●Located in Sanxingdui Town, Guanghan City, Sichuan Province, Sanxingdui Ruins is an ancient Shu cultural site dating from about 5,000 to 3,000 years ago
● Hailed as "one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of mankind in the 20th century"
They are all bird ornaments, which can be called 'owl', that is, the image of an owl; they can also be called a sacred bird.
□ Wen Xiaojuan, a reporter of this newspaper
"Sleep for three thousand years, wake up and shock the world." On March 20, as a major project of "Archaeology China", the archaeological research of the Sanxingdui site in Sichuan released the latest results, and 6 new "sacrifice pits" were discovered, and more than 500 important cultural relics were unearthed, which once again shocked the world.
Among them, it is interesting to note that a bronze statue of the "owl" shaped ornament was found in the Sanxingdui No. 3 sacrifice pit, which was the first time to be found in Sanxingdui. Coincidentally, in the Yin Ruins, which are more than 1300 kilometers away, an owl-shaped bronze vessel has also been excavated, which is the famous "Female Good Owl Zun".
From the appearance point of view, the two are extremely similar, both have the appearance characteristics of round eyes and pointed beak and large ears, giving people a fierce beauty with divine power, which further reveals the close relationship between sanxingdui culture and the Shang culture in the Central Plains.
"They all belong to the bird ornamentation, which can be called 'owl', that is, the image of an owl; they can also be called a sacred bird." He Yuling, a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and deputy director of the Anyang Archaeological Workstation, said that the Shang Dynasty was the peak of the Chinese Bronze Age, and cultural exchanges were very extensive, and similar bronze ornaments were a microcosm of the civilization exchanges between the Yellow River Basin and the Yangtze River Basin.
The most eye-catching thing about Sanxingdui culture is undoubtedly bronze, and at the same time as the Shang Dynasty, what is the relationship between the ancient Shu civilization represented by this and the Shang civilization in the Central Plains? Archaeologists believe that sanxingdui's bronze masks, statues, and sacred trees reflect the rich local cultural outlook, indicating that it has a unique bronze civilization. However, judging from the shape and form of bronze containers such as bronze statues and bronze pendants excavated from the site, they are very similar to the bronzes excavated from the Yin Ruins or the Central Plains, which indicates that there is exchange and integration between the two regions.
He Yuling stressed that the most important difference between the two is that no "inscription" has been found in the artifacts excavated from Sanxingdui so far, which is regrettable but also full of expectations.
Sanxingdui culture is also inextricably linked to the Central Plains culture. "In the oracle bones, there is often a word, the top resembles an eye, the bottom resembles a bug, and some scholars believe that this word is the 'Shu' of the Shu Kingdom, which indicates that there was already written exchanges between the Central Plains and the Bashu region at that time." He Yuling said that from the perspective of literature research, when King Wu of Zhou destroyed the Shang, he united a small number of tribes in the west, south, and southwest, among which there were Shu people or Ba people who participated in the war against the Zhou Shang, indicating that there was already a relationship between the Shang Dynasty and the ancient Shu State.
Hou Weidong, associate professor of the Yellow River Civilization and Sustainable Development Research Center of Henan University, believes that the jade tooth zhang and inlaid turquoise bronze plaque ornaments excavated from the Sanxingdui site are similar to similar instruments of the Erlitou culture in the Central Plains, and the city-building technology of Sanxingdui also has some similarities with the Xia Shang culture in the Central Plains... It shows that the Sanxingdui culture was deeply influenced by the culture of the Xia Shang Dynasty in the Central Plains, reflecting the exchange with the upper culture of the Central Plains Dynasty.
It is worth mentioning that Yin Ruins also found a small amount of gold leaf and bronze leaf (a kind of bronze ge); a very thin piece of gold leaf was excavated from the ruins of Zhengzhou Shangcheng, and after unfolding it was a dragon pattern gold leaf, which was probably a decoration embedded in some kind of lacquerware... In the opinion of archaeologists, this may be influenced by the Sanxingdui culture.
Liu Haiwang, president of the Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, said that the latest important archaeological achievements of Sanxingdui provide new physical materials for a comprehensive understanding of the culture of Sanxingdui and its surrounding areas. "More than 3,000 years ago, the Central Plains civilization in the Yellow River Basin and the ancient Shu civilization in the Yangtze River Basin were highly developed civilizations that developed side by side in the same era, and exchanged and interacted with each other, exchanged and integrated with other regions, and eventually gathered together to form a Chinese civilization." Liu Haiwang said.
Author: Wen Xiaojuan
Source: Henan Daily