On June 13th, the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Sanxingdui Research Institute and Sanxingdui Museum jointly hosted the important project of "Archaeology In China" - the press briefing on the phased achievements of archaeological excavations at sanxingdui sites. A large number of unprecedented cultural relics were announced at the meeting, and the remains of buildings of more than 80 square meters were found, and the dating of the sacrificial pit was 3200 to 3000 years old.
Before introducing these artifacts, ask a question, do you know what Sanxingdui is?
All along, everyone has been extremely magical and shocked by the strange shape and exquisite shape of Sanxingdui's various types of cultural relics, so where did they come from? Why is it so hot? Why can the Sanxingdui site always see the "blind box"?
What is Sanxingdui ↓↓↓
Sanxingdui ancient ruins have an area of 12 square kilometers, which have a history of 5,000 to 3,000 years, and are the largest, longest-lasting and most culturally rich ancient cities, ancient countries and ancient Shu cultural sites found in the southwest region so far. The best-preserved east, west and south walls and the inner walls of Moon Bay are available. The sanxingdui ancient site is known as one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of mankind in the 20th century, showing that the Yangtze River Basin, like the Yellow River Basin, belongs to the matrix of Chinese civilization and is known as the "source of Yangtze River civilization".
Why is Sanxingdui so important ↓↓↓
Some people may ask, why is Sanxingdui so important? Sanxingdui cultural relics are valuable cultural heritage of mankind, and among the vast and spectacular cultural relics groups in China, it is one of the most historical, scientific, cultural and artistic values and the most ornamental cultural relics group.
In this batch of ancient Shu secret treasures, there are many strange and strange bronze shapes, including bronze da liren with a height of 2.62 meters, a bronze mask with a width of 1.38 meters, and a bronze sacred tree with a height of 3.95 meters, which are unique and unique gods. The gold ware represented by the glittering golden staff and the jade ware represented by the patterned bianzhang are also rare treasures that have never been seen before.
Today, why do we know Sanxingdui ↓↓↓
In fact, many people first "met" Sanxingdui through the excavation process of "sacrificial relics" in pits 3 to 8. For example, the gold mask on the hot search, a large number of bronze and ivory products. The diversity, richness and creativity of these important archaeological discoveries in Sanxingdui fully demonstrate the brilliance and splendor of the ancient Shu civilization.
In addition to these cultural relics that cross history to meet us, the main force in the Sanxingdui archaeological team is also worthy of our attention. Sanxingdui Museum official Micro once posted on Weibo: "Can bear hardships, high education, single... It has become a common symbol of the young people in the archaeological team." It is understood that the post-90s account for about half of the archaeologists of Sanxingdui and have become an indispensable force in the first line of Sanxingdui archaeology. Through those excavated "net red" cultural relics, through the archaeologists who silently adhere to the frontline of Sanxingdui, our understanding of Sanxingdui has been deepening. At present, the archaeological excavation work of the Sanxingdui site is in full swing, and amazing cultural relics are constantly being unearthed.
Why do we know Sanxingdui today? We pay attention to Sanxingdui, not only pay attention to the Sanxingdui civilization, but also pay attention to the Bronze Age of the Yangtze River Basin represented by Sanxingdui. These relatively independent regional civilizations echo the Central Plains Shang civilization and jointly support the diversity of ancient Chinese civilizations. The archaeological excavation of Sanxingdui, a pit and a layer, shows the relationship between people and people, people and things, people and cities thousands of years ago, so that we can trace civilization and get close to history at a closer distance.
So, what surprises are hidden in this "express delivery" from a thousand years ago?
Turtle back mesh
This treasure was affectionately called the "Moonlight Treasure Box" by Li Haichao, a professor at Sichuan University who was responsible for the excavation of the No. 7 "Sacrifice Pit". Li Haichao said: "There was no such thing in the past cognition, and I immediately felt that this was an unprecedented discovery." ”
Bronze altar
Its appearance can be described as exquisite, not only people, but also divine beasts, reflecting a sacrifice scene, which is the "immortal world" imagined by the ancient Shu people. The altar consists of three parts from low to high, the lowest part of which is a skeletonized pedestal with a person sitting in the center of each side. There is a group of people who are relatively tall, and the muscle feeling is very obvious.
