I felt that many of the cultural relics unearthed in pits 1 and 2 were fragments, and I believed that there must be no broken parts found, and there must be new pits." On July 17, 2013, Ran Honglin came to the Sanxingdui Archaeological Workstation (formerly the Sanxingdui Workstation) to start his Sanxingdui archaeological journey.
The Sanxingdui site is vast, and until now, the excavation area is less than two-thousandths. In addition to the excavation of various mysterious cultural relics and the widely concerned sacrifice pits, after participating in the work, Ran Honglin and his colleagues have also carried out a series of settlement archaeology, revealing many ancient ruins. Including the Zhenwu Palace City Wall, horse butt City Wall, Qingguan Mountain Terrace, Moon Bay City Wall, Rensheng Cemetery and so on...
Now, Ran Honglin feels fortunate that when he came to Sanxingdui 8 years ago, his idea of it was being realized step by step. Archaeology is not a quick-fixing job, it takes time and process to restore the truth of history. "Without the paved road for us by our predecessors, without them, there would be no present for us."
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Absorb the strengths of all and focus on innovation
Sanxingdui has both temperaments
Where is the magic of the Sanxingdui ruins? In Ran Honglin's mind, Sanxingdui is the site that best embodies the characteristics of eclecticism in the same period in China. Ran Honglin said that from the perspective of material cultural performance, the spread of culture has always been relatively frequent. In a ruins area, cultural exchanges and contacts have occurred with the surrounding area to a greater or lesser extent.
"The Sanxingdui site is one of the most obvious and prominent." Ran Honglin said that from the cultural relics currently unearthed, Sanxingdui has absorbed many cultural characteristics of the surrounding areas. For example, the elements of zun in the Central Plains, the construction technology of the city wall from the Yangtze River Basin, the Liangzhu civilization in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the Yuzhang in Erlitou, the Yubi in Yin Ruins and other cultural factors, the tradition of using gold in the half-moon zone, and so on. Its external factors span a large region and a wide variety of sources, and there are few sites in the country that can be compared with it.
In addition, after extensively absorbing external factors, the innovative Sanxingdui people have given them new meanings. "It perfectly embodies a whole set of processes of borrowing, integrating and innovating." Ran Honglin said that among the artifacts excavated at the Sanxingdui site, there is always a feeling of déjà vu if there is none.
For example, the bronze statue of a kneeling figure unearthed from Sanxingdui No. 3 Pit. The kneeling man and the dragon on his shoulder both embody the innovation of sanxingdui people. "The quality of innovation has always been very obvious in Sanxingdui, and I think this is also meaningful for China's development today." Ran Honglin said.
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There is still a long way to go to learn about Sanxingdui
Hopefully, people will pay attention to the inner world of Sanxingdui
Although Sanxingdui has become the top of the archaeological community this year, in Ran Honglin's view, people still know far from it. "There is a lot of public concern, but we are also soberly aware that everyone's attention and discussion about Sanxingdui is actually more focused on the hunting for its 'strange' cultural relics." Ran Honglin asked rhetorically, just imagine, if the cultural relics unearthed at Sanxingdui are basically similar to the cultural relics of other sites in China, will they still gain so much enthusiasm?
In his view, in the future, perhaps entering a period of "archaeology for all", the public can truly understand the significance of archaeological work. Ran Honglin said that "archaeology for all" is not all people to participate in archaeology, but the public understands archaeology and identifies with archaeology. "Archaeology is not digging treasure, not looking at strange things, archaeology is to excavate the genes of Chinese civilization, to show the brilliant civilization and long history, to provide guidance and reference for the future, this is archaeology."
For the understanding of archaeology, he hopes that people will not stay on the surface. For Sanxingdui, people should not only focus on their strange skin bags, but also pay attention to the inner world of Sanxingdui. This also poses a challenge to Ran and his colleagues. "We have to think about what kind of research we need to do in the future, how to tell stories, so that the public can truly appreciate how great our own civilization is."
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