Original title: The final evaluation project of the top ten new archaeological discoveries in the country 丨The internal layout of the Sanxingdui sacrifice area has been preliminarily clarified
Shortlisted in the 2021 national top ten archaeological final evaluation of the 20 projects, the highest social visibility, to the Sanxingdui site sacrifice area archaeological project, the start of excavation so far, has been two years, in addition to 6 "sacrifice pits" successively unearthed the top of the kneeling portrait, copper head kneeling portrait and other star cultural relics, Sanxingdui also has some important discoveries, disclosed in the national top ten archaeological final evaluation link.
The Sanxingdui site is located in the western suburbs of Guanghan City, Sichuan Province, with a total area of about 12 square kilometers. Since the start of excavations in March 2020, the total excavation area has reached 1202 square meters, in addition to the discovery of 6 "sacrifice pits", 78 ash pits, 55 ash ditches, 341 pillar holes, 4 housing sites, and 2 tombs have been found, and the distribution range and internal layout of the sacrifice area of the Sanxingdui site have been preliminarily clarified.
According to reports, a total of 8 rectangular "sacrifice pits" have been found in the sacrificial area, including no. 1 and no. 2 pits excavated in 1986. In addition, as archaeological excavations progressed, remains related to the ritual activities such as two rectangular trenches and one large building were found in the sacrificial area. The newly disclosed information shows that combined with stratigraphic relationships, excavated artifacts and carbon-14 dating results, experts have now preliminarily judged that the newly discovered nos. 3, 4, 7 and 8 are about 3200 to 3000 years old, roughly equivalent to the fourth phase of the late Shang Yin Ruins, while the 5 and 6 pits are relatively late.
Up to now, the newly discovered 6 "sacrifice pits" have unearthed more than 12,000 cultural relics, of which more than 2,300 are nearly complete artifacts, and the shape and ornamentation of some cultural relics have never been seen before, further enriching the cultural connotation of the Sanxingdui site. Experts said that a number of new artifacts excavated this time, such as the bronze statue of the kneeling figure and the bronze round mouth fangzun, as well as the jade chun, have both the elements of the ancient Shu civilization, the Central Plains civilization and the culture of other regions in the country, further consolidating the basic understanding that the ancient Shu civilization is an important part of the Chinese civilization.
Source: CCTV news client