Editor's Note:
The Ancient Shu Kingdom originated in the Minshan region of Sichuan and developed in the Sichuan Basin. Affected by the enclosed natural environment, the Ancient Shu Kingdom has very unique characteristics. With the archaeological discoveries of Sanxingdui No. 1 Sacrifice Pit and No. 2 Sacrifice Pit in the 1980s, the ancient Shu civilization centered on the Sanxingdui ruins gradually appeared to the world. Since March 2020, the archaeological excavation of the sacrifice area of the Sanxingdui Shang Dynasty site has once again made a major breakthrough, and the distribution range and internal pattern of the sacrifice area have been preliminarily clarified, and 6 new "sacrifice pits" have been discovered. The newly discovered ruins and relics have further enriched the cultural connotation of the Sanxingdui site, and will also promote the study of the rituals and sacrifice systems of the Sanxingdui site and the ancient Shu civilization, filling the gap in previous research. The Sanxingdui Shang Dynasty site in Guanghan City, Sichuan Province was successfully selected as the "2021 Chinese Archaeological New Discoveries", bringing many new highlights to the "Archaeological Spring". China Social Science Network specially invited experts and scholars to approach the Sanxingdui ruins with us, get close to the magnificent ancient Shu culture, and appreciate the pride of the ancient Shu civilization with unique Chinese characteristics, Chinese style and Chinese style.
Guests:
Gao Dalun is the former president of the Sichuan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology
Li Haichao is a professor at the School of History, Sichuan University
Zhao Hao is an associate professor at the School of Archaeology and Literature of Peking University and the person in charge of the excavation of Pit 8 in the Sanxingdui Sacrifice Area
Han Ding is an associate professor at the School of History and Culture of Henan University
compere:
China Social Science Network Qi Zeyao
Explore the unknown and reveal the source
The archaeological excavation of the sacrifice area of the Sanxingdui Shang Dynasty site has made a major breakthrough
China Social Science Network: First of all, please briefly sort out what breakthrough results have been achieved in archaeological excavations at the Sanxingdui site since 2020?
Gao Dalun: In 1986, two sacrificial pits were found in the area, and around 2000, due to the needs of tourism development, the local government restored two sacrificial pits on top of them for tourists to visit, and it was not until 2019 that the ground buildings were demolished, the cover was removed, and excavations were restarted, so there were 6 newly discovered pits in this area. The results of the discovery of these 6 pits are mainly in the following aspects.
First, it is the most important discovery of the ancient Shu civilization after the discovery of two sacrificial pits in 1986. Since 1987, the excavation of the Sanxingdui site has been multifaceted, and in the big picture, the city walls that can be combined and closed in the east, west, south and north have been discovered, and several small cities in the big city have been discovered, a large building site located in the northwest corner of the city has been exposed, the cemetery outside the city has been excavated, and the cultural accumulation and functional layout of the city have been comprehensively explored and basically clarified. These achievements confirm the chronological and cultural accumulation formation process of the Sanxingdui site for us, and reveal the cultural connotation of the ancient Shu civilization represented by Sanxingdui. Together with the discovery of sacrificial pits, they constitute a relatively complete system of remains that is intrinsically linked. These findings help to unravel many of the major academic problems involved in the 8 pits. Among the archaeological discoveries of the Sanxingdui site for nearly a hundred years, the sacrificial pit is the most important. The sacrificial pit was found twice after 30 years, both discoveries are very important, for example, in 1986, the discovery of two sacrificial pits was a stone breaking, this time is the icing on the cake, and it is a blossoming flower!
Second, it has greatly enriched the cultural connotation of the ancient Shu civilization in Sanxingdui. More than 2,000 cultural relics excavated from Pit 1 and No. 2, plus thousands of cultural relics from Pit 3-8, are estimated to have tens of thousands of specimens of various cultural relics after all excavations. Although a considerable number of newly discovered cultural relics specimens are the same as the types and shapes of Pits 1 and 2, there are also many new types and shapes. By interpreting the rich historical and cultural information carried by tens of thousands of cultural relics, we can more comprehensively and deeply understand the profound ancient Shu civilization.
Third, due to the discovery of pits 3-8, some academic controversies caused by the discovery of pits 1-2 have gradually reached a consensus. For example, regarding the status of the Sanxingdui ancient Shu civilization in China's early Bronze Age, the nature of several pits, the era, and the naming of several representative artifacts.
Fourth, the new discoveries at the Sanxingdui site have brought endless reverie and more expectations to scholars and society. More than 3,000 years ago, there was such a strange ancient civilization on our land, and the imagination of the Sanxingdui people seemed to be far beyond its time, why were their works of art so exaggerated? Therefore, we expect scholars to announce the results of the excavations as soon as possible, the cultural relics to be exhibited in the museum as soon as possible, to find more sacrificial pits, and even to find the tombs of nobles and the tombs of the Shu kings, large bronze smelting and casting workshops as soon as possible.
Li Haichao: The excavation work was uniformly undertaken by the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, and 3 universities participated in the excavation work. Among them, Sichuan University is mainly responsible for the excavation of three pits 5, 6 and 7. Since the start of the excavation work on December 11, 2020, nearly half of the work has been completed and the harvest has been very fruitful. Among the 8 pits that sanxingdui has found, No. 5 and No. 6 are the two most special. Pit 5 is the smallest of all the sacrificial pits, but the "gold content" is quite high. After the layers of artifacts are revealed, dense gold, ivory fragments, jade, etc. are laid in the pit. These artifacts are generally small, but extremely delicate. Important artifacts that have been discovered so far include the largest gold mask ever seen, bird-shaped gold ornaments found for the first time, strange axe-shaped gold objects that are only partially exposed, and gold beads with a diameter of only about 1 millimeter. These important discoveries are of great significance for discussing the art of Samsung gold stacking and studying the gold ware process. Due to the large number of relics in the pit, the combination relationship is not clear, and after discussion among experts, it was decided to cut the artifact layer as a whole. Now that the cutting work has been completed, more elaborate laboratory archaeology will be carried out next, and it is believed that there will be more important archaeological discoveries.
