At present, the world's largest bronze mask has been unearthed, showing boundless majesty.
Just now, the bronze mask excavated from Sanxingdui No. 3 Pit appeared on CCTV Spring Festival Gala. This is the world's largest bronze mask excavated by Sanxingdui, and its solemn expression conveys boundless majesty. Its appearance once again shows the unique charm of Sanxingdui bronze civilization and the brilliant and colorful ancient Chinese civilization.
The bronze mask has been buried underground for more than 3,000 years, how do precious and fragile cultural relics be transported from Sichuan to Beijing? How to ensure the safety of cultural relics throughout the process? The reporter conducted the interview for the first time and found that the "business trip" of the bronze mask of Sanxingdui not only alarmed the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, but also enjoyed super treatment such as transporting third-level guards, waiting for a special VIP room, and escorted by cultural security experts... It turns out that on a starry spring night, the biggest "wrist" is actually it!
National treasure "business trip", the plan first
In November last year, the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, which was responsible for the archaeological excavations in the Sanxingdui sacrifice area, received a call from the CCTV Spring Festival Gala program group. They hope to invite Sanxingdui archaeologists to the stage of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala to tell the story of the archaeological excavations of Sanxingdui that have exploded throughout the year, and bring a typical cultural relic for on-site release. This cultural relic is the bronze mask that was finally selected from several candidate national treasures.
Let the artifacts on a variety show? Archaeologists who have always regarded cultural relics as life are very cautious. Although last year's CCTV Spring Festival evening, the debut of the Tianlong Mountain Buddha, who returned to China from Japan, caused a huge sensation. However, what if the cultural relics travel a long distance to Beijing and there is a safety accident?
To this end, the Central Radio and Television Corporation specially asked the State Administration of Cultural Heritage for this and received strong support. The State Administration of Cultural Heritage believes that at the moment of the cultural fever, telling the story of cultural relics on the spring evening of CCTV has also become a useful attempt to promote the "living" of cultural relics and strengthen the dissemination and transformation of archaeological achievements. The key issue is to do a good job in the safety and security of cultural relics - before the departure of cultural relics, they should be repaired and maintained to ensure that they are suitable for long-distance transportation and display; they should formulate safety plans and emergency plans for the whole process of handing over, packaging, transporting, storing and exhibiting cultural relics in strict accordance with regulations, and implement safety responsibilities; the site should also strengthen safety protection to ensure that the exhibition sites and display cabinets meet the environmental requirements for the preservation and display of cultural relics, and eliminate potential safety hazards.
Staff packing for the bronze mask.
In this context, Sichuan organized relevant cultural and cultural institutions to form a special work class, carefully formulated a cultural relics safety guarantee plan, and carefully implemented cultural relics cleaning, packaging, transportation, unloading, exhibition, guarding, protection and other work.
If a national treasure wants to meet the people of the whole country, it is impossible to be "disheveled." Ren Junfeng, a staff member of the Cultural Protection Center of the Sichuan Academy of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, and Yu Jian, director of the Cultural Protection Center of the Sanxingdui Museum, are cultural protection experts who entered Beijing with cultural relics this time.
According to the two, after the bronze mask was unearthed, there was actually a case of rust and soil on the surface, so it looked particularly "vicissitudes". In addition, the mask has lost its left ear and is slightly mutilated behind the left cheek and at the corner of the mouth. Therefore, after the excavation of cultural relics, cultural protection experts have targeted the removal of mud stains, mud covers, cementites and rust on the surface after scientific research and analysis of mask diseases to ensure the stability of the cultural relics. It was the big mask that had been methodically cleaned up and had enough Sanxingdui characteristics to be selected in one fell swoop.
Since then, the cultural relics restoration team led by Guo Hanzhong, a cultural relics restorer at Sanxingdui Museum, has followed the principle of least intervention, carefully designed the reinforcement and protection scheme of cultural relics, and used stainless steel structure brackets for complete physical reinforcement to ensure that the status of cultural relics meets the requirements of transportation and display.
The cultural security expert physically fixed the mask with a stainless steel strip
Foolproof every step of the way
To transport such a "big man" to Beijing, there must be no mistake, otherwise it will cause irreversible harm to cultural relics. How do you make sure you're foolproof?
Ren Junfeng introduced that the company responsible for transporting national treasures has a detailed plan from the beginning of the packaging process. They also went to the Sanxingdui Museum in advance and used 3D printing technology to make a replica model of the original scale cultural relics, and used the model to simulate the packaging drill. Due to the severe corrosion of the right eye of the mask and the fragility of the left ear, the left ear is broken and detached, and the mask and the left ear are packaged separately to avoid bumping. Packaging is also exquisite, according to the size of the mask to customize the inner and outer two-layer packaging box, the bottom of the inner box pad with sponge, anti-slip sealing strip and felt, etc., not only play a shock absorption role, but also to prevent the mask from causing wear. The inner box is covered with an outer box, and the middle is filled with shock absorbing materials to alleviate the impact of cultural relics in transportation.
