Source: The Paper
"Star China - Sanxingdui Jinsha Ancient Shu Civilization Exhibition" is currently on display in the East Hall of the Shanghai Museum. Among them, located at the entrance of the exhibition hall, the "Golden Mask and Bronze Human Head" that made its public debut was glittering with golden light, which was particularly majestic and mysterious. What the viewer may not know is that the magnificent bronze head in the exhibition hall was unearthed with a completely different appearance: its neck was shattered, the lower end was mutilated, the surface was clinging to a large amount of ivory, and the gold mask was crushed and deformed...... It is the restoration team of the Shanghai Museum that uses their exquisite skills to restore its former glory.
Recently, The Paper interviewed Zhang Peichen, the inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage project "Bronze Restoration and Replication Skills" and a research librarian of the Artifact Restoration Research Office of the Shanghai Museum Cultural Relics Protection Science and Technology Center, and asked him to tell the story behind the protection and restoration of bronze cultural relics unearthed in Sanxingdui.
"I went to Sichuan to participate in the protection and restoration project of the cultural relics unearthed in Sanxingdui, and lived in Sanxingdui for several months. Sometimes I am busy all day, walk out of the museum, and see the sunset by the Yazi River, the ancient Sanxingdui people should also see this scene, and there is a strong sense of time and space travel in a trance. Zhang Peichen said.
The Paper: When did you start to get involved in the restoration of cultural relics unearthed at the Sanxingdui site in Sichuan?
Zhang Peichen:
At the beginning of 2023, the Shanghai Museum signed a cooperation framework agreement with a number of cultural and museum institutions such as Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Chengdu Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Jinsha Site Museum, Sanxingdui Museum, etc., opening a comprehensive cooperation between Shanghai and Sichuan in the field of cultural relics. In this context, the Shanghai Museum and the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology cooperated to carry out the "Sanxingdui Unearthed Bronze Cultural Relics Protection and Restoration Project" from March 2023 to January 2024, focusing on the newly discovered cultural relics unearthed in No. 7 and No. 8 pits in Sanxingdui, and promoting comprehensive exchanges between the two sides in terms of cultural relics protection and restoration technology, scientific research, and talents.
The site of new archaeological discoveries at Sanxingdui site
Shanghai Museum "Bronze Restoration and Replication Skills" team of a total of 5 people, this time our team was divided into 2 groups, in nearly a year, alternately between Shanghai and Sichuan Guanghan, completed nearly 100 pieces (groups) of Sanxingdui unearthed bronze cultural relics cleaning and restoration work, of which nearly 50 pieces (groups) of bronze cultural relics were transported to Shanghai for restoration. In the process of cleaning, we also cleaned up more than 20 pieces of cultural relics such as gold ornaments, bronze kneeling figures, bronze dragons, bronze ge, copper snake back feathers, copper branches, copper bird wings, copper buds, copper plates, more than 150 fish-shaped, leaf-shaped, round, zhang-shaped, and curly-shaped copper foil sheets, more than 10 ivory beasts, ivory handle-shaped vessels, ivory tube beads, and a large number of seashells and fritillary products. Among them, bronze dragons, ivory beasts and other types were found for the first time in the unearthed cultural relics in Sanxingdui.
The team members of the Shanghai Museum's "Bronze Restoration and Reproduction Techniques" team and some of the bronze relics unearthed in Sanxingdui that they have cleaned and restored. (Photo provided by the interviewer, the same below)
The Paper: I heard that before the expo, the cultural relics unearthed in Sanxingdui had never been transported out of the province in large quantities for cleaning and restoration.
Zhang Peichen:
Yes, Shangbo's cultural relics protection technology and cultural relics restoration strength is relatively strong. The Cultural Relics Protection Science and Technology Center has a variety of scientific and technological testing equipment and technologies such as large-scale CT scanning and "thermoluminescence" detection, with the help of these advanced scientific instruments, it can uncover the hidden information on cultural relics and provide strong support for humanities research. For example, what is the composition of the surface attachment of the cultural relics unearthed at the Sanxingdui site, and what is the casting process of the unearthed bronzes? This information is very helpful for the archaeological and historical research of Sanxingdui.
The Paper: Did the cooperation with the relevant cultural and museum institutions in Sichuan go smoothly in the protection and restoration of bronze cultural relics, and what is the difference between you and your cultural relics in Shanghai?