Pits 6 and 7 are the only set of sacrificial pits in Sanxingdui that break relationships. Pit 6 breaks Pit 7, indicating that it is relatively old. The form of pit 6 is even more peculiar, with well-preserved wooden boxes being found for the first time on the west side of the pit. The wooden box as a whole has been completely carbonized, but the overall shape is still well preserved, and traces of painting Zhu can still be seen on the surface of the wooden box. On the east side of the pit, no important relics have been found, half of which is buried in wooden boxes, and the other half is an "empty pit", a strange form that is difficult to understand. In order to unravel the mystery of the wooden box, we have cleaned most of the filled soil in the box, and no clear relics have been found, but the part close to the bottom of the box has not been cleaned, and the possibility of excavated artifacts cannot be ruled out. Amazingly, an extremely delicate jade knife was unearthed at the bottom of the wooden box. In addition to the traditional excavation methods, we use technology to try to find the residue of organic matter, and we have detected the silk protein signal in the box. In order to better preserve the wooden box and make more elaborate excavations of the soil filled in the box, we have cut the wooden box and the ash accumulation in its lower part as a whole, and the next step is to start the laboratory archaeology work.
Pit 7 has both commonalities and characteristics compared to other larger sacrificial pits. The commonality is that the ivory layer above the artifact layer is all, and the number of ivory in pit 7 is large, and the preservation is also better. The characteristic is that the artifact layer of Pit 7 is mainly based on small bronzes and a large number of jade tools, including copper bells, hanging racks, copper tree stumps, hanging ornaments, eye shapers, eye bubbles, small kneeling portraits, etc. Jade is dominated by the common shapes of zhang, ge, axe, chisel and so on. In pits 2, 3 and 8, there are common objects such as statues, heads, etc., but in pit 7 are very rare. It can be known that the utensils in the pit should be selectively buried. The most important artifact found in Pit 7 is the "Turtle Back Grid Shaped Device" (tentative name), which is composed of a bronze grid and a large and exquisite jade, the shape is unprecedented, and the production process is even more exquisite, providing new information for understanding the Sanxingdui culture.
Zhao Hao: The archaeological work of Sanxingdui has been carried out intensively for more than 30 years since the beginning of 1986, and archaeologists have been intensively carrying out archaeological investigation and excavation of the Sanxingdui city site. When the Sanxingdui Sacrifice Area began to excavate again in 2020, one of our great advantages over 30 years ago was a relatively clear understanding of the distribution of the entire Sanxingdui City site and even the Bronze Age settlements near the Yazi River Basin, the basic layout of the city site, and the spatial and temporal relationships of different types of functional areas in the city. Therefore, this information together constitutes an important basis for restarting the excavation of the Sanxingdui sacrifice area, and it is also the macroscopic context of the Sanxingdui culture, the social characteristics of the Sanxingdui period, and the story of Sanxingdui that we can put the sacrifice area into a wider site and regional background in the future.
As far as the excavation of the sacrificial area itself is concerned, the most striking and important breakthrough is the discovery of a large number of new relics and new phenomena. I was mainly involved in the excavation of Pit 8 and learned more about the pit. Pit 8 is also the largest one ever found in the Sanxingdui Sacrifice Area since 1986. Although excavations are still underway and systematic research is just beginning, a large number of previously unknown artifacts and phenomena have been revealed in Crater 8. For example, the multi-level bronze altar with the complex structure uses the most direct image to express the scene and participants of the Sanxingdui sacrifice activities. The tall upside-down god-man statue exposed in the northwest corner of Pit 8, with a total height of about 1.4 meters, and the image of the god-man with the head and snake body on it will be of great help to enrich our understanding of the religious system of the Sanxingdui period. Such as large bronze standing human god beasts, tiger head dragon god bronze statue and other large and complex artifacts, will also bring new opportunities to deepen the understanding of Sanxingdui cultural ideology, handicraft technology and other content.
Of course, in addition to the discovery of a single important artifact, another important contribution of this round of excavations became the key to solving the timing of the formation of these sacrificial pits and the related historical interpretations. After the excavations in 1986, researchers have engaged in a long-term and fierce debate on the relative time interval between the No. 1 and No. 2 sacrificial pits and the absolute chronological range of the two pits. This is precisely the problem that will inevitably be faced in the case of insufficient materials. In this excavation, we paid special attention to the on-site research and judgment of the correlation between the pits, and it can be preliminarily determined that at least a number of large sacrificial pits were rapidly formed in a relatively short time interval, which can be called the same event process. In terms of absolute age, the event interval formed by the sacrifice pit is determined to be about 1050BC by conducting large-scale series sample sampling. Time is the most critical element in archaeological and historical research, and the determination of time will greatly improve the abundance of our historical interpretation of the remnants of the Sanxingdui sacrifice.
Han Ding: I am not a front-line excavator, although I have always paid attention to the Sanxingdui site, but the collection of materials may not be comprehensive. Combined with the information currently released by various channels and the report of "2021 New Discoveries in Chinese Archaeology" and the report of "New Archaeological Discoveries in the Sacrifice Area of Sanxingdui Site" on the "Archaeological Forum of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences", the results of this excavation can be summarized as follows.
