The excavation of "Sanxingdui" was not smooth sailing, it went through a total of three times, why did it stop in the end?

The Chinese nation has a long history, and Chinese culture has been precipitated for five thousand years. But for various reasons we have lost the record of this history, and we can only find evidence of the existence of some dynasties through archaeological excavations.

The world-famous "Sanxingdui" has brought us many clues to ancient civilizations, but for various reasons, we have stopped digging and exploring it.

Excavation of the "Sanxingdui"

The Shang Dynasty was the earliest time we have a historical record, but we can't know what the history before the Shang Dynasty was. The emergence of "Sanxingdui" has given us a new understanding of history, and its emergence has pushed our understanding of Chinese culture forward for many years. It also proves that the history before the Shang Dynasty is real and not a legend. Through the excavation of "Sanxingdui", we also found that the culture and casting process of thousands of years ago have been very advanced and shocking.

The excavation of sanxingdui was not smooth sailing, a total of three excavations were carried out, and in the end, not all of them were excavated. The first time was in the 1830s, when a preacher stumbled upon many exquisite jade artifacts in the pit, and under his propaganda the "Sanxingdui" gradually attracted the attention of the cultural relics department and began the first excavation. Early excavations let experts know that this civilization was once extremely active in the Bashu region. However, due to the turbulent situation at that time, only a short excavation had to be carried out before the exploration of the "Sanxingdui" had to be suspended.

After waiting for the situation to stabilize, experts carried out two or three excavations and archaeological work in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China and the 1980s and 1990s respectively, and unearthed many exquisite cultural relics, which made "Sanxingdui" famous and famous in the world.

Most of the cultural relics found in "Sanxingdui" are bronzes made of copper, and all have a high level of craftsmanship. One of the most representative is the bronze statue, which is known as the "king of the world's bronze statues" because of its height, but in ancient times, only mighty people could make bronze statues, and its identity is still an unsolved mystery. More famous is the bronze sacred tree, the highest place is nearly four meters, the main trunk is pregnant with a bronze dragon, the sacred tree is divided into three layers, each layer has three branches, the bronze branches are staggered with flowers and birds, the lines are beautiful and ingenious.

"Sanxingdui" culture

Archaeologists have found through the study of these artifacts that the "Sanxingdui" civilization can be traced back to 4,000 years ago, and they were shocked that people at that time could have such superb casting skills.

The cultural relics unearthed from the "Sanxingdui" are unique in shape and rarely appear in Chinese culture, and when archaeologists compared the cultural relics unearthed from the "Sanxingdui" with the terracotta warriors of the Mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin, they found that there was no similarity between the two. Therefore, experts believe that the "Sanxingdui" culture may have predated the Central Plains culture, and there is no intersection and fusion between the two, and there is a large blank space between them. This piece of historical blank space also adds a touch of mystery to the "Sanxingdui".

The shape of the artifacts unearthed in the "Sanxingdui" is very classic, and even today we use some elements of the cultural relics excavated in the "Sanxingdui". There are two cute enchantment beasts in the domestic animation film Nezha, which many people think are very familiar, in fact, their prototype is a reference to the bronze statue unearthed from "Sanxingdui".

In addition, there is still a lot of speculation about the "Sanxingdui" culture. We have excavated many utensils from the "Sanxingdui" that appear less in traditional Chinese culture, such as the sun wheel, golden cane, etc. that appeared in ancient Egyptian culture, and some people think that these may be evidence of aliens' short-lived earth. People speculate that aliens may have come to Earth at some point to live, created their own civilization, and experienced some changes and chose to leave. In short, the current "Sanxingdui" culture is still very mysterious.

So far, the excavation work has only been carried out in one-tenth, and we still have a lot of confusion about the "Sanxingdui" culture. However, this small part alone has unearthed tens of thousands of exquisite cultural relics, and it is conceivable how many valuable treasures will be buried in the remaining part, and the discovery of "Sanxingdui" can be called a major miracle in the history of mainland archaeology.

Stop mining

With the continuous deepening of the excavation work, the true appearance of "Sanxingdui" has gradually been revealed, but the relevant departments have braked sharply to stop the excavation. The emergence of "Sanxingdui" shocked the world, and the excavated cultural relics are not only very exquisite, but also have strong research value, which helps us to explore the ancient history and culture and study the ins and outs of Chinese culture. Therefore, many people do not understand, why should such a beneficial and harmless work stop?

In fact, the relevant departments stopped the excavation out of the mentality of protecting cultural relics. Since the current technology cannot achieve non-destructive excavation, we may cause damage to cultural relics in the process of excavation, and there is also a lack of some advanced cultural relics protection measures to preserve these cultural relics for a long time.

The mainland has produced too many tragedies due to blind excavations. For example, the Dingling Tomb of the Wanli Emperor and his two wives in the Ming Dynasty was such a case, when people decided to excavate it in order to study history. However, due to limited technology, the golden and brilliant dragon robe that was just unearthed has now become fragments after being rapidly oxidized after excavation, and many exquisite artifacts have also been oxidized, causing great regret. Another example is the Terracotta Warriors of the Mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin, which originally had a variety of skin tones and shapes, but after fifteen seconds of excavation, they quickly lost their former glory and became gray.

In order not to let the tragedy repeat itself, after discovering the value and significance of the "Sanxingdui", the relevant departments chose to stop it in time for the purpose of protecting cultural relics and handed over the excavation work to future generations. This suspension is not out of fear of history, but out of respect and protection of traditional culture.

Moreover, no matter what our current technology is, since it is impossible to achieve protection, it is better to let the "Sanxingdui" continue to sleep underground for the time being, protected by the wisdom of the ancients and nature, and wait for one day we have developed more sophisticated excavation technology and more advanced protection technology before excavation. We believe that with the continuous development of science and technology, there will be more advanced technology in the future, so archaeologists always adhere to the principle of not digging without digging.

And "Sanxingdui" is an area we have not yet set foot in, and most of the cultural relics unearthed from it have no writing, and there is no historical data to assist compared with other archaeological sites. We lack some channels to understand and study these cultural relics, and even if we dig them out now, they can only prove that the mainland really existed before the Shang Dynasty, but it has never been able to interpret their mysteries. It is better to wait for research data and more advanced technology to appear before digging.