Bronze statue of a snake on top
Its hands are propped on a bronze [léi] with a square seat, and a cinnabar painted figure is topped on its head.
Copper pig-nosed dragon-shaped vessel
The dragon head, pig nose, and eyes grow on the nose, and there are scales and square teeth on the head.
Bronze portrait of "wrapped skirt and shoulders and big back"
It is currently the second complete image of a large-scale Liren found in Sanxingdui.
Bronze Giant Divine Beast
Also on display this time were two of our old friends, the "Robot Dog" bronze giant mythical beast.
Bronze dragon
The year of the tiger began with a hot topic of "the bronze dragon of the tiger's head and tiger brain".
In addition, there are several major achievements in this excavation:
Nearly 13,000 numbered artifacts were unearthed from 6 sacrificial pits
In the excavation work in the past year and a half, nearly 13,000 numbered cultural relics have been excavated from the six pits, of which 3,155 are relatively complete.
Among them, 1293 cultural relics were excavated from Pit 3, including 764 bronzes, 104 golds, 207 jades, 88 stone tools, 11 pottery, 104 ivory, and 15 others;
79 cultural relics were excavated from Pit 4, including 21 bronzes, 9 jades, 2 pottery and 47 ivory; No. 5 pit extracted 23 pieces, 2 pieces of bronze, 19 pieces of gold, 2 pieces of jade;
In addition to a large wooden box, only 2 pieces of jade were unearthed in Pit 6, one of which was a unique jade knife;
706 cultural relics were excavated from Pit 7, including 383 bronzes, 52 golds, 140 jades, 1 stone tool, 62 ivory pieces, and 68 others;
At present, 1,052 cultural relics have been excavated from Pit 8, including 68 bronzes, 368 golds, 205 jades, 34 stone tools and 377 ivory.
Netizens praised the richness and variety of the ancient Shu civilization
Resolving years of controversy confirmed the age of the Sanxingdui Sacrifice Pit
The archaeological team conducted carbon-14 dating of nearly 200 samples, and the dating data was concentrated in 1131 to 1012 BC, except for the fifth pit and the sixth pit, the burial age of pit 3, pit 4, pit 7, and pit 8 was the same, which was the late Shang Dynasty, about 3200 to 3000 years ago, resolving the controversy over the burial age of the "sacrificial pit" in the past three decades.
Screenshot of CCTV news video
Empirical evidence that the ancient Shu civilization is an important part of Chinese civilization
A number of new artifacts excavated this time show the close cultural connection between the Sanxingdui site and other parts of the country, the copper Zun, copper and copper urns found in pit 3 and pit 8 are typical bronzes of the Central Plains Yinshang culture, the jade ware found in pit 3 and pit 4 is from the Qijia culture in Ganqing area, the lingyubi, Yuzhang and Yuge found in pits 3, 7 and 8 are found in Henan, Shaanxi, Shandong and the vast south China region, and a large number of gold objects found in each pit are consistent with the ancient gold use tradition in the half-moon zone.
The sacred tree, the kneeling figure of the top and a large number of dragon image artifacts show that the users of the Sanxingdui site are similar to other people in the country in their own identity, ritual religion and understanding of the nature of heaven and earth, which undoubtedly indicates that the ancient Shu civilization to which the Sanxingdui site belongs is an important member of Chinese civilization.
Since the first excavation of Sanxingdui, many precious cultural relics of various forms have appeared. Including the "Pottery Pig" in the god-like "Angry Birds", the "Bronze Divine Beast" like a robot dog, and so on. Let's take stock of the precious cultural relics unearthed at Sanxingdui ↓↓↓
1. Bronze mask
This bronze mask is 131cm wide, 71cm high, 66cm deep, weighs 131 pounds, its wide forehead, exaggerated face, eyebrows, eyes, nose, lips, ears and other lines are smooth, angular, is currently excavated from the Sanxingdui site is the most complete shape, the largest volume, the best preserved large bronze mask.
2. Bronze pig-nosed dragon-shaped vessel
The utensils are cylindrical in the shape of a cylindrical tube with a long nose, long ears and a single horn. Experts speculate that it is used on top of the building.