First of all, the existence of the Sanxingdui sacrifice area was confirmed. Six new sacrificial pits have been found in this area, and on the west side of the sacrificial pit have been found rectangular grooves (possibly sacrificial pit tunnels) and small circular pits (pits filled with black ashes and shaped copper bi; similar in characteristics to some sacrificial pits at jinsha sites); there are ash ditches on the south side of the sacrificial pits (stone spears, jade, turquoise pieces, bronzes, and gold leaf pieces have been unearthed), and there is a special building on the northwest side (with stone chun, stone bi, gold, bronze, turquoise stone pieces, etc.). The fifth layer of the formation is a special accumulation. The distribution range is wide, the middle is thin and thick (related to the convex and concave terrain), composed of light yellow-brown siltstone soil (rarely seen in the surrounding area), the soil is pure, there is no charcoal chips, ashes and other common remains in the residential area, and a small number of jade, stone tools and other artifacts found in the layer are only found in the sacrificial remains. The boundary of the layer suddenly disappears like a step (not the usual thinning to nothing). In general, the fifth floor may be the soil layer (or component of the altar) of the sacrificial area. The distribution of remains is regular. There are no residential remains in the special accumulation range of the fifth layer, and there is a blank zone (or late destruction) on the periphery, and then the outer side is the remains of later generations, and the overall distribution is ring-shaped.
Secondly, 6 new "sacrificial pits" were discovered. The overall characteristic of the 6 "sacrifice pits" is that the distribution of "sacrifice pits" is more concentrated, the direction is regular (northeast and southwest, northwest and southeast), the shape can be divided into wide rectangle, narrow rectangle, near square, two side by side distribution (can be divided into four groups: K1 and K4; K2 and K3; K7 and K8; K5 and K6), and the filling pattern is different. There are more than 12,000 numbered utensils, and there are about 3,000 complete artifacts: 1,126 bronzes (such as bronze statues, bronze statues, bronze covers, etc.), 535 gold objects (such as gold masks, bird-shaped gold ornaments, etc.), 544 jade objects (such as tooth zhang, jade knife, jade qun, etc.), 123 stone tools, 13 pottery pieces, 544 pieces of ivory, in addition to textiles and silk fabrics.
Again, the results of the research are fruitful. K4 was carbon-14 years ago, 3200-3000 years ago (the K3, K6, K8 era is similar). There may be cases of burial in the same vessel across the pit (such as K2, K3, K7, K8 all excavated fragments of sacred trees). K4 soil is backfilled with excavated raw soil and slightly rammed. The ash in the K4 pit is not formed by incineration in the pit, and the accumulation contains animal fat organic matter (cattle, wild boar), which may be sacrificed. The research on this excavation is still in its infancy, and it is believed that more important scientific research results will be produced in the future.
Diversity has a long history
Sanxingdui bronze culture is deeply influenced by the Central Plains culture
China Social Science Network: As one of the three major symbols of the origin of civilization, bronze ware has a very important role in the study of early ancient Chinese civilization. Sanxingdui has appeared a lot of strange bronzes, such as bronze sacred trees, bronze liren, bronze masks, etc., and there are many different views on the origin of these unique bronze types. How should we understand Sanxingdui's unique bronze culture?
Gao Dalun: Archaeologists use the presence or absence of bronzes as one of the hard indicators for judging whether a culture has entered the age of civilization. A large number of bronzes were found in the Sanxingdui sacrifice pit, and they were exquisitely made, with strange and exaggerated shapes, and some of them were extremely large. Taking the bronze as a benchmark, it is clear that he has entered civilized society. The large number of bronzes and strange exaggerated shapes that appear in the Sanxingdui sacrifice pit can be viewed from two aspects.
On the one hand, according to a large number of discoveries and studies, the Chinese cultural circle has been converging to the core region as early as 5,000 years ago. About 4,000 years ago, officially into the Bronze Age, the representative artifacts are the late Erlitou culture appeared in the more complex shape of the bronze container, and then after about 500 years of development, to the late Shang Dynasty, bronze casting technology reached the peak of the Bronze Age, only from the quantitative point of view, according to incomplete statistics, archaeology out of the Shang Dynasty bronzes there are more than 60,000 or 70,000 pieces. In the Chengdu Plain, the earliest appearance of bronzes in the middle of the Shang Dynasty, about 500 years later than the Central Plains, Sanxingdui sacrifice pit hundreds of large and small bronzes appeared, because of the sudden appearance, the reasonable explanation is that its bronze smelting and casting technology is not a primary invention, but from the Central Plains. The remains of the early Ancient Shu culture (Xia-Western Zhou) are estimated to be no more than 500 pieces of bronze excavated to date, less than one percent of the Shang Dynasty in the Central Plains. From the casting process to observe, it is speculated that it is shangzuo or the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River (such as Zun, Wan), the craft is more exquisite, it seems that the Shu people themselves cast (such as sacred trees, human heads), the process is relatively rough. If we combine the invention and use of writing and the complexity of urban functional layout to investigate, it can be said with certainty that at that time in China, and even the entire East Asian region, it was the Xia Shang who was centered on Henan that created and developed the most brilliant bronze civilization.
On the other hand, sanxingdui bronzes are very impressive, and his shape is strange and exaggerated, which is caused by their different lives, cultures, customs and other factors from merchants. For example, merchants already have developed scripts, and the so-called "six books" method of creating words summarized in traditional research is already available in oracle bones. Some ideas can be expressed in words and symbols, which will naturally weaken the plastic arts. It also includes differences in cultural customs, and shang is heavy on liquor, so a large number of containers, especially wine vessels, are cast. And Shu heavy witch worship of the ancestors, so there are altars, sacred trees, vertical masks and other artifacts. In fact, when it comes to abstract expression, many words in the oracle bone are not inferior to the artifacts of Sanxingdui, but the artistic focus of each culture is different. In any case, looking around Shangyin, it is an indisputable fact that the ancient Shu civilization of Sanxingdui is alone in the Yangtze River and the vast area further south. Sanxingdui These bronzes are the highest achievements of their contemporaries in plastic arts, which shape both ancestor images (longitudinal masks), cosmic models (sacred trees), as well as life labor, large-scale ritual scenes, etc., and their interpretation will be as close as possible to restore all aspects of culture, customs and aesthetic pursuits in the ancient Shu period.
