Cover news reporter Zeng Jie
In 1986, Sanxingdui woke up to the world, and the two burial pits unearthed thousands of cultural relics, which also brought many mysteries. In 2021, 6 new burial pits have been discovered in the Sanxingdui sacrifice area, can these ancient mysteries be solved one by one? On the evening of January 20, the "Archaeology Open Class" program of CCTV Science and Education Channel invited Chen Xiandan, the person in charge of archaeological excavations at Sanxingdui No. 1 and No. 2 pits, to give a lecture on "The Mystery of Sanxingdui through the Ages".
Puzzle 1: Where did the Sanxingdui civilization originate?
Since the advent of Sanxingdui No. 1 and No. 2 pits, these bronzes with different shapes and strange appearances have aroused people's various speculations. These high noses, deep eyes, wide mouths and large ears, and perforated bronzes on the ears have not left any written information, so where did the Sanxingdui civilization come from? People are very curious, are they native civilizations in Sichuan, or are they foreign civilizations, or even alien civilizations?
Chen Xiandan interpreted that the huge bronze figures and masks unearthed by Sanxingdui do not belong to any category of Central Plains bronzes, and they have traveled all over the world and cannot find the same model, these bronze figures are large and small, there are literary and martial arts, hairstyles are different, in the final analysis, these artifacts are mainly derived from a religious belief, the worship of natural gods.
In Chen Xiandan's view, the Sanxingdui civilization originated from the local culture, although the exchange with foreign cultures can be seen from the bronze, but its characteristics are derived from the ancient Shu people's own creativity.
The Sanxingdui site extends from the New Age era to the early Spring and Autumn Period, when the Chengdu Plain was a place suitable for human habitation, and there were Sanxingdui culture and Baodun culture coexisting, which also belonged to the first period of the ancient Shu civilization. In the late Shang Dynasty, jinsha culture emerged as an ancient Shu culture that was in the same line as Sanxingdui and Baodun. Chen Xiandan laughed and said that perhaps with the emergence of more archaeological research results, the "Tale of Two Cities" of the ancient Shu Kingdom will be staged one day.
Puzzle 2: The Mystery of Sanxingdui Bronze
Before the sanxingdui bronze ware was unearthed, most of the bronze ceremonial vessels seen in the Central Plains were seen, and everyone was accustomed to the types of vessels that were dignified and honorable. The artifacts unearthed at Sanxingdui do not belong to any category of Central Plains bronzes, such as the newly excavated bronze Statue of Dingzun in No. 3 Pit, which has aroused people's strong concern as soon as these strange bronzes have appeared.
Why are the cultural relics unearthed from Sanxingdui repeatedly on the hot search? Because the shape of these utensils is too peculiar, it is not a common type of instrument in life, from the shape to the use are unique. Where did this stuff come from? People feel strange and associate it with ancient Egypt, ancient Greece and even aliens.
Chen Xiandan asserted that the Sanxingdui civilization belongs to the earth civilization and is a wonderful flower of Chinese civilization.
Puzzle Three: The Mystery of the Source of The Bronze of Sanxingdui
Sanxingdui has unearthed a large number of exquisite bronzes, such exquisite technology, even at the current level, can not be completed overnight.
Sanxingdui found a huge number of bronzes, it needs thousands of tons of ore count, where did these copper ores come from? How did the amazing bronze smelting and casting techniques exhibited by these bronze groups and the bronze culture they represent came about?
In the Longmen Mountain near Sanxingdui, there are copper, gold and jade. Chang Xuan's (291-361 AD) Huayang Guozhi (291-361 AD) once described the Longmen Mountains as follows: "Its treasures are jade, gold, silver, beads, and copper...", and among the many artifacts of Sanxingdui, jade, gold, and copper are among them. Chen Xiandan speculated that the copper mine around Longmen Mountain in Pengzhou should have provided raw materials for the large-scale smelting of bronzes in Sanxingdui, but the current archaeological excavations have not yet found this copper mine.
It is worth mentioning that Pengzhou City is located on the Xiang River, Longmen Mountain Copper Mine is not only close to Sanxingdui and convenient transportation, ancient Shu ancestors in Pengzhou after casting bronzes, through the Xiang River down the river, you can transport large bronze copper water to the Duck River in front of the Sanxingdui Gate, very convenient.
Puzzle 4: The Mystery of the Sanxingdui Excavation Pit
The nature of the Sanxingdui excavation pit has long been controversial. The "sacrifice pit", "alliance oath pit" and "revenge pit" are all theories, and some scholars even proposed that these excavation pits of Sanxingdui are "burial pits" for burying and destroying treasures.
Chen Xiandan tended to think that these pits were all sacrificial pits, and even the newly discovered 6 sacrificial pits had certain rules for orientation, a bit like a Big Dipper seven stars. These excavation pits are all facing MinShan Mountain, the pits are rectangular, vertical, and most importantly, these pits have burial order, according to the order of jade, ivory, bronze distribution, not arbitrary.
Archaeologists speculate according to the status of excavated cultural relics, during the sacrifice ceremony, the ancient Shu people in order to inform the heavens and the earth, the scene of killing, bloodletting, fire and other procedures, many bronzes have traces of fire, fire and then broken, transported to the sacrifice pit, of which, the bronze sacred tree was broken very thoroughly, broken into more than 270 fragments, archaeologists spent 8 years to repair it. The large mask was upside down in the pit, and when it was thrown into the pit, the jaw just hit the ivory, and it was damaged, and even the bronze erector's seat was smashed.
According to the scale of the artifacts unearthed in Sanxingdui, not to mention the annual sacrifice, even if such a sacrifice is held every ten years, it is also very laborious and costly, and the financial strength of the ancient Shu state should not be underestimated.
Puzzle Five: The Mystery of The Three Star Pile Ivory
More than 70 tusks have been excavated from pits 1 and 2 at the Sanxingdui site, and 6 newly discovered pits in 2021 have also unearthed different amounts of ivory. So many tusks, which are very rare in the history of Chinese archaeology, what did they mean to the ancient Shu people?
Chen Xiandan said that there are many ivory in the three-star pit, the damage is very serious, and there is obvious "osteoporosis". Why are the tusks unearthed so fragile? First, most of the ivory has been burned by fire, and you can see that some places are burned; second, the bronze ware placed with the ivory, the patina has eroded the ivory; finally, the storage of ivory has always been an international problem, and some of the ivory has become powder as soon as it is dehydrated, and archaeologists have to wrap it like a bandage.
Experts speculate that the ivory originated from elephants native to Chengdu, when the Chengdu Plain had a mild climate and included rhinos, elephants, deer and other animals.
In addition, Sanxingdui is the capital of the ancient Shu kingdom, there should be many precious objects concentrated here, ivory is one of them, but also a precious material for sacrifice, the shoulder-carrying ivory jade zhang excavated from the Jinsha site depicts the scene of the ancient Shu people using ivory sacrifice. It is worth mentioning that the ivory of pits three, four and eight is basically the same as the ivory of pits one and two, all of which are full teeth of the whole root, and some are partially burned; the ivory of pit five has been processed, with cutting, carving and other processes, which belong to ivory vessels.
At the end of the open archaeological class, Chen Xiandan was excited by the 6 sacrificial pits found in Sanxingdui after more than 30 years, and he was full of expectations for the next archaeological research, hoping that the ages of these sacrificial pits would be different, hoping that more new instruments would appear, hoping to appear Bashu scripts, and cracking the millennium puzzles left by Sanxingdui.