Early Chinese civilization seen in Sanxingdui relics

Cultural relics that are more than 3 millennia old and feature previously unknown shapes were recently found during an archaeological excavation in the Sanxingdui site in Sichuan province, and they appear to be a mysterious yet key part of ancient Chinese civilization.

Ran Honglin, a leading archaeologist on the project, said in a news conference on Monday in the Sanxingdui Museum in the city of Guanghan that 3,155 cultural relics in complete structure－including 1,238 bronze wares and 543 gold and 565 jade artifacts－were recovered from six pits.

Including broken parts and fragments, a total of 13,000 relics offered new clues to the ancient civilization of Shu. The ancient state of Shu dominated what is today's Sichuan province, but documentation on the state is insufficient.

The Sanxingdui site, discovered in 1929, has been key to unveiling the brilliance of the state lost in history.

In 1986, two pits full of bronze artifacts, notably bizarre-looking masks and human figurines, were accidentally found in Sanxingdui, drawing worldwide attention to the site. They are now generally thought by archaeologists to have been used for sacrificial ceremonies.

In the latest round of excavations, which began in 2020, another six "sacrificial" pits were found next to the original pair.

Ran, who is from the Sichuan Provincial Cultural Relics and Archaeology Research Institute, said new carbon-dating results on about 200 relics in the pits showed they dated from 1131 to 1012 BC, about 3,200 to 3,000 years ago, during the late period of the Shang Dynasty.

"The question of its age, which had been bothering us the past 30-some years, has been solved," Ran said.

More bronze masks, covered with gold, and figurines in various shapes continued to be unearthed this year. An exquisite bronze altar and other ceremonial artifacts made of bronze and jade may further highlight the Shu people's religious rites.

Among the stunning finds in recent months were a netlike grid covering a tortoise shell-shaped vessel, a human figurine with a serpent body carrying a ritual vessel known as a zun on its head, and a bronze dragon-shaped artifact with a pig's nose.

"We had never seen anything like these, and we don't even know how to describe the patterns of their shapes in few words," Ran said. "It's also confusing for us to speculate how they were used, before further study.

"But these artifacts feature a mixture of typical local cultural relic styles as well as those from China's Central Plains at that time," he explained. "It demonstrates that, through close communication, the ancient Shu culture became a key part of an early-stage Chinese civilization."

The archaeologists are amazed by more than the artifacts. In the northwest part of the excavation area, an architectural foundation covering about 80 square meters was also newly excavated. It was found to be surrounded by more "small pits".

These small pits were essentially left untouched after some artifacts were exposed, but the complicated structure of the architecture made Ran speculate that they may be part of a large sacrificial area together with the previously found eight pits. However, he said it is too early to conclude that it is a shrine.

Ran said these latest excavations at the site will continue no later than Spring Festival next year, but more effort will be spent in laboratories.

"So many bronze wares were found, and we've fully cleaned about 70 of them so far," said Xie Zhenbin, a leading conservator at the Sichuan institute. "The number seems small, but the work requires patience and the determination to collect as much historical information as we can and conserve the relics in the best way."

Xie said a breakthrough was made in taking care of fragile items, such as 600 ivory tusks recovered from the pits, by adopting new technologies. The use of high technology research and conservation techniques yields new discoveries from the artifacts in laboratories.

For example, no physical evidence of silk from 3,000 to 4,000 years ago was previously found in Southeast China. But about 20 artifacts in Sanxingdui were found to have been once covered by silk, filling a gap in historical studies.

Research of plant and animal remains among the burned ashes detected in the pits could also yield greater understanding of the natural environment of Sanxingdui at that time, Xie added.

"We welcome conservators from the world to join our work on Sanxingdui," Xie said. "Interdisciplinary research can help us better explain the value of the relics and reconstruct a picture of early Chinese civilization."