Zhang Peichen:
Although Shangbo is well-known for its "bronze restoration and reproduction skills", and we have cooperated with cultural relics restoration and protection in Shaanxi, Shanxi and other provinces, we have been in contact with the Sichuan cultural relics restoration team for the first time, and both sides have a run-in process in terms of working methods, processes and restoration skills.
Shangbo cultural relics restoration personnel cleaned up the cover and remnants of the sacred beast unearthed from the No. 8 pit of Sanxingdui
Through work exchanges, it was discovered that the restoration skills of bronze cultural relics in Sanxingdui could be traced back to Shangbo. In 1976, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage commissioned the Shanghai Museum to hold a national training course on bronze restoration. The training time is half a year, and the course is perfect and reasonable, from the basic repair methods such as rust removal, welding and matching of bronzes to the process of drawing, engraving, turning and casting bronze ornamentation, almost including the main basic skills of bronze restoration and reproduction. Teacher Yang Xiaowu of Sanxingdui Museum was fortunate to become the only student selected by Sichuan, and it was Wang Rongda, Gu Youchu, Huang Rensheng, who was teaching the old experts of bronze restoration in Shanghai Museum, and many other teachers such as Wang Rongda, Gu Youchu, Huang Rensheng, etc., through the training of the professional ability of the teachers of Shangbo, laid a solid foundation for the restoration career of Sanxingdui cultural relics after Mr. Yang. It is also a kind of transmission and inheritance of the "bronze restoration and reproduction skills" of the Shanghai Museum.
The Paper: Tell us about the restoration of the gold mask and bronze head, the star exhibit of this exhibition.
Zhang Peichen:
The "Golden Mask and Hair Bronze Human Head" was unearthed in the No. 8 sacrificial pit at the Sanxingdui site. There are more than 70 bronze heads unearthed in the entire No. 8 pit, but the gold mask is completely attached to the bronze head, which is the only case, in the Sanxingdui unearthed cultural relics, the utensils made of gold are higher than other bronze artifacts. This is also the only bronze head still attached to the gold mask among the 6 sacrificial pits found in Sanxingdui in 2021, which is enough to show the precious value of this cultural relic.
The Golden Mask and Bronze Human Head in its state when it was first discovered in Pit 8
Due to the intricate stacking of cultural relics in Pit 8, the bronze cultural relics at the bottom are squeezed by the ash layer and ivory layer above and the corrosion of the surrounding burial environment, and the disease of deformation and fragmentation is more serious. When the bronze head was first discovered, it was concealed and wrapped in various attachments, and the shimmering gold mask in the light of the archaeological excavation showed its difference. After a preliminary cleaning of the surrounding environment, the head of the gold-masked man was first seen, lying on his side in the corner of Pit 8, and the bronze head had a large number of penetrating fissures in its neck, which required great care, as the slightest movement would cause further breakage. The cultural preservation personnel used the method of medical plaster bandage fixation to strengthen the neck and extract it as a whole, and transported it to the cultural preservation center for later protection and restoration work.
Compared with the early archaeological site extraction work, the later cleaning and restoration work is more difficult. The entire avatar was covered in heavy ivory chips and dirt inside and out, and the sides of the gold mask were severely twisted and distorted by being squeezed. The bronze oxide has invaded the loose tusks, causing the ivory debris attached to the gold mask and bronze head to mix with the bronze oxide and become extraordinarily hard. During the clean-up, it was found that the eyes and ears of the gold mask were painted in black and red. Painted and lacquered ornamentation is a rare special type of bronze ornamentation, which is a combination of metal, pigment and natural organic binder. Similarly, due to the aging of organic binders, the paintings that adorn bronze artifacts have become extremely fragile and precious, and the biggest difficulty in cleaning up and separating the hard attachments attached to the gold while preserving the paints is the biggest difficulty in cleaning up.
Zhang Peichen, the inheritor of Shangbo's bronze restoration and reproduction skills, cleaned and shaped the bronze head of the gold mask and hair
The shaping of the gold mask is also a major difficulty in the restoration process. The ears and strip crowns on both sides of the gold mask were badly deformed, and the ears were folded and squeezed to one-eighth of their original area. Gold has good ductility, but the Sanxingdui site found that gold products, including masks, are not 100% pure gold, which contains a part of silver, although the hardness has been improved, but in the process of shaping, it is easy to break. With decades of experience in the restoration of cultural relics and the use of a mixture of tools of different hardness, the attachment was finally successfully removed, the deformed ears were completely reset, and the painted ears were retained.
