In 1986, two sacrificial artifact pits were excavated at the Guanghan Sanxingdui site in Sichuan, revealing a previously unknown ancient regional civilization, which became one of the most shocking archaeological discoveries of the 20th century. Since the end of 2019, 6 more craters have been found at the same site at the Sanxingdui site. This event has naturally attracted much attention, triggering heated discussions from all walks of life, people are asking about the new discoveries and their significance, and are full of curiosity about the regional civilization of Sanxingdui. As far as archaeological research is concerned, the new materials unearthed in the 6 pits will inevitably test the understanding formed in the past, and the research in related fields will enter a new stage due to new discoveries. Since it is necessary to face the test, it is necessary to sort out the previous understanding; the research entering a new stage naturally also needs a new starting point, and this starting point is a summary of the previous research. To this end, this paper intends to briefly expound on the archaeological discoveries and research overview of Sanxingdui, the connotation of sacrificial artifact pits, the source flow of Sanxingdui culture, and the significance of Sanxingdui archaeological discoveries.
A gold mask unearthed from the No. 3 "Sacrifice Pit" at the Sanxingdui site.
Overview of archaeological findings and research in Sanxingdui
The Sanxingdui site was discovered in 1929, and in 1934, West China Union University conducted its first archaeological survey and excavation in Sanxingdui, which is also one of the earliest archaeological excavations in China. In the 1960s, academia recognized Sanxingdui as a center of ancient culture. Since the 1980s, archaeologists have learned that the core area of the Sanxingdui site is 6 square kilometers, and there is a 3.5 square kilometer city site on the site. There are city walls around and within the city site, reflecting the diachronic changes of the city site and the complex pattern that eventually formed. There are many terraces and utensil pits in the city, and there are house sites and cemeteries inside and outside the city site. In the northwest of the city site, Qingguan Mountain has a large-scale artificial rammed terrace with large buildings on the terrace. Over the years, a large number of bronzes, jade tools and so on have been excavated from the site.
A bronze statue excavated from the No. 3 "Sacrifice Pit" at the Sanxingdui site.
Among the past archaeological discoveries in Sanxingdui, the most important one is the No. 1 and No. 2 sacrificial artifact pits found in the city site in 1986. More than 400 relics were excavated from Pit 1 and more than 1,000 relics from Pit 2, mainly bronze ware, as well as a large number of gold, jade, ivory and sea shells. Most of the relics have never been seen before, such as golden rods with fish and bird motifs, bronze figures, heads, masks of different shapes, strange copper trees, sun-shaped instruments, "altars", eye-shaped objects, numerous bronze dragons, tigers, snakes, birds, chickens and other animal figures, as well as small but numerous and rich types of copper gothic instruments, shaped instruments, square boreware, bells and pendants.
Sanxingdui's archaeological discoveries are so rich and unique that they make Sanxingdui an academic hotspot and even expand into a field of research with lasting appeal. The academic community has carried out multi-level and multi-dimensional research around these discoveries, from the age, characteristics and nature of the relics excavated from the two pits to the cultural outlook, cultural origin, social pattern, religious belief, cultural exchanges and many other aspects, forming a rich theoretical and interpretation system. Taking the age of the artifact pit as an example, there have always been two kinds of understanding in the academic circles, two kinds of understandings at the same time and one morning and one night, and the specific age initially had a variety of views from the early Yin Ruins to the Spring and Autumn Period, and then the views of the late Shang Dynasty became the consensus. The understanding of the nature of the artifact pit is even more divergent, and the main views are the sacrificial pit, the burial pit of the sacrificial artifacts of the Temple and the temple, the burial pit of "disgusting" nature, the burial pit of ominous treasure vessels, the pit of the artifacts of annihilation, the remains of the oath of alliance, the remains of sealing Zen, etc., as well as the "buried pit" and "artifact pit" that are uncertain about the purpose and object of the sacrifice. Among the most widely influential sacrifice pit theories, there have been many views such as comprehensive sacrifice, natural god sacrifice, hundred god sacrifice, ancestor sacrifice, agricultural sacrifice, enemy sacrifice, capital relocation sacrifice, founding sacrifice, subjugation sacrifice, kingship alternation, and fertility worship. Under the same view, the specific interpretation often varies from person to person. As for the function, use, meaning, etc. of the relics unearthed in the pit, there are many opinions.
