For a long time, people thought that the ancient Chinese civilization mainly originated in the Yellow River Basin, and most of the southern regions were considered to be scarce because of the lack of physical verification, and only existed in myths and legends. But in recent years, the emergence of many civilization sites has broken this inherent understanding, and it is interesting that the excavation of one of the important civilization sites was smashed by migrant workers with a hoe.
This migrant worker is called Yang Yongcheng, a native of Sichuan, who grew up in Sanxing Village, Nanxing Town. He heard the old man in the village say that there was a secret "treasure" buried near the village, and even the Americans had come to dig it up. Yang Yongcheng is not familiar with this history, in fact, the treasure in the old population refers to the Sanxingdui cultural site, which has been 5,000 to 3,000 years ago, which is the matrix of Chinese civilization and is known as the "source of Yangtze River civilization".
Yang Yongcheng's hoe was smashed in 1986, and he smashed out a bronze ear. As we all know, the Sanxingdui site unearthed a splendid ancient bronze civilization, including a bronze Da liren with a height of 2.62 meters, a bronze mask with a width of 1.38 meters, and a bronze sacred tree with a height of 3.95 meters, all of which belong to the world, and the Sanxingdui site is listed as one of the "greatest archaeological discoveries of mankind in the 20th century".
As for the legend of the "treasure" that Yang Yongcheng heard, it is related to the historical excavation of Sanxingdui. As early as 1929, there were local farmers digging pits to dig out jade tools, at that time, China did not have a relatively professional archaeological organization, and there was no better cultural relics protection conditions, so the first to collect jade was a British missionary, who handed these jade tools to the museum opened in the United States.
Later, the museum once organized people to excavate the site for 10 days, and the harvest was rich, and then terminated. It was not until after the founding of the People's Republic of China that the excavation of the Sanxingdui site was put on the agenda again. In July 1986, Yang Yongcheng was working in a brick factory next to the Sanxingdui archaeological workstation, he accidentally hit a hard object while digging soil, thinking of the legend of "treasure", Yang Yongcheng immediately carefully took out the hard object.
Subsequently, a pile of "gold belts", jade, ivory, bronze and other cultural relics were unearthed, Yang Yongcheng and his co-workers were surprised, gathered around to discuss for half a day, and then reported the news to the archaeological staff. Archaeologists rushed to the scene immediately, and they never expected that the bottom of the brick factory was the focus of the excavation, which no one had noticed before.
Subsequently, archaeologists began to excavate the "No. 1 Sacrifice Pit", and unearthed 178 bronzes, 129 pieces of jade, as well as pottery, sea shells, and gold tools. Just when the "No. 1 Sacrifice Pit" was almost excavated, Yang Yongcheng's hoe brought a huge surprise to everyone, he was originally just digging and digging near the sacrifice pit, who knew that a huge bronze mask was dug out as soon as he dug.
So the "No. 2 Sacrifice Pit" was also published, and Yang Yongcheng participated in the archaeological excavation together as the discoverer. What makes people cry is that Yang Yongcheng is too fat and overweight, so he is not suitable for entering the pit, and can only help transport soil outside. When Yang Yongcheng worked in the brick factory, he could only earn two yuan a day by constantly transporting soil, and it was easier to assist in excavation, 2 dimes per hour.
Yang Yongcheng did not understand the significance of the Sanxingdui ruins, but he still said proudly: "What foreigners have not dug, a few of us farmers dug up as soon as they went down with a hoe, this may be fate." He received a 100 yuan bonus, went home and handed it to his wife immediately, and the family was very happy to close their mouths. Today, Yang Yongcheng is over seventy years old, but he still remembers the story of the past.