Comparison of the bronze head of the golden mask and the hair before and after the cleaning and restoration
The cleaned head is a dome, with hair combed from back to front, the ends of the hair tucked into the mask, and the hairline is clearly visible. The eyebrows, eyes, and mouth of the gold mask are hollowed out. On each side of the forehead there are triangular ornaments above the ears, which meet the triangular ornaments above the ears. The eyebrows are pointed and the tails of the eyebrows are obliquely straight. The bridge of the nose is high, and the two nostrils are in an "M" shape. The mouth is wide and slightly open, and the corners of the mouth are hooked downward. Perforated earlobes in both ears. It is worth mentioning that the small square hole behind the head of this avatar, when it was first unearthed, the inside and outside of the head were hard wrappings, this small square hole was found in the cleaning process, many people may think that this is damage, in fact, it is not, compared to other Sanxingdui heads, this hole is the connection point between the back of the head and the hairpipe. At that time, the ancient Sanxingdui people were connected with the head through this secondary casting process, which reflected the superb casting skills and wisdom of the ancient Sanxingdui people. That's why the head is officially named "Golden Mask and Bronze Head". With the continuous development of Sanxingdui archaeological excavations, I look forward to recovering his lost hair flute in new excavations in the near future, and I also hope to help him regain his heroic posture by hand.
The Paper: In the process of cleaning and restoration, what kind of restoration concept did you follow to participate in this important work?
Zhang Peichen:
In the whole process of cleaning and restoration of Sanxingdui cultural relics, we try our best not to interfere with the original state of the cultural relics and retain the maximum original information of the cultural relics. Restorers can be said to be the people who have the deepest knowledge of damaged cultural relics, because through each restoration, they can understand the internal structure of the cultural relics, the casting process, the corrosion composition, the package information, etc. In many cases, when the restoration of the broken cultural relics is completed and presented to the audience, many traces and information of the production have been hidden inside, and cannot be observed from the outside.
A bronze human head that was heavily crushed and deformed when unearthed
Visitors to this exhibition will find a severely crushed and deformed bronze head in our exhibition hall, its cheeks and neck have been extruded and deformed, and the inside of the head has been filled with a large amount of earth. When it was transported to Shangbo for cleaning, through CT scanning, we found that it also had a hemispherical bronze eye bubble inside its head, but due to the deformation of the neck extrusion, the eye bubble could not be removed, and it is still in it until now. The reason why we don't orthopedize it is because the deformation and fragmentation of many artifacts in the Sanxingdui sacrificial pit are not produced in the buried environment, and many phenomena show that they are very likely to be thrown into the pit after being smashed flat at that time, and this behavior may contain a kind of implication of some sacrifice or custom at that time. We believe that such a primitive state should be preserved, and if it is forcibly restored, it will interfere with its original information. Now the exhibition hall is also displayed in its original state, and we think that this state is quite good, and tell the audience that the original state is like this.
The Paper: What have you gained from this restoration experience?
Zhang Peichen:
From the perspective of a restorer, as a cultural relics restorer, it is a privilege to be able to participate in the protection and restoration of cultural relics in a national archaeological excavation project such as Sanxingdui. This is a coincidence. Each of our participants is very serious about this project, giving full play to the advantages and strengths of Shangbo in bronze restoration, and promoting the exchange of bronze restoration skills in cooperation.
Shangbo cultural relics restoration personnel cleaned up the bronze cultural relics unearthed in Sanxingdui
Shangbo cultural relics restoration personnel cleaned up the bronze cultural relics unearthed in Sanxingdui
The Paper: Visiting the land where cultural relics are excavated for cultural relics restoration is also a unique experience in your career, right?
Zhang Peichen:
The feeling of seeing the same artifact in a museum is completely different from seeing it at the excavation site. This time we lived in Sanxingdui for several months, and the area where we worked was the original site of the Sanxingdui civilization 3,000 years ago, and the Yazi River 3,000 years ago was still flowing on the side. Sometimes I am busy all day, walk out of the museum, see the sunset by the duck river, the ancient Sanxingdui people should see this scene, there is a strong sense of time and space travel in a trance, 3000 years is just a moment.
Sanxingdui in the afterglow of the sunset
And the Sanxingdui cultural relics in these archaeological explorations are more like they have been frozen by time, from the moment they were thrown down to the moment they were discovered, they have stayed there and have not changed, which is a wonderful feeling.