"See you again sanxingdui": a panoramic record of this archaeological event in the new era

The pictures in this article are all stills of "See You Again Sanxingdui". Picture courtesy of the tablet

When you think of Sanxingdui, what comes to mind? Is it a shiny gold mask, or a bronze with a whimsical shape, or a cute archaeologist who draws a comic on a protective suit under the lens? From April 29 to the evening of May 4, six episodes of the ultra-high-definition archaeological documentary "See Sanxingdui" planned and launched by Sichuan Radio and Television Station were broadcast on the CCTV documentary channel. From 2019 to 2022, the film crew tracked and recorded a new round of archaeological excavations in Sanxingdui, presenting the opening and progress of this archaeological excavation in a panoramic manner, taking the progressive development of excavation work as a clue, showing the new concept and new mode of interdisciplinary and multi-team cooperation of archaeological excavations, archaeological excavations and cultural relics protection. "At the same time, we will also focus on the archaeologists of different ages behind the excavations, with a vivid and meticulous story full of temperature, showing the spiritual outlook and humanistic temperament of archaeologists in the new era, and exploring the mission and value of archaeological work." Zhang Ping, chief producer of the documentary, said.

Panoramic accompaniment recording

A long-planned "reunion"

Since the first release of archaeological results in March 2021, "Sanxingdui" has undoubtedly become an annual hot word, and a precious and peculiar, unprecedented and huge number of bronzes, jade, gold, ivory, etc. have been excavated, bringing the world a deep shock of Sanxingdui once again "turning out".

However, for archaeologists, this is actually a long-awaited and long-planned "reunion". In "See Sanxingdui Again", through the accompanying panoramic record, the method of staggering time and space, and through the theme structure of "reunion, first sight, guardianship, pursuit, rebirth, and immortality", the audience is trying to clearly see the causes and results of the Sanxingdui archaeological excavation, and the whole picture of this cutting-edge scientific archaeological excavation in the new era.

Nearly 3 years of time travel, to be condensed in the volume of 6 episodes, how to choose the content? To this end, the general director Wang Jian adopts the new discoveries brought about by the new era of scientific and technological archaeology in the new era such as recording the preparation for excavation of Sanxingdui, the excavation site, the restoration of cultural relics, and scientific research and judgment, and the archaeologists and important cultural relics in the excavation process as the story fulcrum to construct the whole film.

In fact, since the rescue excavation of No. 1 and No. 2 sacrifice pits in 1986, for more than 30 years, archaeologists have not stopped the archaeological work on the Sanxingdui site, but in order to protect and display the site site of the excavation site in the 1986 sacrifice area, in 2004, a protection platform was built in and around the No. 1 and No. 2 pits, so that every exploration, this area is not the focus, thus missing, until 2019, the ancient Shu civilization protection and inheritance project was launched. Archaeologists refocused their attention on the area around the site of the 1986 archaeological excavations.

In November 2019, pit 3 began to show traces during the previous exploration. The documentary captures such a detail and presents the log of Ran Honglin, director of the Sanxingdui Archaeological Research Institute of the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology: Pit No. 3 was discovered on November 26, 2019, and in the next five months, Pit No. 4, Pit No. 5, Pit No. 6, Pit No. 7, and Pit No. 8 also surfaced.

This is likely to be a new discovery that has attracted worldwide attention. The archaeologists in the camera can hardly hide their joy and excitement, but more importantly, they think about how to meet the archaeological requirements of the new era and live up to the times.

Through the documentary, people see that the original archaeological work was not simply excavated with a hand shovel. Before it can really be "hands-on", a series of scientific arguments are needed.

In the first episode of "Reunion", the next important meeting is recorded: the top experts in the Chinese archaeological community and those who participated in the excavation in 1986 gathered together to provide suggestions for the re-excavation of Sanxingdui, and finally determined that the new round of excavation of Sanxingdui will carry out archaeological excavation and cultural relics protection research in a multidisciplinary context, which is a new exploration.