Large masks are packed into boxes and fed into the transport vehicle
From Guanghan to Beijing is about 2,000 kilometers, in the case of a day can not reach, how to ensure the safety of cultural relics at night? Under the coordination of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the museum and the carrier have developed a reasonable transportation route, accompanied by security personnel throughout the journey, and all the vehicles enter the local museum overnight to ensure that nothing is lost. After arriving in Beijing, cultural relics are also moved to the museum cultural relics warehouse that meets the environmental and security standards for cultural relics storage.
The reporter learned that in order to "travel" to the bronze mask, the freight company specially sent a vehicle with its own temperature and humidity control device, so that the environment in which the mask was located was always in a stable state. In addition, the vehicle has an air cushion "shock absorption" system, which can reduce the number of vibrations in the body and prevent the occurrence of car rolls and shaking.
It is the biggest "wrist" of the Spring Festival Gala
As we all know, the CCTV Spring Festival Gala has to carry out many rehearsals before broadcasting, so can the bronze mask withstand round after round of rehearsals?
Obviously, as the biggest "wrist" of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, our big mask does not need to appear in advance. Yu Jian introduced that whether it is the rehearsal or the side row of the Spring Festival Gala, the appearances are all 3D models of cultural relics. Only two live broadcasts, the bronze mask, appeared in person.
The shocking moment of the large bronze mask unearthed last June.
The "specifications" of these two appearances are not small. On the way from the "borrowed" museum to the CCTV live broadcast room, the transport company applied to the local public security bureau to enforce the third-level security to ensure the smooth and safe transportation of cultural relics. When it came to the TV station, the program team specially arranged a separate passage for the cultural relics to directly enter the first VIP room "waiting", entered the room, and there were security personnel outside the gate to prevent idle people from approaching. The section from the TV parking lot to the VIP room, and from the VIP room to the studio, was also cleared.
In the VIP room, yu Jian and Ren Junfeng, two experts, first installed the fallen ears on the mask for physical fixation, and then together with the transportation company staff, the mask was delivered to the studio through a customized cultural relics transportation platform. Ren Junfeng said that the large mask seems to be flat and stable, but in fact, the center of gravity is somewhat forward. In order to avoid the cultural relics falling due to the instability of the center of gravity during the handling, he and Yu Jiancheng guarded the cultural relics and guided the staff to carry them. As a result, how the mask appeared to trigger applause and cheers from the audience, they did not feel anything, "Our minds are all on the cultural relics." The Spring Festival Gala is not lively for the time being, and we can only be completely assured that the cultural relics are safely displayed in front of the national audience and safely sent home. ”
According to reports, the big mask will soon return to Guanghan after the end of this "business trip" mission. In the future, the audience is expected to continue to see it at the Sanxingdui Museum Cultural Protection Center.
More than 3,000 years ago, the ancient Shu people used it to communicate with the gods
Since 1986, when Sanxingdui "woke up to the world", 8 "pits" have been discovered at the Sanxingdui site, and a large number of exquisite bronzes, jade, gold, ivory and other cultural relics have been unearthed. These pits are generally called "sacrificial pits" in academia.
The cultural relics unearthed here are not tomb attachments at all. Academic circles have found that whether it is the bronze Da Liren, the bronze sacred tree, the bronze mask, as well as the national treasure cultural relics bronze statues and bronze altars discovered last year, they all clearly point to sanxingdui as an ancient theocratic country, and these artifacts were the medium used to communicate with the gods of heaven and earth at that time and were used for sacrifice. The sacrificial mountain Yuzhang unearthed from Sanxingdui clearly engraved the sacrificial scene at that time. From this point of view, the cultural relics unearthed by Sanxingdui are more auspicious than the burial products.
At present, there is a view in the academic community that among the 8 "sacrifice pits" in Sanxingdui, the other 6 pits other than the No. 5 and No. 6 pits may be the burial places of sacrificial artifacts caused by some external factors, and the no. 5 and No. 6 pits of gold masks and mysterious wooden boxes unearthed may be the sacrifices. In general, the area where the 8 pits are located is the sacrificial area of the ancient Shu Kingdom.
(The pictures in this article are provided by The Sichuan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the Sanxingdui Museum)
Reporter: Wu Xiaoling
Editor: He Yong
Proofreader: Yu Pu
Review: Zhong Li
Source: Sichuan Online