Sichuan Guanghan Sanxingdui has always been hot, and cultural relics such as bronzes, jades and gold and silverware unearthed from them have also become the topic of discussion among the general public after tea and dinner. Recently, the Sanxingdui golden staff has been pushed on the hot search, because folk experts and scholars said that it is not a scepter, but a souvenir, and also gave sufficient reasons, so that archaeologists are also caught in a dilemma... What exactly is the Samsung Pile Golden Wand?
(All pictures in this article, all from the network, thanks to the original author, if you infringe your rights, please contact the author of this number to delete.) The picture has nothing to do with the content, please do not enter the seat)
In October 1986, experts discovered two sacrificial pits at the Sanxingdui site, but they were badly damaged, so they had to make protective archaeological excavations. The excavation, which lasted a year and a half, unearthed hundreds of bronze masks and heads, as well as ivory piles and jade artifacts for sacrifice, but the most important of these artifacts was a golden staff, which had never been found before, and was still a unique artifact until now.
The golden rod is about 1.4 meters long and is made from a wooden stick wrapped in gold skin, which has long been carbonized, but the gold skin is well preserved. Archaeologists have studied and said that the golden staff is the scepter of the king of the ancient Shu kingdom, symbolizing supreme power, that is, like the Ding excavated in the Yellow River Basin site, it is a symbol of power and status. Experts have no dispute about this, but with the continuous excavation of the Sanxingdui site, some people have questioned the "scepter theory".
If you look closely at the golden wand, you will find that the paper-thin gold skin is also carved with intricate patterns, and there are three groups: the first group is a symmetrical human head at both ends of the golden wand, and the figure wears a top hat and smiles, which is also quite mysterious. Looking at the second group, there are two birds with their heads opposite, a shape of flapping wings and flying high. Finally, there is a third set of patterns, which are two fish facing each other on their backs, and then interact with two birds, the most important thing is that there are four arrows that wear the fish and the bird together, just like the ancient Shu people killed two birds with one stone, and shot the fish and the bird at the same time - it should be the fish king. Experts speculate that the figure wearing a top hat on the gold skin may be the king of the ancient Shu kingdom, because he shot the king of the fish with two eagles, so he could become the king of the ancient Shu kingdom.
Through the excavation and study of the Sanxingdui site, experts have roughly grasped several important periods of the ancient Shu kingdom, as Sima Qian recorded in the "History of the King of Shu Benji": "The first king of Shu was named Silkworm Bush, the descendants were known as Bai Guan, and the next one was known as Yu Jiao" (凫凫). Among them, the silkworm bush is the first period of the ancient Shu Kingdom, and then to the second period, that is, cypress irrigation, and finally the third period of fish. Later, experts also discovered the fourth and fifth periods, namely Du Yu and Enlightenment.
From silkworm bushes to enlightenment, the ancient Shu kingdom has lasted for more than 700 years, but there are only 13 kings that can be determined, and it is clear that there are many kings who have not left a reputation in history. We all know that the Shang Dynasty had 646 years of national fortunes, a total of 30 kings, if you can conservatively estimate by analogy, the ancient Shu kingdom had at least 40 kings. It can be seen that most of the kings of the ancient Shu kingdom have become a mystery, and the key to solving the mystery of their dynastic changes may be the golden staff.
As mentioned above, some experts say that the golden staff is a symbol of the power of the ancient Shu kings, so why did only one golden staff have been found instead of more than 40 golden rods? You may think that there is still a golden wand that has not been unearthed, but some experts say that this contradiction just reveals that the meaning of the golden wand is not a symbol of supreme power, but only a special souvenir.
Perhaps, the golden staff is a tribute to a successful "usurpation" of a king who shot a certain fish king with a bow and arrow and finally succeeded in ascending to the throne. And the arrow that shot the Fish King, which was wrapped in a golden skin, became his meritorious deed. Because future generations did not recognize this artifact, they recognized it as a scepter.
In addition, in other sites in the Yangtze River Basin of the mainland, such as the Liangzhu site in Zhejiang, experts have also unearthed scepters, but the length of the scepter is between 1.8-2.2 meters, far longer than the golden staff excavated from Sanxingdui. In addition, in the historical and cultural sites of the West and Central Asia, a large number of gold scepters have been excavated, such as the ancient Egyptian gold scepters, and they are also much longer than the Sanxingdui gold scepters. It can be seen that the length of the scepter must be longer than the height of the human body, and the Sanxingdui golden staff is only 1.4 meters, unless the ancient Shu king is only about 1 meter tall, but obviously this is not in line with reality.
All in all, the Sanxingdui Golden Staff is full of unsolved mysteries, whether it is a scepter that symbolizes power, or a special souvenir, which needs to be continued by experts to give a final conclusion. However, xiaobian believes that it is also possible that the Three Star Pile Golden Staff is a souvenir, and if this is true, the history of the ancient Shu Kingdom may also be rewritten...
Resources:
Sanxingdui: Opening the Door of Chinese Civilization by Fan Yong, Publisher: Tiandi Publishing House
Wenlan Hairun Studio Editor-in-Chief Wen Xiucai, this article is written by: Special History Writer: Liu Lijiang's