On the night of Chinese New Year's Eve this year, at the Spring Festival Gala of the Central Radio and Television Corporation, Zhang Guoguo, host of the "National Treasure" program, and Ran Honglin, director of the Sanxingdui Archaeological Research Institute, released the latest excavated cultural relics of Sanxingdui - the bronze mask, which is the largest bronze mask unearthed in the world so far. Immediately afterward, the creative dance "Golden Face", selected by the Propaganda Department of the Deyang Municipal Party Committee of Sichuan Province, interpreted the beauty of romance and art against the background of sanxingdui civilization, allowing hundreds of millions of viewers to feel the profound heritage of ancient Shu civilization.
The large bronze mask is 131 cm wide, 71 cm high, 66 cm deep and weighs 131 pounds, which 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, dating back more than 3,000 years, reflecting the understanding and thinking of the ancient Shu ancestors on the natural things and the world of gods and gods.
"When I first saw this large bronze mask, I felt trembling, it was exactly the kind of huge shock that took a glance of 3,000 years, and I felt the profundity of Chinese civilization." Zhang Guoli said excitedly.
Ran Honglin said that this large bronze mask is currently the largest known bronze mask in the world, with a history of more than 3,000 years. The sub-casting technology and alloy ratio of this large bronze mask belong to the same system as the Yin Ruins in Anyang, Henan, reflecting the great influence of the Central Plains culture on the Sanxingdui culture, and confirming the historical process of the pluralistic integration of Chinese civilization.
On June 23, 2021, the 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 divided into castings, the face, the back of the cheek, the eyes, the ears and other parts were cast separately, and then combined into one, and the silk fabric residue of the warp and weft tissue was also found on the right eye of the large mask.
Perhaps, many people will wonder, who can wear a large bronze mask that is half a person tall and weighs more than 100 pounds? Experts and scholars have studied and answered this question. They believe that the role of large bronze masks is to sacrifice, not to be worn on the faces of the ancestors, but to be carried by the ancestors to sacrifice. The gold masks found in the No. 1 and No. 2 pits of Sanxingdui were worn on the faces of bronze figures.
As a major project of "Archaeology in China", the excavation of Sanxingdui site is a typical representative of China's century-old archaeological achievements, and since its discovery in 1929, several generations of archaeologists have continued to struggle for a hundred years to explore the roots of civilization. By the end of 2021, Sanxingdui has unearthed more than 10,000 numbered cultural relics in only 6 new sacrifice pits, including golden masks, top statues, round square figures, large masks, altar models, kneeling bronze figures, more than 500 ivory and other exquisite cultural relics, some of which can be viewed up close in the Sanxingdui Open Cultural Relics Restoration Museum.
How to ensure the safety of Sanxingdui cultural relics on the Spring Festival Gala? It is understood that in the whole process, the State Administration of Cultural Relics inspected the details of safety and security on the spot, guided and supported the Sichuan Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau, the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, the Sanxingdui Museum, together with the professional cultural relics transportation and exhibition units, dispatched business backbones, formed a special work class, accurately formulated a cultural relics safety guarantee plan, prepared and implemented a cultural relics reinforcement 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.
▲ Creative Dance "Golden Face"
How to make Sanxingdui cultural relics really "live" on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala? Immediately after the Sanxingdui cultural relics release ceremony, a girl in a white dress walked into the secret realm of time and space, and what attracted her was a huge bronze statue in front of her. She felt that everything was familiar, so she reached out and touched it, opening the vortex of time and space... The creative dance "Golden Face" takes the "Sanxingdui Civilization" as the background and uses the most cutting-edge visual technology to combine XR virtual technology, dynamic capture technology and traditional culture to resonate with the audience.
February 8, 2022 "China Culture News"
The first edition featured a special report
"3000 years later, it became a big star at the Spring Festival Gala"
Editor-in-charge: Chen Xiaoyue