Sanxingdui Museum, Guanghan

State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China. "Mystery of Sanxingdui culture on display in museum exhibition". Oct 5,2018

In Sanxingdui Museum in Southwest China’s Sichuan province, an ongoing exhibition examines the great mystery of where a culture thousands of years ago might have come from and why it abruptly vanished.

Behind the strange bronze masks is one of the origins of Chinese civilization.

They were all unearthed from the Sanxingdui Ruins, located in Guanghan city of Southwest China’s Sichuan province.

It all began when a farmer came across jadeware while digging a ditch in the spring of 1929. This opened the door to an unknown culture between 3,000 to 5,000 years old.

In 1986, archaeologists found two large-scale sacrificial pits dating from the Shang Dynasty (c. 1600-1046 BCE) some 3,000 years ago.

Thousands of rare treasures were dug out. This made quite a stir. It was hailed as “the ninth wonder of the world”. Experts dug out large numbers of strange bronze images and animals from the ruins.

“I’m really impressed by the elaborate and intricate bronzeware and jade artifacts. It’s hard to imagine that a culture that produced such wonderful things eventually faded away. I also get to learn a lot more about ancient rituals and cultures. Totally worth it,” said one audience member.

To this day, discoveries at the Sanxingdui site continue to be an enigma. Still, no texts have been unearthed and no historical records of the Sanxingdui culture have been found in the annals of nearby areas, casting a cloud of mystery over the entire site.

Introduction to Sanxingdui Museum

The cultural relics at Sanxingdui are precious cultural heritage of mankind, which contain rich historical, cultural and scientific value, and bespeak themselves as the most attractive ones amongst the multitude of the spectacular relics in China. Amongst the hoards of prize antiquities there are a variety of unique, grotesque bronzes, such as 2.62-meter-tall standing statue, 1.38-meter-wide bronze mask, 3.95-meter-high bronze tree, all of which stand out as treasures unparalleled. In addition, the gold ware represented by the gleaming gold scepter, and jade ware such as the blades with heavy motif, turn out to be undeniable rare jewels never seen before.

Sanxingdui Cultural Relics 三星堆文物

金箔虎形器

Gold foil tiger

The total length is 11.6 cm, the height is 6.7 cm, and the weight is 7.27 G.

Unearthed from No.1 sacrificial pit of Sanxingdui

It is made of gold foil and stamped with tiger stripes of "eye" shape. The tiger's head is raised and its mouth is roaring. Its eyes are hollowed out, its front feet are stretched out, its hind feet are squatting, and its tail is rolled up. The golden tiger is semicircular, which may have been used as an ornament on other objects. In ancient China, there was a custom of worshipping tigers. The gold and bronze tigers unearthed in Sanxingdui were simple and colorful, which showed that the Shu people had a very careful observation of tigers, and the image of tigers played a very important role in their minds.

金面铜人头像

Bronze head with gold face

No. 2 sacrificial pit with a width of 19.6 cm and a height of 42.5 cm was unearthed

This is a bronze head with gold face. The bronze head is flat top, the hair is combed back, and the braid is hanging behind the head. The upper end of the braid is bound with a wide band, which has a strong local national hair style. The gold mask is made of gold skin. The size, shape and facial features of the bronze head are the same. The eyebrows are hollowed out. It is very exquisite and gives people a sense of authority and holiness. It is generally believed that this kind of golden face statue represents the people of the highest social status. They hold the power of life and death, and have special skills to communicate with God.

金面铜人头像

Bronze head with gold face

It is 22.4 cm wide and 45.8 cm high

This is a bronze head with a dome and a gold face. From the concave line outline of the face of the bronze statue, it seems that the face itself has cast a copper mask covering the top of the head and leaving only the top center. The gold mask is attached to the mask. The gold mask of this bronze head is very thin, only the right forehead and left face are left. There is a hairpin on the back of the human head, both upper and lower ends are incomplete.

金杖

Golden cane.

It is 1.42 meters long, 2.3 cm in diameter and weighs about 500 grams.

The No. 1 sacrificial pit was unearthed.

The golden cane is the largest of China's simultaneous goldware ever unearthed. The golden cane is beaten into gold skin with gold bars, and then wrapped on the wooden cane; At one end of the cane, there is a pattern about 46 cm long, the pattern is divided into three groups: close to the end of the group, close together to see two before and after symmetry, wearing a five-toothed witch crown, earrings triangular earrings of the person's head, smile. The other two groups have the same pattern, with two opposite birds and fish at the top and bottom, with an arrow stacked on the bird's neck and the fish's head.

金面罩

Gold mask

The residual width is 21.5, the height is 11.3 cm, and the weight is 10.62 grams

No. 1 sacrificial pit unearthed

The gold mask is made of gold foil, with a raised nose and sharp edges in the center. The craftsmanship is excellent. Its size is basically the same as the proportions of the faces of people unearthed in Tongkeng, and can be matched. It is estimated that it may have been attached to the face of someone's head. Two damaged gold face masks were also unearthed from Pit No. 2, the size of which is roughly the same as this one, and it may have fallen off from the bronze figure of the same pit.

金箔四叉形器

Gold foil Quad

It is 9.4 cm in height, 6.9 cm in width and 6.02 g in weight.

Unearthed from No.2 sacrificial pit of Sanxingdui

The object is carved into a sharp angle and four forked shape with rectangular gold foil, and the other end is flat. It is a kind of ornament pasted on other utensils.

金箔鱼形饰

Fish shaped ornament with gold foil

No. 2 sacrificial pit of Sanxingdui was unearthed.

A total of 19 such ornaments were unearthed, which were divided into two types: large and small. There are five large gold foil fish ornaments, about 20 cm long and 2 cm wide. The body is slender, both like fish and willow leaves, carved on the fine veins and thorns. Small gold foil fish shaped ornaments are similar in shape to large ones, ranging in length from 4 cm to 7 cm, and no ornamentation on the surface. There is a round perforation on the upper end of the fish shaped ornament, which should be hung on other utensils.