"Golden Axe", Golden Beads, Jade Knives, Wooden Boxes - What are the mysteries of Sanxingdui's "New Treasures"?

Source: Xinhua Net

Xinhua News Agency, Chengdu, September 9 Title: "Golden Axe", Golden Beads, Jade Knives, Wooden Boxes -- What are the mysteries to be solved in Sanxingdui's "New Treasures"?

Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Qianwei

A large number of gold beads have been unearthed from pit No. 5, a weighty "golden axe" has been revealed, and a sharp and exquisite jade knife has been newly found at the bottom of the wooden box in pit No. 6... The reporter learned from the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology that a number of important cultural relics have been newly unearthed at the Sanxingdui site, and there are some new mysteries to be solved.

The reporter recently saw at the archaeological excavation site of the No. 5 "Sacrifice Pit" that Li Haichao, the person in charge of the site and a professor at the School of Archaeology and Literature of Sichuan University, was leading students to use X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy to detect the composition of the gold in the pit.

Pit No. 5 is the smallest of the Sanxingdui "sacrificial pits", but it contains the highest amount of "gold", and has unearthed half a gold mask weighing 280 grams, bird-shaped gold ornaments and other gold objects, as well as jade and ivory ware.

At present, it is seen that a slightly larger gold object in pit 5 has been revealed. "This gold object is like an axe, a shape that has not been discovered before." Li Haichao said that because of the preciousness of gold, the gold tools unearthed in the past are very thin, but this "golden axe" has a certain thickness, which is very expensive, and what it is used for has yet to be studied.

"In addition to the 'Golden Axe', we have recently found a lot of gold beads in Pit 5, some of which are only the size of a grain of rice. How did these gold beads come about? Li Haichao said that before everyone speculated that they may have been melted down after other gold objects in the pit were burned.

However, through exploration, it was found that the gold content of these gold beads was as high as 99%, almost pure gold, and the gold artifacts previously excavated from Sanxingdui, including the gold mask of Pit 5, had a gold content of about 85%, and another 13-14% was silver.

"This shows that the gold beads are not melted from other gold objects in the pit, and we speculate that it is likely that the beading process was used to make it, that is, the gold solution was dripped into warm water to form gold beads of different sizes." Li Haichao said, "This may be the earliest beading process in China." ”

In addition to the gold beads, pit 5 also has a large number of gold discs with holes in the middle, and its distribution has a certain pattern, and experts speculate that it may be consciously placed or originally attached to some kind of fabric and then laid in the pit. In addition, unlike the ivory buried in the whole of other pits, the ivory vessels in pit 5 have been carefully carved, and some of the ornaments are thinner than hair, and the technique is exquisite.

"Judging from the various discoveries, pit 5 is very special, and it is possible that it is for special rituals or special people. If the above gold jewelry is attached to the garment, the magnificence of the garment is beyond imagination. Ran Honglin, director of the Sanxingdui Archaeological Research Institute of the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, said.

Because the No. 5 pit cultural relics are very many and fine, the site extraction is difficult, archaeologists are currently extracting it as a whole, the next step will be laboratory archaeology. What is the combined relationship between these fine artifacts? Where is the other half of the Golden Mask? These mysteries are waiting to be solved.

Pit 6, next to Pit 5, is also full of mysteries to be solved. Pit 6 is buried with the wooden box first discovered by Sanxingdui, what is the purpose of the wooden box? What's in the box?

Li Haichao said that at present, there are two major discoveries in the wooden box, one is the discovery of traces of silk fabrics, and the other is that a beautiful jade knife was recently found at the bottom of the box, the shape is very similar to the current Western food knife, whether in terms of craftsmanship, material, ornamentation, it is a very exquisite jade.

"What is very special is that jade was generally a ceremonial vessel in ancient times and had no practical value, but this jade knife was bladed and very sharp." Li Haichao said that whether this jade knife is a ceremonial weapon or has practical value needs to be further examined.

At present, the wooden box of Pit 6 and the ash accumulation under the wooden box have been extracted as a whole and transported to the warehouse. In the next step, the School of Archaeology and Archaeology of Sichuan University will cooperate with the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences to conduct laboratory archaeology and solve the mysteries to be solved.