The Sanxingdui site and the Jinsha site were jointly declared a world cultural heritage

On October 29, visitors admired the exhibits inside the Sanxingdui Museum. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Xiao

Chengdu, December 19 (Reporter Zhou Hongshuang) Sichuan Deyang Guanghan Sanxingdui Site Management Committee and Chengdu Jinsha Site Museum recently signed the "Sanxingdui Site and Jinsha Site Joint Application and Cooperation Agreement". The two sides agreed to cooperate in the declaration and research of world cultural heritage, exhibition and publicity and promotion to jointly promote the protection and inheritance of the heritage of the ancient Shu civilization.

The agreement stipulates that the two sides will "bundle" the Sanxingdui site and the Jinsha site, jointly declare the world cultural heritage project to UNESCO, and jointly prepare the text of the world cultural heritage declaration; make full use of the resources of the two sides to carry out various forms and levels of cooperative research, and continuously expand the influence of the Sanxingdui site and the Jinsha site in the academic community; at the same time, strengthen cooperation between the two sides in the fields of cultural relics protection, cultural relics restoration, construction of national archaeological sites and parks, and museology.

It is understood that the Sanxingdui site began to apply for heritage in 2001. In 2006, the Sanxingdui site and the Jinsha site were jointly included in the "Preliminary List of China's World Cultural Heritage Sites" as the "Ancient Shu Civilization Sites", and in 2012, they were again included in the updated preliminary list. The "Implementation Plan for the Protection and Inheritance Project of Ancient Shu Civilization" issued by Sichuan Province in 2019 places special emphasis on promoting the joint application for heritage at Sanxingdui and Jinsha sites.

Li Guanghan, assistant director of UNESCO's Asia-Pacific World Heritage Training and Research Center (Beijing), introduced that there are 6 value standards for world cultural heritage, and the Sanxingdui and Jinsha sites meet at least three of them: representing a unique artistic achievement, having had a significant impact in a certain period and region, and being a witness to a vanished civilization. She said that the declaration of world cultural heritage is not the more the value criteria that the better, "if only one is met, but the explanation is very complete, the physical relics and academic research are very consistent, and it is also very likely to win."

Sun Hua, a professor at the School of Archaeology and Literature of Peking University, believes that Sanxingdui and Jinsha are important capital city sites, the walls, palace areas, religious sacrifice areas, etc. of Sanxingdui are still preserved, and the sacrifice areas of jinsha sites are also well preserved. But he also said that the research work on the common characteristics and common historical contributions of Sanxingdui and Jinsha should be solidly promoted.

On the day of signing the contract, the Sanxingdui Cultural Relics Protection and Restoration Museum was officially opened. The museum covers an area of about 1,000 square meters, including two major areas: the work area and the exhibition area, forming two non-intersecting exhibition moving lines. The museum comprehensively displays the real scene of cultural relics restoration work, allowing the audience to immerse themselves in the restoration process of cultural relics, understand the technical methods of cultural relics restoration, and visit the latest achievements of Sanxingdui archaeological excavations and cultural relics protection. The museum will also invite a variety of cultural protection institutions to consult for newly excavated cultural relics, develop the best restoration plan, and cooperate in the research of cultural relics protection and restoration.

The Sanxingdui Site Management Committee issued ten work plans to be implemented in the next step: delineating the heritage area and buffer zone in accordance with the law, adjusting and improving the organizational structure of the application for heritage, extensively carrying out consultation and demonstration, comprehensively building a site monitoring system, continuing to deepen archaeological research, making every effort to compile the text of the application for heritage, steadily implementing the protection and display of the site and environmental remediation, accelerating the construction of the new museum, carrying out in-depth publicity and launch, and improving the coordination and promotion mechanism for joint heritage application.

Guanghan City will take the Sanxingdui Cultural Site as the core, plan to build the Sanxingdui National Archaeological Site Park; in accordance with the world cultural heritage standards, strengthen the protection of important relics of the Sanxingdui Cultural Site, restore the historical landscape to the greatest extent, rectify and improve the site environment; accelerate the preparation of the application text and the heritage protection management plan, and strive to meet the conditions for declaring the world cultural heritage as soon as possible.

Source: Guangming Daily