3. Bronze Divine Beast
It is 28.5 cm long, 26 cm high and 23 cm wide, and was excavated from Pit 3 of the Sanxingdui Site Sacrifice Area. The whole artifact is in the form of a walking animal with its head held high and its limbs crouched on the ground, with missing hind limbs and damage to both ears and tails. The divine beast has a corner on the top of its head, the word "subject", a flat oblong broad mouth, a short neck, a slender torso, a straight chest, a slumped waist, an outer limb, a hoofed foot, a tail bent upwards and backwards, a cloud thunder stripe decoration on the body surface, and a strong and powerful overall form, which looks quite similar to the "robot dog" in science fiction movies.
Fourth, copper tiger
It is 43.4 cm long and 13.05 cm wide. The bronze tiger giant stands with ears, opens its mouth and teeth, looks up with anger, the tiger's tail is dragged down, the tail tip is curled, one side of the micro-arch is semi-embossed, the light is unprinted, and the other side is cast with tabby grooves, and the groove is filled with small square turquoise inlays. The arch of the front and back legs of the copper tiger has a half-ring button, which should be used to wear rope or copper wire for hanging. Its shape is simple and complex, and its charm is vivid, which not only shows that the Shu people observe the tiger quite carefully, but also shows that the image of the tiger has a very important position in their minds.
Fifth, the copper snake
It is 5.8 cm long and 10 cm wide. The bronze snake system is made by the segmented casting method. There are rivet holes between the castings, which are cast in sections and then riveted and connected to form. The snake is large in shape and quite realistic. It is decorated with diamond-shaped stripes and scales, and has hollowed-out knife-shaped feathers on the top of the head and back, which may indicate its flight function. Judging from the ring buttons under the neck and abdomen of the snake, it is estimated that it is hung on some kind of object as a god worship.
6. Bronze dragon-shaped ornaments
Head width 7.7 cm, residual height 17.5 cm. The device is a B-shaped bronze dragon ornament. The bronze dragon opens its mouth widely, and the two rows of round holes cast in the mouth mean "dragon teeth", which have an abstract tendency; Its upper kiss is rolled backwards, and the momentum of the dragon horn configuration is connected, the dragon horn escapes forward, and the end is slightly upwards to raise the sharp retraction, and the strength is introverted. The S-shaped long eyes are fused in the form of dragon horns and extend to the horn ends, and the ears are wide. Its entire shape is slightly similar to the image of the bronze dragon on the large bronze god tree circle seat of No. 1, but it is more bizarre and absurd.
7. Copper chicken
The square seat is 2.5 cm long, the chicken is 11.7 cm long and the height is 14.2 cm. The bronze chicken is cast with a fan casting method, with plump tail feathers, a neck bowed, and a strong atmosphere. Its crown, eyes, beak, claws, feathers and other depictions are meticulous, and they are both god-like and have both shapes and shapes.
In terms of expression, this bronze rooster shape is a realistic style, which contrasts sharply with the shapes of many gods, gods and other artifacts shaped by exaggerated and surreal expressions in Sanxingdui, and is completely one of the most representative works in sanxingdui bronze cultural relics. This bronze chicken represents a "chicken" in the sense of non-poultry, but has a deeper symbolic meaning. The bronze rooster chest is specially cast with fire patterns, and there is no doubt that this rather striking decorative symbol is intrinsically related to the connotation of the bronze rooster.
8. Copper Bird
Width 15.4cm, height 27.8cm. The bronze bird stands on a round seat. The dome is slightly raised at the top, with four round holes in the inner recess of the waist, and the lower part is a hollow circle foot, and it is estimated that the copper bird may be an ornament attached to the top of a certain object. The bird is forward with its large eyes pointed beak, slender body, long wings on both sides and upturned tail and tail feathers. A three-branched vertical wing cast on the back of the bird gives a little fun to the originally flat configuration of the bird's body.
8. Pottery pig
Previously, a strange-looking Tao pig accidentally became popular, mainly because its appearance was very similar to the villain Green Pig in the "Angry Birds" game, which also caused netizens to exclaim: Could this be the predecessor of "Angry Birds"?
9. Bronze Giant Divine Beast
It is one meter long. The divine beast may be an important role in the sacrifice in the eyes of the Sanxingdui people.
With a large number of precious bronzes, goldware
Jade and other cultural relics have been excavated one after another
The mysterious veil of Sanxingdui
It is being unveiled step by step
We look forward to it together!
Integrated from Guangming Daily, Xinhua Net, CCTV News, etc
Source: New Hainan Client Integration