The Sanxingdui bronze mask that debuted at the CCTV Spring Festival Gala has these stories behind them

Cover reporter Wang Xianglong

On the evening of January 31, the Chinese New Year's Eve night of the Lunar New Year, the bronze masks excavated from the Sanxingdui site appeared on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala of the Central Radio and Television Corporation, celebrating the Spring Festival with the people of the whole country.

The bronze mask unveiled this time is 131 cm wide, 71 cm high, 66 cm deep, weighs 131 pounds, and is the largest and well-preserved large bronze mask known to have been excavated from the Sanxingdui site. Its wide forehead, angular edges, smooth eyebrows, eyes, lips and other lines, all protruding from the face, thick and long eyebrows as a raised shape, the two sides of the mask up and down and in the front of the forehead in the square perforation, may be used for fixed purposes. The bronze mask is a typical artifact of the Sanxingdui culture, which has a history of more than 3,000 years, reflecting the understanding and thinking of the ancient Shu ancestors on the natural world and the world of gods and people.

Located in Guanghan City, Deyang, Sichuan Province, about 40 kilometers south of Chengdu City, sanxingdui ruins are one of the most important ancient sites in the pre-Qin period in southwest China. In 1986, the excavation of the First and Second "Sacrifice Pits" unearthed thousands of precious cultural relics such as bronze sacred trees, bronze da liren, bronze masks, and golden scepters, and the Sanxingdui site "woke up and shocked the world", attracting worldwide attention.

Since December 2019, under the guidance and support of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the Sichuan Provincial Bureau of Cultural Relics has organized the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and other units to discover six new "sacrifice pits" in the area where the first and second "sacrifice pits" are located, numbered from three to eight pits.

At the beginning of 2021, archaeologists began excavations of the third "sacrificial pit". By 30 January, more complete bronzes began to be revealed. On March 16, the buried cultural relics in the pit were fully presented, including bronze, jade, gold, ivory and other precious cultural relics. Located in the south-central part of Pit 3, the Large Bronze Mask is the earliest emerging bronze artifact, which is particularly striking.

On June 23, 2021, the bronze mask was extracted from the pit. Archaeologists and cultural relics conservators analyzed and studied the casting process of the bronze mask and believed that its production was first cast and formed, cast by the face, the back of the cheek, the eyes, the ears and other parts, and then combined into one, and the right eye of the large mask was also found to have silk fabric residues of warp and weft tissues.

As a major project of "Archaeology in China", the excavation of sanxingdui site is also a typical representative of China's century-old archaeological achievements, since its discovery in 1929, several generations of archaeologists have continued to struggle for a hundred years and explore the roots of civilization. By the end of 2021, Sanxingdui has only discovered six new sacrifice pits with a total of more than 10,000 pieces of numbered cultural relics, including gold masks, top statues, round square figures, large masks, altar models, kneeling bronze figures, more than 500 ivory and many other exquisite cultural relics, some of which can be viewed at close range in the Sanxingdui Open Cultural Relics Restoration Museum. 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, and empirically demonstrate the historical development process of the pluralism and integration of Chinese civilization.

The shocking bronze mask on the spring evening not only makes people appreciate the brilliant and colorful bronze civilization, but also laments the profundity of Chinese civilization, but also further increases the public's strong interest in understanding archaeology, understanding archaeology, and drawing spiritual nourishment from archaeology.

It is understood that in order to ensure the safety of the display of Sanxingdui cultural relics at the Spring Festival Gala, the State Administration of Cultural Relics has conducted on-the-spot inspection of safety and security details, guided and supported the Sichuan Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau, the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, and the Sanxingdui Museum, together with professional cultural relics transportation and exhibition units, dispatched business backbones, formed a special work class, accurately formulated a cultural relics safety guarantee plan, compiled and implemented a cultural relics reinforcement and protection plan, and carefully organized the implementation of cultural relics protection, cultural relics transportation, cultural relics preservation, exhibition operations and other work to ensure the safety of cultural relics.

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 tourists from all over the world. Spring Festival of the Year of the Tiger to Sanxingdui Museum to find the tiger, inlaid turquoise copper tiger, copper tiger shaped ware, gold leaf tiger ornament, pottery tiger... They are all exhibited in the general hall; bronze kneeling portraits, bronze birds-holding figures, gold masks, sacred tree pattern jade, bronze small standing figures "Ultraman" and other newly excavated cultural relics at sanxingdui sites are all "new" in the open cultural relics protection and restoration hall.

Next, more newly excavated cultural relics such as bronze large masks will be sorted, restored and displayed in the Cultural Relics Conservation and Restoration Hall, allowing the audience to experience the restoration process of cultural relics in an immersive way.

Since the announcement of the major archaeological discoveries at the Sanxingdui site, Sanxingdui, which "woke up to the world again", has successfully topped the hot search in the cultural and archaeological circles, which has aroused great concern from experts and the public at home and abroad. With the reappearance of many amazing national treasures and cultural relics, the promotion of Sanxingdui tourism has continued to increase, and the influence and popularity of Sanxingdui have increased day by day.

Teacups, scarves, wood carvings, dolls... In order to welcome the arrival of the Year of the Tiger, Sanxingdui Museum has launched cultural and creative products with cultural significance, such as "Tiger Leap Samsung" and "Tiger Xiangyun".

In recent years, Sanxingdui's cultural and creative products have been continuously innovated, and at the same time, they have made continuous breakthroughs in practicality, making cultural and creative products closer to the public and integrated into life. In the next step, Sanxingdui Museum will issue an invitation to outstanding cultural and creative designers and teams at home and abroad. "I look forward to the designers using creativity to create a new image for Sanxingdui cultural relics such as bronze masks, so that ancient cultural relics can enter the lives of the people." Jia Suzhu, deputy director of the Sanxingdui Management Committee, said.

Sanxingdui is Guanghan's most valuable asset. The 15th Party Congress of Guanghan City proposed to unswervingly implement cultural promotion actions, vigorously promote the construction of Sanxingdui National Cultural Relics Protection and Utilization Demonstration Zone, and significantly enhance the status and influence of Sanxingdui in the global ancient civilization relics. The Regulations on the Protection of Sanxingdui Ruins in Sichuan Province were also implemented in 2021, further strengthening the implementation of the protection of Sanxingdui sites, promoting the improvement of long-term mechanisms for site safety, and ensuring the sustainable utilization of precious cultural relics resources.

At present, Sanxingdui Museum is carefully planning to promote key work such as archaeological excavation, research interpretation, display promotion, heritage declaration, revitalization and utilization, brand promotion, etc., and strives to do a good job in the protection and utilization of archaeology and cultural relics of Sanxingdui sites. At the same time, in order to further improve the conditions for the protection and display of cultural relics, enhance the level of social services, and give visitors a better viewing experience, Sanxingdui Museum implemented the basic exhibition upgrading project of the bronze hall from October last year, and will meet the audience with a new look in 2022, and the construction of the new Sanxingdui Museum will also start in March.