A jade knife excavated from the No. 6 "Sacrifice Pit" at the Sanxingdui site.
Such a diverse understanding is rare in archaeological research. The reason for this is first of all that the types of relics unearthed at Sanxingdui are rich and unique, and largely beyond the scope of our existing knowledge. The second is that there are huge differences in research methods. For example, whether the premise of the beginning of the Bronze Age in the Chengdu Plain is set, whether the comparability of archaeological materials of different eras, different regions and different cultures is fully taken into account when comparing studies, and whether the generation is started from the physical object or with documents or legends as the starting point, different methods will lead to different chronological understanding. The determination of the properties of the pits and relics depends more on the method, and if there is no comprehensive investigation and only one or more types of relics are used to draw conclusions, or if there is a lack of solid evidence, there are infinite possibilities for interpretation. Taking different positions on the relationship between the Sanxingdui culture and the Central Plains culture, archaeological materials and documentary materials will also lead to different conclusions.
The connotation of the sacrificial artifact pit
The dating of relics unearthed at Sanxingdui is the basis for other studies. Among the excavated relics in Sanxingdui Pits 1 and 2, the age characteristics of the bronze containers are clear and can be compared with bronzes in other areas, so the bronze containers can be started from the bronze containers, and then the age of other common relics can be determined. For example, the bronze urns and plates in Pit No. 1 can be compared with similar artifacts of the Tomb of The Lady of Yin Ruins, and the Dragon and Tiger Zun are also found in Funan, Anhui Province; the Dakou Zun and the Dragon and Tiger Zun in Pit No. 2 are more found in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and they originate from the Bronze Ware of Yin Ruins. According to this, it can be considered that the age of the bronze container of Sanxingdui is equivalent to the Yin Ruins period. There are also statues on the top statues and "altars" of Sanxingdui, and such bronze objects are also at the same time as the Large Mouth Zun genus. From this method, it can be determined that the age of the Sanxingdui artifact group is the early Yin Ruins, and the Sanxingdui culture as a bronze culture, which began in the middle of the 13th century BC. In and around the Sanxingdui site, scattered bronze artifacts such as bronze plaques and ornaments of earlier age have been excavated, but they may have been imported from other places rather than produced locally, and they did not have an impact on the society and culture of the time. Therefore, the emergence of the Sanxingdui sacrificial artifact pit bronze ware group should be the beginning of the Bronze Age in the Chengdu Plain. The Sanxingdui site does not all belong to the Sanxingdui culture, but spans the Neolithic and Bronze Ages.
Regarding the nature of the artifact pits and excavated relics, the explanation does not seek consistency, but it must be reasonable and reliable. A reasonable theoretical framework should be able to draw a clear and consistent explanation of various relics and phenomena. Although the excavated relics of Sanxingdui No. 1 and 2 are complex, they can be summarized into three categories. The first category is symbolic artifacts, which are used to express the objects of worship and sacrifice, such as the golden staff and bronze dragon pillar in Pit No. 1, the tall copper tree in Pit No. 2, the sun-shaped vessel in the image, the complex eye-shaped vessel, the birds with a large number and shape, and the realistic rooster. The second category is the artifacts that represent the scene of sacrifice and the sacrifice activity, such as the "altar". It can be seen from the statue of the top figure, the portrait of The Zhang, and the kneeling figure under the copper tree that all kinds of portraits in the two pits basically belong to the same kind of artifacts, and their common points are either standing or kneeling, holding objects in their hands or holding objects in the shape of holding objects, and carrying out sacrifice activities. The third category is sacrificial utensils, including bronze vessels, various small pieces of bronze, jade, ivory, sea shells, etc.