Li Haichao: The impression of sanxingdui culture to the world is mysterious and special, and the formation of this impression is mainly due to its strange shape of bronzes. Bronze ware is also the most representative cultural relic of Sanxingdui. Therefore, how to know and understand the bronzes of Sanxingdui is crucial. In order to obtain an objective and comprehensive understanding, it is necessary to carry out research from multiple levels, specifically, at least three levels: "shape", "work" and "material".
First of all, from the perspective of "shape", the bronze ware of the Sanxingdui culture is compared with the bronze ware of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties in the Central Plains, and the biggest feature should be the expression of "people". Bronzes in the Central Plains have fixed combinations that express a specific system of ceremonies. In this system of etiquette, we can see that the core of its performance is the "beast". The most popular decoration of various types of bronze containers is the so-called gluttonous pattern (called the animal face pattern is more objective), as well as various animal images such as birds, dragons (snakes), turtles, cattle, sheep, etc., except for rare human figures. The underlying reason for this is difficult to determine, perhaps to create an atmosphere of majesty in the system of etiquette. In any case, this is indeed a major feature of the Bronze Civilization in the Central Plains. Sanxingdui completely broke through this way of expression, a large number of bronze masks, human heads, Dali people, and various forms of kneeling portraits, all of which showed the expression of "people", resulting in a strong contrasting artistic style. Not only that, the "abstract style" is more popular in the Central Plains, and even the expression of animals has been abstracted artistic processing. Sanxingdui pays equal attention to realism in addition to the style of abstract exaggeration. The hair and nails of the characters are depicted in detail, and the crown ornaments, costumes, shoes and boots are also very vivid. There is no doubt that the artistic attainment of Sanxingdui bronzes has reached a very high level.
But on the other hand, we also need to see the connection of Sanxingdui bronzes to other regions. From the perspective of instrument type, most of the Zun and Wei excavated from Sanxingdui belong to the bronze ware of the Yangtze River Basin style, which have been excavated in various parts of the Yangtze River Basin. There are not many containers with a clear Yin ruins style, but they also exist. Although Sanxingdui is unique in artistic expression, the composition motif of many of its ornaments is still born from bronzes in the Central Plains, such as cloud thunder patterns. Therefore, the bronze art of Sanxingdui is also the result of cultural integration.
Secondly, "work" and casting technology are indispensable angles for understanding bronzes. At present, there have been many research results on the casting technology of Sanxingdui bronze. From the level of technology, the Samsung copper reactor shows that the craftsmen are very mature in their mastery of various technologies, and the technologies such as hun casting, sub-casting, and casting are used freely. Moreover, various technologies can also be combined with each other to apply to the same artifact, such as the casting of the sacred tree, which is to make the base, trunk, and branches separately and then connect them together. Even the trunk and branches of the tree are connected in multiple sections. From the perspective of technical roots, these technologies used in sanxing copper reactors, although they have certain characteristics, are still the fan casting technology system developed for a long time in the Central Plains, and there is no difference in essence.
Finally, the "material" is the raw material source of copper, lead and tin used in casting. This requires the support of scientific and technological analysis. At present, there are many lead isotope and trace element analysis results for Sanxingdui bronzes, indicating that their raw materials are closely related to bronzes in Yin Ruins and other places. Although the specific source of the mine is unknown, the discussion of raw materials is undoubtedly an important way to link Sanxingdui with other regions.
When we deeply understand the bronzes of Sanxingdui from the above different levels, we will find that Sanxingdui has its own characteristics and is inextricably linked with other regions, and commonalities and characteristics jointly construct the Sanxingdui civilization.
Zhao Hao: After the excavation of the No. 1 and No. 2 sacrifice pits in 1986, scholars have essentially pointed out the pluralistic characteristics of the cultural attributes and origins of Sanxingdui bronzes, and generally believe that there are at least two styles of foreign input and indigenous origin in bronze. In this excavation, judging from the characteristics of newly excavated relics in each sacrificial pit, the difference between the two styles is still shown to a large extent, but the types of artifacts involved are more diverse.
There are many levels of this difference, such as form, technology, raw materials, quality, etc. Here we mainly focus on the artistic modeling technique. As far as my personal direct feeling is concerned, Sanxingdui native style bronzes prefer the performance of three-dimensional figuration, and the figurative image as the main body of the artifact is one of its key features, including people, trees, birds, snakes, dragons, phoenixes, chickens, ducks and so on. There are also figurative images that may be a mixture of a variety of real-life animals, such as the broad-billed divine beast that many people cannot accurately name. In shaping these images, the realistic reproduction of details on the circular sculpture is their outstanding commonality. For example, the precise depiction of elastic skirts, small flower buds and fruits on sacred trees, these details are in stark contrast to the so-called exotic artifact groups in the expression of the shape, whether these aliens are imitated in Sichuan or come from long-distance circulation.
The group of foreign artifacts themselves is partial to ceremonial instruments such as zun, 罍, and 瓿 in terms of their image expression methods, which are mainly based on flat abstract expression, which is the traditional feature of the decoration of bronze ceremonial vessels in the broad sense. For these foreign style vessel groups, Sanxingdui people once again apply their preferred figurative expressions, and we can see that in the mouths of many bronze statues and mullions, the top of the lid are equipped with prominent figurative animal decorations, such as long dragons, standing birds, upside-down villains and other appendages, showing the Sanxingdui people's preference for straightforward and figurative artistic expression techniques. Whether these two different artistic expression methods can deeply reflect the ideological differences between the Sichuan region at this time and the Central Plains and the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, such as the difference between the natural god worship system and the ancestor worship system, may be a question worth exploring.