At the meeting, Wang Wei, chairman of the Chinese Archaeological Society, said: "Our Sanxingdui will definitely go to the world, and our new excavations are not only based on the exquisite cultural relics, I hope that this archaeology can become a representative of the 21st century, at least in 2020, such a period of time, the highest level of Chinese archaeology." ”

After more than a year of preparations, on October 9, 2020, Tang Fei, president of the Sichuan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, led a group of archaeologists into the archaeological excavation cabin equipped with many cutting-edge technologies to carry out the first formal excavation, and an archaeological event began.

Capture details from things to people

Highlight the romantic style of archaeologists

The fruitful results of the new round of archaeology in the Sanxingdui Sacrifice Area have given the film crew a wealth of materials, but at the same time, a problem has been released in the news dissemination of a large amount of information about archaeological excavations, as a documentary, how to present different information and content to the audience, which has become a major consideration for the main creative team.

"At the beginning of taking over this task, how to tell the story of the re-excavation of Sanxingdui and distinguish it from the same type of archaeological documentary became one of the problems that bothered me the most." Wang Jian revealed that in the process of tracking records, the film crew gradually completed a new understanding of archaeology, cultural relics, and historical civilization, and the answer seems to be gradually clear - not only focusing on the story of cultural relics excavation, but also showing more romantic style exclusive to archaeologists.

The Sanxingdui archaeological excavation adopts the attitude of open cooperation, and unites more than 30 scientific research institutes across the country, such as Peking University, Shanghai University, Sichuan University, Chengdu Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, etc., to work together in archaeological excavation, cultural relics protection, academic research and other aspects, and the interdisciplinary and multi-team collective research has achieved fruitful results, becoming a wonderful example of archaeological work in the new era. Many energetic young archaeologists after the 90s, along with the white-haired older generation of archaeologists, lie in the same pit and carefully brush off the dirt, so that these treasures buried for thousands of years can be restored to the world.

"The box is now going to kill me!" Super bad whole. I couldn't breathe. "In the third episode of the documentary, "Guardian", the overall extraction process of the wooden box found in Pit 6 was recorded. In the newly discovered 6 sacrificial pits, pit 6 is very special, and pit 7 has a partial overlap, archaeologists call this overlap has a "broken" relationship, in the pit did not find other pits of ivory, bronze and other artifacts, but a very regular wooden box with the same width as the pit.

Xu Yandong, who has completed the difficult overall extraction of sarcophagus and pit walls in archaeological sites across the country, was invited to carry out the extraction of this wooden box. Under the lens, the suffering and anxiety of archaeologists seem to make the audience feel empathy. When after several months of continuous attacks, the extraction work was promoted like a manpower and tool ant moving, and Xu Yandong, who had been nervous for a long time, was relieved.

Sanxingdui archaeological excavation is not an easy task, behind the prosperity and amazement that people see, it is actually archaeologists who seek truth with a scientific and rigorous attitude.

The addition of many new generations of young archaeologists has also brought new vitality and meteorology to the Sanxingdui archaeological excavation. In pit No. 3, a particularly peculiar bronze was found, at first it was impossible to see its full picture, and the post-90s leader from Shanghai University directly named it "Strange Bronze", this cute name has been circulated on the Internet for a while.

In the fifth episode of the documentary, "Rebirth", a special young man Guo Zhicheng is also recorded. Guo Zhicheng's father, Guo Hanzhong, is a conservator of cultural relics at the Sanxingdui Museum, who has been engaged in cultural relics restoration for more than 30 years, and more than 6,000 broken bronzes, ceramics, stone tools and jade artifacts have reappeared in his hands.

Under the influence of his father, Guo Zhicheng also hopes to become a cultural protection worker, and the Yunnan University where he studied has jointly established a master's training internship base with the Sanxingdui Museum, and Guo Zhicheng has the opportunity to go to the Sanxingdui excavation site for internship in summer practice, and complete the ivory extraction work with his father. When the internship period ended, Guo Hanzhong made an appointment with an old friend and apprentice to practice for his son.