Three types of artifacts express two themes: one is kingship, and the golden staff in pit 1 is a symbol of kingship. The second is a religious belief based on sun worship. The largest sacred tree in Pit 2 is 4 meters tall and is undoubtedly the core of the Artifact Group of Pit 2. Many scholars believe that the sacred tree expresses the Fuso and Wakaki recorded in documents such as the Classic of Mountains and Seas, showing the sun rising in the east and falling in the west. According to the concept of 9 flowers and 9 birds on the copper tree, and the bird carrying the sun to fly, numerous birds also symbolize the sun. Pit 2 also houses the Sun Shaper, the Eye Shaper symbolizing light and darkness, the Eye Bubbles, and the Rooster Crying at Sunrise. Thus expanding the scope of the investigation, the bird's body human face, the bird's foot portrait, the convex mask in pit 2, and the bronze ware with sun, bird feather, and eye patterns, may all be related, all of which express the common theme of sun worship. People usually discuss the excavations of pits 1 and 2 together, but in fact, the excavations of the two pits are obviously different in categories, and the sun patterns, bird feather patterns and eye patterns commonly found on the bronze ware of pit 2 are completely absent from pit 1. The difference is that the two groups of artifacts express the two themes of kingship and theocracy. However, it is not clear why these artifacts that may have existed in the temple and temple were destroyed and buried. It is precisely because it is uncertain whether the reason for the burial or whether there is a sacrifice during the burial process, but the buried objects are all sacrificial utensils, so the author advocates calling such a pit a sacrificial artifact pit.
Six more such pits have been found today, and each excavation is different. According to known information, the general categories and themes of the excavated artifacts in the 6 pits still seem to be the same as those of the No. 1 and No. 2 pits. Regardless of the final excavation results, it is certain that these new discoveries will test the various understandings and theories about the Sanxingdui sacrificial artifact pit and the Sanxingdui culture in the past, and the new materials may be incorporated into the original interpretation system, supplementing and enriching the original understanding, or overturning the past understanding to form a new explanation. New discoveries will certainly bring more new problems, which will further expand and deepen scientific research. This also shows that archaeology is an open science, and it is open to the future.
In terms of the materials known so far, we can still think that the society of the Sanxingdui period was the coexistence of royal power and theocracy, the ruling class held the resources, technology and products for the production of valuables, bronze, gold, jade, ivory, sea shells, etc. were collectively occupied by the upper echelons of society, used for religious activities, and finally achieved the purpose of strengthening social rule and enhancing social cohesion; compared with other cultures of the same period such as the Shang and Zhou cultures, bronzes and other valuables are not practical tools for life and do not reflect the identity status of individuals. Not used as a ceremonial vessel to maintain a ceremonial or hierarchical system. This shows that the concepts, religious beliefs, and social appearance of sanxingdui culture have their own uniqueness.
The source of Sanxingdui culture
The origin of Sanxingdui culture has attracted wide attention. This culture did not appear suddenly, nor did it mysteriously disappear, it has a clear cultural lineage, and there are connections and exchanges with other cultures of the same era.