Han Ding: If you put the bronzes of Sanxingdui in the overall framework of the Chinese Bronze Age, it can be found that the bronzes of Sanxingdui are not mysterious.
From the perspective of casting technology, whether it is the bronze masks, bronze statues of Sanxingdui, or tall bronze sacred trees, they are cast using the model method originating from the Central Plains, which is fundamentally different from the lost wax method in West Asia. Its sub-casting, re-casting, casting technology also originated from the Central Plains, although the transmission route of technology is not necessarily directly from the Central Plains, may also be spread from the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River or the Hanzhong Plain of the bronze culture, but the root is influenced by the Central Plains bronze culture.
From the perspective of modeling, the bronzes of Sanxingdui as a whole can be divided into: 1. the type of vessel under the influence of the Central Plains and Yangtze River cultures (such as bronze containers such as Zun and Zhen); 2. Bronze vessels cast based on the local sacrificial culture (such as bronze trees, bronze masks, bronze figures); 3. Mixed artifacts of local and Central Plains cultural factors (such as bronze with collars and dragon ornament covers). The second type is often unfamiliar to us, but these artifacts are essentially created using the bronze casting technology of the Central Plains to express local sacrifices, religious beliefs, and other related content.
After the regional culture learns new technologies, it will produce innovations based on the needs of this culture on the basis of inheriting and disseminating the original bronze culture, such as the creative casting of bronze containers by the Erlitou culture; the three-dimensional animals, three-dimensional animals and ceremonial vessel combinations, and bronze masks with horns found in the Xingan region of Jiangxi; bronze curvers, animal face ornaments, human face ornaments, and pointed bubbles found in Chenggu and Chengyang, Shaanxi. The bronze cultures of each region are based on the traditions of their own culture and innovate and cast new types of bronzes, but because the artifacts related to their sacrifices and belief systems cast by Sanxingdui have supernatural characteristics, some of them are strange. But in fact, there are also supernatural images of half-humans and half-beasts in the three generations of art in the Central Plains, but the number is small. If you look closely at the bronze details of these Sanxingdui native supernatural styles, you can find that many of the constituent elements still come from the Central Plains, such as the underwear ornamentation of the bird's claw portrait is the same as the yin xu copper urn ornament, and the middle part of the bronze mask forehead decoration is similar to the shape of the forehead feather between the marble god and man unearthed from Xiaotun.
Communication and mutual learning are integrated
The magnificent and colorful ancient Shu culture adds luster to Chinese civilization
China Social Science Network: The magnificent and colorful ancient Shu culture has added luster to the Chinese civilization, as the iconic culture of the ancient Shu civilization, what kind of interaction and exchange has the Sanxingdui civilization produced with the Central Plains civilization and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River civilization in the process of formation and evolution?
Gao Dalun: Civilization cannot grow up in isolation, but must be produced and developed in the process of cultural exchanges and communication and mutual learning. The era of the Sanxingdui site, in the Central Plains is the Xia Shang Zhou period, an interesting phenomenon is that the period of highly developed ancient Shu civilization (Sanxingdui sacrifice pit era) is also synchronized with the peak period of Central Plains civilization (middle and late Shang). The influence of the Xia-Shang civilization was thousands of miles away, and it would be strange that there was no interaction between Shu and Xia-Shang-Zhou, and between Shu and other cultures south and west of Shu. According to the current discoveries, the shang factor in the Sanxingdui sacrifice pit did not fall from the sky. As early as the late Neolithic period more than 4,000 years ago, the culture of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River moved westward and entered the Chengdu Plain. From The Erlitou to the early Shang Dynasty, artifacts similar to Xia Wenhua's typical artifacts in the Sanxingdui site appeared in large numbers, reflecting extraordinary connections and influences. As for the excavation of merchant-style bronze and jade in the sacrificial pit, it is also an important material evidence of close communication between the upper echelons of the ruling class. As for the direction of their cultural dissemination, the relevant discoveries of archaeological excavations in Anyang, Zhengzhou, Luoyang, Hubei, Chongqing, Sichuan Yibin and other places are enough to support and string together a clear route. The route starts from Wuhan and runs west along the Yangtze River, turns into the Min River in Yibin, and finally takes root in the Chengdu Plain. When talking about external factors, the influence of the late Longshan culture, the Shi'an site and the Qijia culture in the northwest can be vaguely seen from the Sanxingdui site and the new and old sacrifice pits. In the new sacrificial pit, some cultural factors from the southwest and farther into Southeast Asia and South Asia may also be found. However, compared with the culture from the Central Plains and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the cultural influence of the Sanxingdui site, especially in the sacrificial pit, is obviously weaker. Culture will always have exchanges and mutual learning in communication, and it will not be one-way communication. At present, what we have seen is that the Sanxingdui culture was also expanding vigorously in its heyday, Hubei Yichang (small flat bottom pot, high-stalk bean), Guizhou Chishui (Yuyazhang, high-singed bean), Yunnan Jinning (youling yubi), Chongqing Jiangjin (high-singed bean), Sichuan Yibin (high-singed bean), Sichuan Hanyuan (high-singed bean) and other places have found cultural relics related to this period, and the farthest influence in the southwest direction can reach the vicinity of Hanoi in Vietnam. The relevant remains unearthed in Vietnam are the richest, with jade, pottery, stone tools, and the highest level of artifacts (Tao Dou, Yu Ya Zhang, Youling Yu Bi), which reveals the close exchanges between the two places, but also reminds us that there should be a number of important relay stations to be investigated between the two places thousands of kilometers apart. In Henan, the core area of Shang culture that had the greatest influence on Sanxingdui, countless tomb sites have been excavated over the years, but there are no clear traces from the Chengdu Plain culture. The explanation that can be given for this is that compared with the Shang culture, Shu is in a relatively weak position. More and deeper causes need to be studied in greater depth, hoping for more discoveries.
