Cover news reporter Zeng Jie, Dai Zhuxin, Wang Xianglong, and photo courtesy of The Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology
On the evening of January 31, the Spring Festival Gala of the Central Radio and Television Station was lively opened, and the bronze masks excavated from the Sanxingdui site were released, reproducing the ancient Shu Huazhang of "sleeping for thousands of years and waking up to shock the world".
Sanxingdui large bronze mask
After the announcement of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala program list on the evening of January 30, Zhang Guoli and Ran Honglin, director of the Sanxingdui Archaeological Research Institute of the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, will release this link of Sanxingdui cultural relics, which is particularly exciting. Audience friends have speculated that Sanxingdui has unearthed a wealth of cultural relics, and which cultural relics will soon land on the stage of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala. Chinese New Year's Eve night answer was revealed, and the bronze mask was unveiled.
This bronze mask is 131 cm wide, 71 cm high, 66 cm deep and weighs 131 pounds, which is the largest bronze mask with the most complete shape and the largest volume excavated from the Sanxingdui site. Its face is exaggerated, and the lines of eyebrows, eyes, nose, lips, ears and other lines are smooth and angular. The bronze mask is the most characteristic typical artifact in the Sanxingdui culture, and it should be an artifact placed in the temple for worship.
The large bronze mask was excavated from the Sanxingdui No. 3 sacrifice pit and buried in the south-central part of the pit. At that time, the mask was facing downwards, and its upper part was stacked with ivory, and some archaeologists lamented that "the pipa is half covered". After more than three months of meticulous cleaning, on June 23, 2021, the bronze mask was unveiled under the careful care of archaeologists. Due to the large specific amount, in order to extract safely, cultural security experts carefully formulated a plan, scientifically developed a reinforcement body, and carefully implemented hoisting, and finally succeeded.
Large bronze masks were unearthed
After the mask extraction, the cultural security personnel conducted an analysis and study on the casting process of the bronze mask, and its production was first cast and formed, cast by the face, the face, the back of the cheek, the eyes, the ears and other parts, and then welded and combined into one, which is not only the perfect combination of bronze technology and art, but also the unique expression of the spiritual world of the ancient Shu people. The cultural security personnel also found silk textile residues with warp and weft tissues in the right eyebrow, right eyeball, and right corner of the eye. The combination of silk and mask with the function of "heaven and theosophy" highlights the meaning of sacred sacrifice.
2021 marks the centenary of the birth of modern Chinese archaeology, and the archaeological excavations at the Sanxingdui site are fruitful. A new round of archaeological work in Sanxingdui was launched at the end of 2019 under the leadership of the "Ancient Shu Civilization Inheritance and Protection Project", and archaeologists have successively explored and discovered six new sacrifice pits next to the original No. 1 and No. 2 sacrifice pits at the Sanxingdui site. With the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, in October 2020, the archaeological excavation of six sacrifice pits in the Sanxingdui sacrifice area was fully launched, and the Sichuan Archaeological Research Institute and Peking University, the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Sichuan University, Shanghai University and other units formed a joint archaeological team, and the number of scientific research institutions and universities participating in the research reached 39 in China, gathering hundreds of scientific researchers and more than 20 disciplines to continue to carry out in-depth and continuous research on an archaeological site is rare at home and abroad, forming a set of archaeological excavations and timely protection of the site 3. System scientific research, open cultural relics restoration and display integration of the "Sanxingdui model".
What is memorable is that the multi-functional scientific excavation and research system represented by the "archaeological cabin" has laid a solid foundation for refined archaeology, laboratory archaeology and emergency protection. Environmental archaeology, scientific and technological dating, DNA determination, material analysis, bronze research, metallurgical archaeology, etc. are simultaneously promoted, and at the time when "century-old archaeology" continues to open up the past, it shows the rapid development of archaeological concepts and archaeological technologies in the new era of the mainland, which is an active exploration of "archaeology with Chinese characteristics, Chinese style and Chinese style".
By the end of 2021, more than 10,000 numbered cultural relics have been unearthed from the six sacrificial pits of Sanxingdui, including many cultural relics such as gold masks, top statues, green statues, large masks, altar models, kneeling bronze figures, and more than 500 ivory, many of which are met with the audience at the Sanxingdui Open Cultural Relics Restoration Hall. The excavations of many cultural relics such as Tongzun, Tongzun, Yuzhang, and Yuqun show the close connection between Shudi and the culture of the Central Plains and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, which empirically demonstrates the historical development process of "pluralism and integration" of Chinese civilization, and is of great significance for further building a Chinese cultural identification system and forging a solid sense of the Chinese national community.
After the archaeological results of Sanxingdui were announced to the public, archaeology and cultural fever were set off across the country. During the Spring Festival in 2022, under the premise of normalizing the prevention and control of the epidemic, Sanxingdui Museum will create a strong New Year flavor of ancient Shu Yayun and welcome visitors. In addition, the Cultural Relics Protection and Restoration Hall has also been "new", and newly excavated cultural relics such as bronze kneeling portraits with heads and bronze birds will meet with the audience, allowing the audience to experience the restoration process of cultural relics in an immersive way.