In the Chengdu Plain, archaeologists have also discovered and excavated 8 Neolithic city sites, including Xinjin Baodun, and the development of local Neolithic culture and society formed the basis for the emergence of the Sanxingdui culture. The Sanxingdui culture was also influenced by other cultures outside the Chengdu Plain, involving bronze manufacturing techniques, concepts of power, and religious beliefs. The first is the influence from the northwest region of our country. No workshops for the production of bronze have been found in Sanxingdui, but a group of bronzes of this size should be produced locally, and its technical source may be traced in the northwest region. Excavations of the site of Xichengyi in Zhangye, Gansu, suggest that it may have been a metallurgical center, and that the Hexi Corridor had developed metallurgical industries around 4,000 years ago. The scattered bronze plaques of the earlier sanxingdui may have come from the Hexi Corridor. The forging technology present in Sanxingdui bronzes is also likely to be related to the Northwest Region. Sanxingdui's concept of gold rods and gold objects symbolizing power and wealth should come from the northwest region of our country. Gold artifacts have been unearthed in Gansu Yumen Fire Burning Ditch, Lintan Mogou Ruins, Qinghai Datong ShangsunJiazhai Cemetery, Xinjiang Tianshan North Road Cemetery, etc., which are 3,000 to 4,000 years old. According to research, the scepter heads found in China are concentrated in the northwest region and circulate to the east from the Tianshui area of Gansu Province, and the age of these scepters is 5,000 to 3,000 years ago. The second is the impact from the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The kind of bronze and Dakouzun excavated from Sanxingdui have been found in Funan, Anhui, Zaoyang, Jiangling, Cenhe, Shashi, Hunan, Huarong, Yueyang, Pingjiang, And Dachang in Chongqing, and other places in Hubei. These zun and zhen belong to the Shang style bronze ware, but have a distinct southern style. It can be considered that the Sanxingdui culture received the influence of the Shang culture through the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, but the bronzes of this type of Shang culture became sacrificial vessels in the Sanxingdui culture. The belief in sun worship also has a long history in the East, and the bone and ivory vessels of the Hemudu culture in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River have the pattern of double birds and negative suns, and sun patterns and eye patterns can also be seen on Neolithic pottery in the Xiajiang area. It can be seen that sanxingdui culture has accepted multi-directional and multi-faceted influences.
The Sanxingdui culture also did not die out because the sacrificial artifacts were buried, and this culture continued in Jinsha when the political, cultural and religious center of the Chengdu Plain was transferred from Sanxingdui to Jinsha in Chengdu. Sacrificial remains, large buildings, ordinary dwelling sites, large cemeteries, etc. have been found at the Jinsha site. For the archaeological findings of Sanxingdui and Jinsha, it can be compared from the two aspects of knowledge system and value system, different cultures can have the same knowledge system due to mutual influence and exchange, but the values are not necessarily the same; but if the cultures of the two places have the same knowledge and value system, they may be the same culture. Such comparative analysis is not limited to pottery or a certain type of relic, and is not judged by the similarities and differences on the surface of archaeological materials, nor is it based on ancient historical legends to determine cultural attribution.
The relics of Sanxingdui and Jinsha, including bronze, gold, jade, stone, pottery, etc., are basically the same, indicating that the knowledge and technology of making them are the same. Bronze and gold ware are also made using a relatively rare hammering technique, engraving and coloring the hammered metalwork. The types of houses in both places are mainly wooden bone mud wall buildings with base grooves, as well as large rammed high-rise buildings, and dry-column buildings that are not found in the adjacent areas of the Chengdu Plain, which shows that the construction techniques are exactly the same. The city sites, buildings, artifact pits and almost all tombs in both places are in a northwest-southeast direction, or a northeast-southwest direction. This is different from the architectural direction of the Shang and Zhou cultures, and is related to the geographical environment of the Chengdu Plain, that is, the mountains parallel to the two sides of the plain are northeast-southwest, and the rivers in the plain are northwest-southeast. The two places also have the same livelihood and economic forms, both of which are dominated by rice.
The cultures of the two places share the same value system, and the most important evidence is that the valuables are from the relics of sacrifice, and their backgrounds, categories, and functions are the same. A large number of relics excavated from the Meiyuan sacrifice area of the Jinsha site are also of three categories: symbolic artifacts include gold crown ornaments with fish and bird motifs, gold ornaments of sun god birds, bronze birds, gold or copper eye-shaped objects, etc.; the artifacts that express the sacrificial activities include standing people wearing sun crowns, stone people and stone tigers combined together; and sacrificial utensils are also small pieces of bronze, jade and ivory, and their types and shapes are exactly the same as those of Sanxingdui's sacrificial supplies. Obviously, the three types of artifacts express the same two themes of kingship and sun worship. Another type of evidence comes from tombs. There are no large tombs in Sanxingdui and Jinsha, the tombs have no burial tools, most of them do not have burial items, and valuables, including bronzes, are not used for burial, which is in stark contrast to the rich sacrificial remains. The commonality of tombs suggests that although social stratification occurred at that time and an early state was formed, the theocracy was dominant, and the ruling class concentrated social wealth on religious activities rather than individual funerary activities. There is no thick burial custom, and no valuables are used to reflect the identity and status of individuals, which is completely different from the Shang and Zhou cultures of the same period, and the root cause of the difference lies in the fact that the two cultures have different concepts.