Li Haichao: All along, the author has firmly believed that in order to truly understand Sanxingdui, it is first necessary to jump out of Sanxingdui and observe the relationship between Sanxingdui and civilizations in the Central Plains and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River from a global perspective. At present, the author is responsible for the major bidding project of the National Social Science Fund "Sanxingdui Culture and Chinese Civilization Research", one of the main contents of which is to construct an interactive network between Sanxingdui culture and civilizations in other regions, and provide empirical data for the pattern of chinese civilization pluralism and integration.
Building this interactive network still requires empirical support at different levels and subregional research. First of all, regarding the connection between Sanxingdui and the Central Plains, the influence of the Central Plains on the Sanxingdui culture can be seen from the aspects of pottery, jade, and bronze. Some of these effects are direct, while others may be achieved indirectly through other regions. This is an intuitive connection that can be seen in the morphology of the artifact. Secondly, as mentioned above, Sanxingdui bronzes are closely related to the Central Plains represented by Yin Ruins in terms of artistic expression, casting technology, and even raw materials. Therefore, it can be clear that there is some kind of interactive network between the Sanxingdui culture and the Central Plains. But our understanding of this network is limited, at present, most of what can be seen is the impact of the Central Plains on Sanxingdui, the exchange is often two-way, what will the output of Sanxingdui to the Central Plains? Is it decaying silk fabrics, ivory, salt? Or is there some kind of political relationship between Sanxingdui and Yin Ruins? These are the focus of our next research.
There is a natural connection between the Sanxingdui culture and the bronze culture in the Yangtze River Basin. Since the end of the Shang Dynasty, after the abandonment of Panlong City, the Shang culture has shrunk to the north, and a series of local cultures have risen in various parts of the Yangtze River Basin, and have developed their own distinctive bronzes, such as the Chengyang Bronze Group in the Hanshui River Basin, the Ningxiang Bronze Group in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and the Xingan Bronze Ware Group. Despite their respective characteristics, the links between these regions are also prominent. As typical Yangtze River Basin style bronzes, the high-circle foot zun and 罍 are widely distributed throughout the Yangtze River Basin. In addition, the bronze groups, including Sanxingdui, Ningxiang, Xingan, and Chengyang, all use a unique raw material that is widely popular in Yin Ruins - highly radioactive lead. Obviously, various parts of the Yangtze River Basin have formed an interactive network with Yin Xu. The author believes that this may be the first wide-area exchange network formed in the Yellow River Basin and the Yangtze River Basin in Chinese history. Sanxingdui is also an important connection point in this network. Next, the author team will take Sanxingdui as the center, deeply explore the communication content, specific routes, and interaction methods of this network, and systematically discuss the role of Sanxingdui culture in the pattern of pluralistic integration of Chinese civilization.
Zhao Hao: This is closely related to the previous question. This is directly illustrated by the apparent differences between local and exotic groups of artifacts excavated from the Sanxingdui sacrificial pit. Many scholars have also made a lot of research, such as the inlaid turquoise plaques, yazhang, etc. may be related to the Central Plains Xia Dynasty, while Dakouzun and so on are exchanges with people in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River in the Shang Dynasty. I will not dwell on the specific performance of these utensils. We may see three characteristics, the first of which is that the duration of this exchange spans a wide range, from the Xia period to the late Shang period of material exchange evidence, the Sichuan Basin and the outside world interaction is almost uninterrupted. The second feature is that the material exchange between the ancient Shu region and the surrounding area is mainly based on high-grade valuables, especially bronze and jade. The main owners and users of these artifacts must be the upper echelons of society. In contrast, judging from the situation of daily pottery reflected in the Sanxingdui city site and its surrounding areas, the pottery of the typical foreign population in the Sanxingdui area in the same period was relatively limited, especially in the late Shang period. This is different from the large capitals of the Central Plains during the Xia and Shang dynasties, such as the Yin Ruins of Erlitou and the late Shang Dynasty. This may largely mean that the exchanges between the ancient Shu region and the surrounding civilizations during this period were mainly in the upper echelons of society, and the cross-regional mobility of the middle and lower layers of society was relatively weak. Therefore, perhaps we can think that the main tone of foreign exchanges in the Ancient Shu region in the Bronze Age was that the upper layer drove the lower layer. The third feature, which may be called a problem, is that in the high-end precious goods, we seem to see more foreign inputs in Sanxingdui, so the potential problem is how the Sanxingdui society provides export products outward, because material exchanges must be two-way, especially between the high-level across regions. At present, the artifacts of the typical Sanxingdui culture of the same period accidentally discovered in the Sichuan Basin are very limited. This reminds us that we may have to consider whether the Sanxingdui culture exports not only valuable finished products, but also some important resources. The western Sichuan region that can be radiated by Sanxingdui culture has rich gold, jade and ivory resources, do these valuable resources constitute the main material exported by Sanxingdui? Of course, this requires the future to be explored in turn in Sanxingdui and outside the Sichuan Basin.
Han Ding: I would like to express this interaction and exchange through a bronze vessel in Sanxingdui, the following picture is the bronze god (beast) face decoration (K2:231) excavated from pit No. 2, according to its various parts, it can be divided into forehead crown ornaments (preposition crown), ear ornaments and mouth shape, nose pattern, eye pattern, horn pattern and inner curl pattern to investigate.
Forehead crown ornament: in the shape of a "mountain", the forehead crown ornament of this shape was seen in the Longshan era, which can be compared with the crown of the two towns of Shandong Longshan culture, Gui and Houshijiahe culture, and the crown ornament of the Shang Dynasty has been simplified to the T-shaped ornament on the forehead of the gluttonous pattern. Therefore, the "mountain" character crown ornament of the bronze god (beast) of Sanxingdui originated from the influence of the Longshan era.
