Bronze Bird Shang Sanxingdui Ruins No. 2 Sacrifice Pit Excavated, Guanghan Sanxingdui Museum Collection
In the excavation work of Sanxingdui, many bird-shaped artifacts with unique shapes have been unearthed, and the bird head you see now, the No. 2 sacrifice pit of Sanxingdui, which is 10.3 centimeters high, is the largest one. It is relatively simple in shape, smooth in line, shallow in the crown, the inner hook of the bird's beak (huì), huge eyes, high-headed and square, quite a kind of independent mountain peak, sacrificing others. Why does it have this aura?
Bird totem
As early as the ancient Shu period, the ancestors of Sanxingdui not only worshiped birds as totems, but also created a colorful bird culture. For example, most of the ancient Shu kings directly named their own names with birds, such as Fish, Cypress Stork, Du Yu and so on. Earlier such as the pottery bird head spoon handle, realistic style of the bronze god chicken, perched on the huge bronze god tree of all kinds of god birds, intriguing human head bird body bronze statue, and a bird-shaped copper bell, although the volume is small, but the shape is similar to the big bird head. Sanxingdui also unearthed bronze longitudinal masks, and some researchers believe that the longitudinal eye belongs to the bird-shaped eyeball. In addition, some utensils also have bird ornamental patterns, such as the fish and bird pattern on the Gold Staff of Sanxingdui, and so on. It can be seen that birds had a very important position in the living world, the art world and the spiritual world at that time.
When the large bronze bird's head was unearthed, it was found to be coated with cinnabar around its eyeballs and the seams in the beak of the bird. Whether from the point of view of shape or decorative details, especially similar to the osprey, some scholars speculate that it may be a symbol of the belly of the fish, and it is the national heavy weapon of the ancient Shu kingdom. It is currently displayed in the fifth exhibition hall of the Bronze Ware Hall of sanxingdui Museum, "Thousand Years of Shu Soul - Strange Zongmiao Artifact", which concentrates on displaying several typical artifacts of mysterious significance in Sanxingdui cultural relics, in addition to bronze large bird heads, as well as bronze altars, sun-shaped instruments and so on.
The ancestors of Sanxingdui lived in a corner of the ancient Shu period
The stars rotate, the vicissitudes of the mulberry field. The big bronze bird head still stands quietly, with a sharp gaze, as if breaking through the barrier of time, pouring out to us the prosperity and glory of the ancient Shu kingdom thousands of years ago.