Sanxingdui and Jinsha two sites are in the Chengdu Plain, before and after the age, the two have exactly the same knowledge system and value system, should be the same culture, can be called Sanxingdui - Jinsha culture. Sanxingdui and Sands were at the center of two phases of this culture, respectively. The archaeological remains of this period unearthed in the Chengdu Plain do not contain practical weapons, no signs of foreign wars or acts of violence, the Sanxingdui city site has not been abandoned, and the number of ruins and large cemeteries in the Jinsha area has proliferated, indicating that the population growth and social peace and stability at that time, so the culture also continued to develop.
Around the western weekend and the beginning of the Spring and Autumn period, the Sanxingdui-Jinsha culture began to be replaced by a new culture, the Bashu culture. During the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the culture and society of Sichuan underwent tremendous changes, highlighted by the disappearance of the sacrificial relics of the Sanxingdui-Jinsha culture, the disappearance of beliefs such as sun worship, the popularity of new bronze containers, tools, seals, etc., and the emergence of a large number of practical weapons and foreign bronze ware using new technologies. At this time, the function of bronze ware changed from sacrificial or religious objects to practical utensils and funerary supplies. Another significant change was the emergence of large-scale or abundant large-scale tombs in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, such as the Chengdu Commercial Street Joint Tomb and the New Capital Majia Tomb. The size of the tomb and the number of burial items are seriously differentiated, so as to distinguish the status and identity of the tomb owner. At the same time, large cemeteries belonging to different ethnic groups or political forces have also emerged. The way in which social wealth is appropriated and the forms in which power is ruled have changed markedly, and it is no longer theocracy that governs society but secular political and military forces. The cultural changes in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty reflect a more fundamental difference, that is, the difference in value systems, which is related to the decline of the Sanxingdui-Jinsha culture and the westward expansion of the Chu culture and the Central Plains culture.
In short, only by looking at the archaeological findings of Sanxingdui from a broader perspective and from a longer period of time can we better understand this culture.
Significance of sanxingdui archaeological discoveries
The archaeological discoveries of Sanxingdui are of great and far-reaching significance, which can be summarized as follows.
First of all, this history of Sanxingdui is completely absent from the literature, and archaeology has revealed a previously unknown regional civilization through archaeological discoveries. Second, the archaeological discoveries of Sanxingdui reconstructed the picture of ancient Chinese civilization. In the past, people adhered to the traditional view of history, that is, the Sichuan region belonged to the "edge" of the Central Plains or the Central Plains civilization, both geographically and culturally. The archaeological discoveries of Sanxingdui have made us realize that in addition to the Shang and Zhou civilizations in the Central Plains, there was also a regional civilization in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River that was unique and comparable to other civilizations of the same era. Therefore, the discovery of Sanxingdui, like many other major archaeological discoveries, has changed our understanding of the picture of ancient Chinese civilization and our view of history. Third, the archaeological discoveries of Sanxingdui and its connotations have greatly enriched the diversity of ancient Chinese civilizations. The connection between Sanxingdui culture and other cultures shows the significance of communication and exchange in the formation and development of ancient civilizations. Finally, from the Neolithic culture, the Sanxingdui-Jinsha culture, the Bashu culture of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, to the unification of Bashu by the Qin and Han Dynasties, the Chengdu Plain has continued for more than 2,000 years as a regional culture into the unified Qin and Han civilization. The history of a specific region revealed by archaeology has enabled us to more deeply understand and understand the formation and development process of the pluralistic and integrated Chinese civilization. (Author: Shi Jinsong, Deputy Director and Researcher, Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)
Source: Guangming Daily, September 20, 2021 06 edition