Earrings, mouth shape: the end of the earrings is hooked, the mouth is hooked at both ends, these two features are the characteristics of the face pattern of the post-Shijiahe culture in the Longshan era (the newly excavated high-crowned bronze man should also be influenced by the Post-Shijiahe culture), and the three generations have not seen such mouth-shaped images.
Nose stripes: The three-pointed nose is found in the Erlitou culture bone dagger and the Dadianzi painting, both of which should be derived from the influence of the Erlitou culture.
Eye pattern: The bronze god (beast) face is more special, the upper eye pattern is a small eye corner of the giant eye, of which the black painted oval order; the lower pattern is both a subject word and a bird pattern. In isolation, the form of the small-eyed giant eye has only appeared in the Liangzhu culture before, and the bird-patterned chenji is similar to the top ornament of the shenren pattern double bird drum that is now stored in the Izumiya Bokokan in Japan; combined, the overall animal face pattern is oval, the whole below is an independent subject character, and the pattern of the combination of the oval animal face and the individual subject characters is consistent with the early food patterns in the embryonic stage, such as Yang Zhuangjue and Shangbojue. In addition, whether it is a small-eye oval or an independent subordinate character with an inner ovate, it can be regarded as a combination of binary order patterns.
Horn pattern and inner curl pattern: the horn pattern, the inner curl pattern and the early food pattern produced by Zhengzhou Shangcheng and Panlong City are no different, which should be influenced by the early Shang culture.
Through this example, we can see that the bronze god (beast) surface of Sanxingdui aggregates some ornamental elements of the Longshan Era, Erlitou Culture, and Shang Dynasty (and even the shadow of Liangzhu Culture), reflecting the long-standing tradition of communication and interaction between Sanxingdui and the Central Plains and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, especially some features that have been invisible in the Central Plains of the Shang Dynasty, but Sanxingdui still has inheritance, which is exactly the so-called "loss of courtesy and seeking the wilderness".
Deeply explore, study and explain the Sanxingdui culture
Better understand the long-standing, broad and profound Chinese civilization
China Social Science Network: In order to enable us to better understand the long-standing and profound Chinese civilization, how should we better explore, study, interpret and publicize the Sanxingdui culture and the ancient Shu civilization in the future?
Gao Dalun: After 1987, before 2019, it was not too surprising for us Sichuan archaeologists to say that Sanxingdui still had sacrifice pits, and we have always believed that this is the case. Remember that at the "30th Anniversary of the Discovery of the Sanxingdui Sacrifice Pit in 2016 to Commemorate the International Academic Symposium on ancient Shu Civilization", we clearly told the world that we firmly believe that there are still sacrifice pits that have not been discovered. What surprised everyone with this new discovery was that there were as many as 6 sacrificial pits found! And it's a one-time discovery. Sanxingdui culture is unique, and after the discovery of 2 sacrificial pits, it has always been the focus of attention at home and abroad. This new discovery coincides with the period when the country attaches the most importance to the cause of archaeology, and the most close connection between archaeology and cultural self-confidence, coupled with the rapid dissemination of information today, the variety of news dissemination means, especially the central media such as CCTV, central video for several days of continuous live broadcasting, People's Daily, Guangming Daily, "China Cultural Relics News" continue to report, the number of viewers and readers reached the highest number of the same theme in history, which is of course a great thing, at the same time, it also puts forward new and higher requirements for archaeological work. The Sanxingdui site is very large, because of the new discovery of the sacrificial pit, the previous excavation research plan should be adjusted, oriented to solving academic problems, re-prioritizing, and making a longer-term and scientific and reasonable excavation plan. Now, whether it is peers or society, the work of Sanxingdui must pay more attention to the premise of ensuring quality, it is reasonable to increase the intensity of restoration, accelerate the progress of collation, so that the excavation results can be published as soon as possible, and cultural relics can be moved into the museum as soon as possible to meet with social audiences as soon as possible. A site with a distribution area of 10 million square meters, the total excavation area over the years has reached 20,000 square meters, and the task of continuing excavation is still very heavy, and the excavation area should be appropriately increased. The site is the core and focus of the work, but many academic problems in the site, relying on the site excavation alone can not find a satisfactory answer, the archaeological investigation and excavation of the workstation should be expanded to the site, to have a broader academic vision, jump out of the site to see the site, jump out of Sichuan to see Sichuan, and even from Southeast Asia, from West Asia, from the world to see Sanxingdui. It is advisable to continue the archaeological excavations in Vietnam as soon as possible, and to invite archaeologists from Vietnam, Iraq, Syria and Egypt to excavate and study together in Sanxingdui. In the interpretation of archaeological results, first compile a professional field archaeological report and let the professionals do professional research.
Li Haichao: From the perspective of excavation, Sanxingdui has made remarkable archaeological achievements, but the Sanxingdui site is large, and the current discovery is only the tip of the iceberg. The settlement structure of the ancient city of Sanxingdui and the small settlement outside sanxingdui city should be the focus of the next excavation work. The cultural development of Sanxingdui is so high, the population size should not be small, but the current discovery of cemeteries is very limited, especially the lack of high-grade tombs, which is also a key problem that needs to be solved after excavations. So far, the excavation of Sanxingdui has been carried out by generations of archaeologists who have gone through hardships to achieve today's achievements. Next, generations and decades of archaeologists will continue to work hard to unearth a more brilliant Sanxingdui civilization.
In terms of research and interpretation, on the one hand, it is necessary to have a macro pattern, from the height of ancient Shu civilization and Chinese civilization, to design a research framework, so that archaeology can contribute to the study of Chinese civilization. On the other hand, it is necessary to start from the subtleties and solve specific academic problems. For example, for the study of the Sanxingdui sacrifice system, it is necessary to pay attention to different aspects of sacrifice relics, sacrificial artifacts, sacrifice processes, etc., and restore the complete process of production, use, destruction and burial of sacrificial artifacts. The interpretation of the sacrificial process needs to be based on sufficient scientific evidence, and truly bold assumptions and careful verification.
