Cover news reporter Zeng Jie intern Zhu Yifan according to Sichuan Radio and Television Station
At 20:00 on March 30, the first episode of the large-scale archaeological documentary "Treasures of Ancient Shu" produced by Sichuan Radio and Television Station, "Excavation and Discovery", was unveiled on CCTV9, and Sichuan Satellite TV was broadcast simultaneously at 21:15. How do precious artifacts break through the excavation site before they enter the museum? This documentary is filmed in a panoramic field, 4K meticulous restoration of the excavation site, to see how archaeologists can solve the problems hidden under the ancient Shu land.
Sleep for three thousand years
Wake up again
In November 2019, Ran Honglin, then deputy director of the Sanxingdui Ruins Workstation of the Sichuan Provincial Research Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, used a Luoyang shovel to start a new round of excavations of Sanxingdui. Prior to this, Sanxingdui had been silent for more than 30 years.
For the excavation of Sanxingdui, a clear timeline can be roughly sorted out.
In the spring of 1927, Yan Dao, a farmer living in Moon Bay, dug out many jade objects outside. These jade objects gradually flowed into the antique market, attracting the attention of Ge Weihan, the first director of the West China Union University Museum.
Ge Weihan visits Sanxingdui
In March 1934, Ge Weihan led the archaeological team of the West China Union University Museum to Moon Bay, and the prelude to sanxingdui archaeology was unveiled, but this scientific archaeology lasted only 10 days before it was hurriedly concluded.
In July 1986, when the local brick factory was taking soil, it accidentally discovered the Sanxingdui No. 1 and No. 2 sacrifice pits, and Chen De'an led the team to carry out rescue excavations. More than 1,700 heavyweight jade, stone and bronze objects, including "bronze standing figures", "bronze sacred trees", and "bronze masks", were excavated in this excavation. Sanxingdui ruins, "sleeping for three thousand years, waking up to shock the world."
Due to the limited scientific and technological means at that time, archaeological technology was quite backward. For the sake of cultural relics, the archaeological team did not carry out large-scale excavations of the Sanxingdui site.
Until 2019, Sichuan Province organized the implementation of the ancient Shu civilization protection and inheritance project, Sanxingdui has a new round of discovery, and the three to eight sacrifice pits have successively revealed their true faces.
From the first discovery of Sanxingdui to the first archaeological excavation, it took 5 years. It took 52 years from the first excavation to the discovery of craters I and II. It took another 33 years to go from pits one and two to pit three. The discovery from pit three to pit four, five, six, seven and eight took only 5 months.
How are these six "sacrificial pits" excavated? How can we protect the rare treasures buried in the ground during excavations? From the excitement of the discovery to the concern about the protection of cultural relics, archaeologists know the great responsibility behind the restart of the Sanxingdui excavation work.
Digital tech archaeology
The process of racing against time
Archaeological work is a race against time. For example, the excavation of silk, from discovery to extraction excavation, to the adoption of protective measures, takes a very short time to complete. The excavation process is also irreversible, and if you are not careful, the historical information hidden in the cultural relics will be destroyed. The excavation has made overall planning in the early data recording and hardware construction, the extraction of cultural relics in the middle period, and the protection and research of cultural relics in the later period.
Chen De'an and the evolution of Shu characters
In July 1986, Chen De'an led the team to build a grass shed and began to work. "During that time, during the thunderstorm season, as soon as the thunder hit, we were in a hurry, afraid of rising floods, and we all fought all night."
After 34 years, in July 2020, the Sanxingdui archaeological greenhouse began to be built. Through the latest environmental control system, the on-site temperature is controlled between 20-25 ° C, and the humidity is controlled at about 80%, preventing oxidation and damage of cultural relics during excavation.
In addition, the construction of the air frame to achieve contactless archaeology, digital means to collect and sort out on-site information in a timely manner, sound and photoelectric intelligent equipment to achieve remote consultation of experts, emergency protection laboratory to ensure that archaeological excavations and cultural relics protection are carried out synchronously. The exploration of Sanxingdui is a digital science and technology archaeology with the highest technical content, the highest specifications and the highest precision requirements.
Not only are the hardware conditions guaranteed, but there are also new changes in the archaeological concept: the use of grid methods for excavations, meticulous analysis of each layer of fill, and research with more scientific and comprehensive cultural relics testing methods. All this allows archaeologists to discover more cultural and archaeological values carried by cultural relics.
This time, the residue of silk products that was invisible to the naked eye was extracted from pit four. This means that Sanxingdui discovered silk fabrics for the first time, providing strong physical evidence for studying the long history of silk development in the ancient Shu kingdom.
Gold masks unearthed
The gold mask unearthed from Pit Five weighs more than 280 grams, which is unprecedented in both volume and weight.
Turn your head and kneel to sit on the portrait, the top figure kneels on the top, the jade engraved with the sacred tree... With a large wave of unprecedented cultural relics "Shangxin", the mysterious and strict ancient Shu city-state system has also slowly unfolded in front of archaeologists.
Pursue cultural roots
Demystify the ancient Shu civilization
For archaeologists, "digging for treasure" is only the most basic work, and how to trace the origin of culture through artifacts is a greater challenge.
Sanxingdui's stunning thousands of bronzes, golds, and jades confirm the developed ancient Shu civilization. What kind of urban form did this land of a thousand years ago have? What is the state of socio-cultural development? The search for these answers is almost in parallel with the excavation of artifacts. After several generations of unremitting efforts, an ancient city with a strict layout has finally emerged clearly.
A large number of small, four walls into a closed force. The ancient city, which has lasted for more than 2,000 years, has given archaeologists new ideas. It is different from the Central Plains civilization, but why is it inextricably related to the Central Plains civilization? The documentary "Treasures of Ancient Shu" is being broadcast, looking back at the millennium time, let us continue to unveil the dusty history of ancient Shu civilization.
Poster for the first episode of the documentary "Treasures of Ancient Shu"