"Whatever you do, you take any thing seriously and learn everything, especially this technology." Between the simple words, it is not only the father's teaching to his son, but also the expectation of the older generation of cultural relics workers for the next generation of heirs, perhaps this is the romance that belongs to archaeologists.

Connect the past and the present

Sort out the mission and value of the times in archaeological work

"If you don't come to Sanxingdui, you don't know how poor your imagination is." In the film, Lei Yu, director of the Sanxingdui Site Archaeological Workstation of the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and leader of the archaeological excavation team of the Sanxingdui Site, said so. His next sentence was: "Thanks to the discovery of Sanxingdui, Chinese civilization is more abundant and more interesting." ”

The reason why Sanxingdui has caused such a big sensation is not only the magic and uniqueness of its excavated cultural relics themselves, but also that this is an ancient civilization that has not been seen in the literature before, but it really exists, and the discovery of ancient civilizations, including Sanxingdui, has also impacted and changed the academic community's understanding of the origin map of the entire Chinese civilization.

Archaeology fills in the gaps in written history and is also a bridge between the past and the present. As can be seen in this documentary, the creator tried to highlight the "epochality" of the Sanxingdui archaeological excavation, extracted from the program pattern of the cultural relics themselves, aimed the perspective at the highlights, mysteries and difficulties in the excavation process, adopted new technologies such as shuttles, flying cat cameras, fishing rod rocker arms, combined with three-dimensional animation, objectively showed the new mode of in-depth cooperation between field archaeology, experimental archaeology, and scientific and technological archaeology, and followed archaeologists with lenses to explore the magical and powerful ancient Shu Kingdom more than 3,000 years ago. Through the characteristics of image recording, we can objectively sort out the new highlights, new heights and new values of archaeological work in the new era.

Of course, as a documentary for the public, Wang Jian said: "We hope to be able to use the method of story structure to plan the layout of the story, to absorb the Jiguang Katayu in this excavation, and strive to achieve the organic combination of academic and interesting, and the mutual integration of artistic value and mass communication." ”

In the film, both the discovery of those dazzling treasures and the study of those seemingly simple and unpretentious clays are paid attention to, and it is here that archaeologists find traces of silk, which is a very important result of this archaeological excavation.

In the last episode of "Immortality", the time comes to the winter of 2021, two years after the discovery of Pit 3 in the winter of 2019, a new round of archaeological excavation sites in the Sanxingdui Sacrifice Area, and the excavation of 6 sacrifice pits are nearing completion. The Sanxingdui civilization has gone from being annihilated in the dust of history to being discovered little by little, and generations of archaeologists have seen greatness in the subtleties, gradually stitching together an ancient world from the fields, and now, it seems to be becoming clearer and clearer...

"This site has 12 square kilometers, and there are more than 3 square kilometers within the city wall, which is the largest city in the Yangtze River Basin during the Xia and Shang dynasties. Therefore, it must be the central capital of a country, and most scholars believe that the ancient city of Sanxingdui is likely to be the capital of the ancient Shu kingdom. In the film, Sun Hua, a professor at Peking University's School of Archaeology and Literature who has been studying Sanxingdui for more than 30 years, tells that Sanxingdui is a bronze culture in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River during the Xia and Shang dynasties, which absorbed the civilization from the Yangtze River and also the civilization from the Yellow River. The two aspects of culture, in a relatively closed basin like Sichuan, converge to form a new and unique creation. "These creations have added a new page to the history of Chinese art and are a very important contribution to Chinese civilization."

"The genes of Chinese civilization are inherited and continued in exchanges and integration, and pluralism and compatibility create a strong tension of the Chinese nation." Today we 'see' Sanxingdui again, which is both the inheritance of historical civilization and the continuation of our common feelings. Zhang Ping said.

With this excavation, a number of puzzles were solved and a batch of puzzles were born. Why are so many treasures buried here? The documentary ends with a poetic opening, which also leaves the audience with continued expectations for Sanxingdui...

Sichuan Daily all-media reporter Wu Menglin