Cover news reporter Dai Zhuxin
The Sanxingdui bronze mask on fire at the Spring Festival Gala, 131 cm wide and 71 cm high, is the most burly and powerful in the current Sanxingdui bronze mask family. After a long sleep, how is its "body" doing? The members of the cultural protection team have been paying attention since they extracted it out of the pit.
Ren Junfeng is a cultural relics restorer of the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, and he participated in the extraction of large masks throughout the process and carried out follow-up protection and clean-up work. This time, he also "accompanied" the big mask on a business trip to Beijing to participate in the Spring Festival Gala, and was the "personal" doctor of the big mask.
He introduced that the extraction method of the large mask was repeatedly discussed and demonstrated by the on-site team, and finally the overall lifting was lifted out of the pit by means of keel reinforcement, I-shaped structure support, and bottom lifting. In order to let the big mask better "show itself" at the Spring Festival Gala, the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the Guanghan Sanxingdui Museum have done a comprehensive physical examination of the big mask and temporarily strengthened the left ear that had been cracked before it was excavated. After returning to Sichuan on this "business trip", it will be fully protected and restored.
Many discussions and arguments
Elaborate design to confirm the "out of the pit" extraction scheme
In the archaeological work of the Sanxingdui Sacrifice Area, adhering to the excavation concept of "protection synchronization", the cultural relics protection work has been placed in advance. That is to say, at the same time as the archaeological team members excavated, the cultural security team members also intervened synchronously. Therefore, at the beginning of the discovery of the bronze mask, the members of the cultural protection team have begun to think about how to extract and protect it.
Ren Junfeng introduced that the overlapping situation of cultural relics in pit No. 3 where the big mask is located is complicated, and ivory, bronze and jade ware are intertwined. Through excavation and cleaning, the site team found that the large mask "face" was facing the dirt, and the left ear and the body were cracked. "Its rust, bronze body, strength, facial burial, etc. are difficult to distinguish. For us, it was very difficult, and with the limitation that all operations can only be done on mobile platforms, the difficulty was further increased. Ren Junfeng said.
What materials and methods can be used to ensure that cultural relics can be extracted under safe conditions? After many demonstrations and discussions, the on-site cultural protection team finally overcame the difficulties and formed the final extraction plan. That is: keel reinforcement, I-beam support, bottom lifting method, the whole is lifted upwards out of the pit.
Subsequently, the wenbao team members used the common bamboo as a dispersed stress material, using its toughness and bending resistance, to make a special dragon skeleton, and wrapped it in layers with bandages to protect it, and then reinforced the large mask from each planned point. Since the large mask does not have too many points of force, in order to ensure that it can resist bending during the extraction process, an I-shaped wooden structure is used to support the bending force of the large mask, and finally the bottom of the sling is used to lift out of the pit.
Repeated rehearsals were successfully unearthed
After returning to Sichuan on a business trip, it will be fully protected and repaired
On June 23, 2021, after a series of sufficient preparations, the on-site team was finally ready to officially hang the large mask out of the pit. That morning, Ren and his colleagues had been scrutinizing the preparations in Pit No. 3. Determine the pit route, locate the task of the team members, do their own duties, divide the work clearly, and carry out repeated rehearsals.
At about 3:45 p.m., in the testimony and applause of the Sanxingdui archaeologists, the large mask was successfully lifted out of the excavation, put into a carefully prepared prefabricated box, and transported back to the cultural relics warehouse.
So far, Ren Junfeng and his colleagues have conducted a comprehensive "physical examination" of the big mask. It mainly has diseases such as deformation, mineralized rust, fracture, and partial deletion. In addition, the cultural security personnel also used X-rays to explore the structure of the large mask, preliminarily analyzed the surface rust products, and the micro-trace information on the surface of the large mask was also recorded one by one. The most surprising thing was that they found textile relics attached to the face of the large mask.
Ren Junfeng introduced that in order to let the big mask better "show itself" at the Spring Festival Gala, the cultural security staff carried out temporary physical reinforcement support for the cracked left ear of the big mask.
It is understood that in order to ensure the absolute safety of Sanxingdui cultural relics displayed at the Spring Festival Gala, under the careful organization and guidance of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, Sichuan organized relevant cultural and cultural institutions to form a special class, carefully formulated a cultural relics safety guarantee plan, and carefully implemented various work such as cleaning, packaging, transportation, unloading, exhibition, guarding, and protection of cultural relics.
When this "business trip" returns to Sichuan, the cultural relics doctors will soon carry out comprehensive protection and restoration of the large mask, so that it will be "independent", and it will be able to exhibit under relatively stable conditions in the future, so that more people can see the ancient Shu civilization.