Elephant News reporter Zhao Yongtao
"According to archaeological research, the casting technology and alloy ratio of the bronze mask belong to the same system as the Anyang Yin Ruins, reflecting the profound influence of the Central Plains culture on the Sanxingdui culture." On the spring evening of the 2022 CCTV Tiger Year, the bronze mask excavated from the Sanxingdui site stunned the world. Host Zhang Guoli specifically mentioned the close relationship between the Sanxingdui civilization and the Central Plains Yinshang culture. So what are the similarities and differences between the two, and how do they intersect? Elephant News Connects Kong Deming, Deputy Director of the Anyang Municipal Cultural Relics Bureau.
"The Sanxingdui culture and the culture of the Central Plains are diverse and integrated." In 2016, a Shang Dynasty copper casting site was discovered in Baizhuang Town, Beiguan District, Anyang City, Henan Province, and after several years of archaeological excavations, about 12,000 pieces of Pottery Fan were unearthed. Kong Deming, deputy director of the Anyang Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics, said that some of the pottery fans were used to cast bronze animal heads used to decorate bronze statues. The shape, shape, ornamentation and other aspects of this type of pottery are very close to similar cultural relics excavated from Sanxingdui.
Some bronze helmets have also been excavated in Anyang Yin Ruins, which are similar to the bronzes related to Sanxingdui. In addition, the cloud pattern and dragon pattern on the Sanxingdui bronze are common ornaments in the Central Plains bronze.
The bronzes we see are not cast in pure copper, but are added to a certain proportion of lead, tin and other metals. The bronzes of Yin Shang and Sanxingdui are basically the same in alloy proportions, and there are tin bronze and lead bronze. Kong Deming concluded: "From the perspective of alloy patterns, they should belong to the same source, or influence each other. "The detection of lead in both bronzes illustrates this problem even more.
Professor Jin Zhengyao of the University of Science and Technology of China analyzed the Bronzes of the Shang Dynasty and found that about 70% of the bronzes of the early Shang Dynasty contained high-emission lead, which was found in Yunnan, Guizhou and other places in southwest China. The Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, the measurement results of the Sanxingdui bronzes confirmed that the lead in it also came from Yunnan.
There is no shortage of lead ore in the Central Plains, so why travel thousands of miles to transport these high-emission lead from Yunnan, Jin Zhengyao speculated that these lead were transported to the Central Plains along with the copper mines in the south. This also shows from another perspective that there is a close exchange between the Zhongyuan Shang culture and the Sanxingdui culture, and the key to this exchange lies in the Yangtze River Basin.
The Central Plains region is more than a thousand kilometers away from the Sichuan Basin, how the Shang culture entered the Sichuan region, Jiang Zhanghua, vice president of the Chengdu Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, mentioned in the book "Tracing the Ancient Country: The Rise of the Sanxingdui Culture and Its Influence" that the Bronze Ware of the Shang Culture Style seen in the Sanxingdui Culture is more similar to the similar artifacts excavated in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and it can be speculated that the Shang culture entered Sichuan from the middle reaches of the Yangtze River through the Shaanxi River region.
The influence between cultures is mutual, the earliest willow leaf-shaped sword was unearthed in Chengdu, and then appeared in southern Shaanxi, Gansu and other places, indicating the relationship between the central plains culture Andugu Shu culture. Therefore, Kong Deming believes that "connecting the Sichuan Basin from the Central Plains to the Yangtze River Basin is a large cultural circle that can be called pluralistic integration." ”
Affected by the epidemic, the Anyang Yinxu Museum is temporarily closed, and will be officially opened to the public after the Spring Festival, you can pay attention to the official news of the Yinxu Museum and go to the Yinxu Museum to feel the thick and splendid Shang Dynasty civilization.