The results of research and interpretation ultimately need to be publicized in various forms, and while promoting academic research, we must also strive to improve the comprehensive literacy of the people. At this point sanxingdui is typical. Since the excavation of several new sacrificial pits in Sanxingdui, many media have carried out all-round reports, and the society's attention to Sanxingdui has reached an unprecedented height. Next, Sanxingdui Archaeology should continue to be the vanguard of Chinese public archaeology and play an active role in social education and quality training.
Zhao Hao: From the perspective of those involved in the front-line excavations, the future interpretation of Sanxingdui should first be based on basic research on sites and relics. In particular, in the practice and research of archaeology at the micro level, scientific and technological archaeology is a means that we should further rely on. There is a saying in the "Left Biography": Faith and signs. For archaeologists in the new era, it is necessary to try to use various new technologies and new methods to obtain basic data, and to discover new information points through comparative analysis, so as evidence, and then tell the story of Sanxingdui more solidly and expound the rich connotation of the pluralistic and integrated characteristics of Chinese civilization in more aspects. Only by basing ourselves on new information points can we have a fuller understanding of the economic network, the high-level social communication network, and the lifestyle of ordinary residents during the Sanxingdui period. For example, in this excavation, we found a very rich accumulation of ivory in pits 3, 4, 7 and 8, and the number of ivory in pit 8 alone is far greater than the total number of ivory previously found. So how to make full use of modern technology to extract more basic information has become a reflection of whether we can use excavation data at a high level. For example, on the one hand, we can start from ivory to investigate the characteristics of the climate and environment in the southwest region of the Sanxingdui period, on the other hand, we need to go deeper into the economic and religious positioning of ivory resources, such as micro-trace analysis (ivory micro-carving, saw marks on ivory), geometric form measurement methods may be the basis for us to move from the original qualitative analysis to the next comprehensive quantitative analysis.
Of course, our future research still needs to adhere to the macroscopic vision of archaeological research and the orientation of seeing people through things and seeing society through things. In particular, the process of civilization in Sichuan is considered as a special but not isolated model in the evolution of china's ancient pluralistic civilizations. After entering the 21st century, especially in recent years, archaeology from the late Neolithic to the Bronze Age has made a series of subversive new discoveries, such as Liangzhu in the southeast and Shiya in the northwest, which clearly show that there have been social attempts to turn to national civilization in different geographical units in China. In this process, the evolution and outcome of civilizations in different regions also varied. When we interpret the ancient Shu culture represented by Sanxingdui, we can not only focus on the unique shape of the cultural relics unearthed in Sanxingdui, but also try to investigate the more basic characteristics of Sichuan and even the entire southwest Region of China in the characteristics of social organization structure, social system change drivers, etc., which may help to observe the commonalities and differences in different cultural models in different regions that can be compared with the channel after stripping away the material differences of appearances.
Han Ding: We should start from different levels such as research mode, research angle, diachronicity, synchronicity, artifacts, and propaganda, and comprehensively strengthen the work of the Sanxingdui site.
From the perspective of research model, we will continue to dig deep into the connotation of the Sanxingdui site itself, deepen multidisciplinary cooperation, and deepen the research level. With the excavation project of Sanxingdui, it is bound to trigger a new round of discussion in the academic community, compared with the excavation of the last century, this time the use of more scientific and technological means, there are more reference materials, I believe that with the continuous release of materials and data, the depth and breadth of research on the Sanxingdui site can be further deepened.
From the perspective of research, excavation and research can be carried out from three clues: diachronic, synchronic, and artifact level.
From the perspective of diachronicity, some artifacts of Sanxingdui reflect the influence of the Longshan Period, the Erlitou Cultural Period and the Shang Dynasty, on the other hand, the Sanxingdui Culture has formed an important influence on the Jinsha Culture, which can place the Sanxingdui ruins in the context of historical evolution and examine the patterns and routes of these influences. In short, the relationship between Sanxingdui and the cultures of the Central Plains and the Yangtze River Basin can be dynamically and diachronically investigated, and Sanxingdui cannot be studied statically and in isolation.
From the perspective of synchronicity, in small aspects, Sanxingdui, as the core area of culture, must involve the relationship with the surrounding sites in the same period, whether these sites have a division of labor, and the scope of sanxingdui culture. In a big way, it involves the level and mode of communication between the Sanxingdui culture and the cultures of the central plains and the Yangtze River Basin in the same period.
From the perspective of utensils, the source of copper, jade, gold and sea shells; the source and innovation of production technology; the source of utensils; the function of utensils; the sacrifice activities reflected in the utensils, the religious concepts, and so on.
From the perspective of publicity, it is necessary to strengthen the publicity at the level of "public archaeology". With the announcement of the "Archaeology Forum of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences 2021 New Discoveries of Chinese Archaeology", following the live broadcast of excavations last year, Sanxingdui has once again attracted widespread attention from the public, which is an excellent platform and rare opportunity to comprehensively show the objectivity, scientificity, research and knowledge of archaeology to the public. Therefore, we should continue to promote public archaeological promotion activities based on Sanxingdui archaeological excavations to enhance the level of public understanding of archaeology.
From the conceptual level, the Sanxingdui site should be dynamically understood within a broader temporal and spatial scope, its value in the process of the development of Chinese cultural pluralism and integration, and its significance in the formation of the Chinese civilization community from the level of cultural identity.
From the perspective of goals, taking the excavation of the Sanxingdui site as a classic case, it is necessary to actively practice the archaeology of building Chinese style and Chinese style with Chinese characteristics, and better understand the development goals of Chinese civilization with a long history and profound depth.
Editor: Liu Xing
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