Sanxingdui is three mounds about tens to hundreds of meters long and about 5 to 8 meters high, connected in a line, distributed on the east, south and west terraces of the west bank of the Mamu River. There is a beautiful myth about the name of Sanxingdui. Legend has it that the Jade Emperor scattered three handfuls of soil from the sky and landed on the banks of the Mian River in Guanghan, forming three large mounds that stood abruptly on the plain, like three gold stars in a straight line, hence the name Sanxingdui. On the other side of the Muma River, there is an arc-shaped platform higher than the surrounding area. The imaginative people named this platform Moon Bay. Sanxingdui and Moon Bay face each other across the river. They come from ancient times and form one of the eight scenic spots in Guanghan - Three Stars with the Moon.
The discovery of the Sanxingdui site began when local farmer Yan Daocheng and his son Yan Qing accidentally discovered a pit of jade artifacts while digging ditches in the spring of 1929. Among them were gui, bi, cong, jade rings, and stone beads. Wait, more than 300 pieces per batch. In the spring of 1931, after hearing the news, the British missionary Dong Duyi who was preaching in Guanghan County found the local garrison to help with publicity, protection and investigation. He also handed over the collected jade artifacts to the West China University Museum run by the Americans for safekeeping. According to the clues provided by Dong Duyi, Ge Weihan, the curator of the West China University Museum, and his assistant Lin Mingjun formed an archaeological team in the spring of 1934. After being licensed by the Sichuan Provincial Department of Education and approved by the Guanghan County Government, and presided over by Luo Yucang, the magistrate of Guanghan County, jade artifacts were discovered in Yanshi A ten-day excavation was conducted near the site. The excavation was fruitful, with more than 600 cultural relics unearthed in total, including pottery, stone tools, jade beads, jade pestles, jade bis, jade guis, etc. These cultural relics were later handed over to the West China University Museum for collection. The results of this archaeological excavation were compiled by Ge Weihan into the "Hanzhou Excavation Briefing" and published in the "West China Frontier Monthly" in 1936. The article named these unearthed cultural relics "Guanghan Culture". Unfortunately, excavations at the Sanxingdui site have been stagnant for a long time since they were first excavated in 1934. Since the 1950s, archaeological workers have resumed archaeological work in Sanxingdui. Wang Jiayou, Jiang Dianchao and others from the Sichuan Provincial Museum investigated Sanxingdui and Moon Bay and discovered for the first time that Sanxingdui contained a large area of ??ancient city ruins. At that time, the huge scale of the Sanxingdui ruins was not realized, so the Moon Bay location in the north of the Sanxingdui ruins and the Sanxingdui ruins in the south were Each site is regarded as a site and named "Hengliangzi Site" and "Sanxingdui Site" respectively. In 1963, a joint archaeological team led by Feng Hanji, composed of the Sichuan Provincial Museum and the History Department of Sichuan University, once again excavated the Moon Bay and other locations in the Sanxingdui site, revealing the basic features of the Sanxingdui site and culture. At that time, Professor Feng Hanji once realized that Sanxingdui "is so densely populated with ruins that it is likely to be a central city of the ancient Shu Kingdom." Mr. Feng predicted at that time that Sanxingdui was likely to be the site of the ancient Shu people, and maybe it was the "capital" of the ancient Shu people. Preliminary archaeological excavations at Sanxingdui continued until the 1980s. Based on existing results, archaeologists speculate that Sanxingdui and Moon Bay were the ancient Shu capitals during the Shang and Zhou dynasties. However, no bronze vessels representing the Shang and Zhou civilization have been found, let alone corresponding written records. Sanxingdui gradually became the site for earth-extraction operations for local brick factories, and the huge mounds of earth were gradually razed to the ground.
After the 1980s and 1990s, the Sanxingdui site ushered in a period of large-scale continuous excavations, which lasted for 20 years. Excavations from 1980 to 1981 cleared out vast areas of Neolithic house sites and unearthed tens of thousands of specimens. They also discovered stratigraphic overlapping relationships with periodic significance. The excavation report of this excavation, "Sanxingdui Site in Guanghan," pointed out that Sanxingdui is "an ancient culture that is widely distributed in Sichuan, has distinctive characteristics, and is different from any other archaeological culture." It has Xia Nai proposed the three conditions for naming an archaeological culture and suggested naming it "Sanxingdui Culture". In 1982 and 1984, archaeologists conducted two excavations in the southwest of the Sanxingdui site and the Xiquankan site respectively, and discovered the latest remains of the Sanxingdui site.
On July 18, 1986, news came from the earth-extraction site of the local brick factory that workers dug out a jade artifact there. After receiving the report, the Provincial Cultural Affairs Bureau immediately sent an archaeological team to investigate and found that it was a piece of jade about 40 centimeters long that had been dug up into pieces. The archaeological team immediately sealed off the site and conducted rescue excavations. From July 18 to August 14, *** excavated 6 exploratory areas of 25 square meters.
At 2:30 a.m. on July 23, archaeologists unearthed a golden cane. The core of the cane was made of wood and wrapped in gold. There were strange patterns on it, two with their backs facing each other. Fish, two birds with their backs facing each other, and two symmetrical human heads wearing a high crown with five teeth. This is the first time such a walking stick has been discovered in the history of Chinese archaeology, and it is by no means an ordinary thing. Archaeologists discovered a large pit where the golden rod was unearthed. The pit is rectangular, with a large mouth and a small bottom. The mouth of the pit is about 4.5 meters long and 3.5 meters wide; the bottom of the pit is flat, 4.1 meters long, 2.8 meters wide and more than 1.6 meters deep. 420 cultural relics made of gold, copper, jade, stone, bone, pottery, ivory and other materials were unearthed in the pit, including 178 bronze wares, 4 gold wares, 129 jade wares, seashells and about 3 cubic meters of burnt objects. Bone fragments. Larger jade artifacts such as jade Ge and jade zhang are mainly distributed at the east end of the southeast pit wall; smaller jade artifacts such as jade chisels, jade adzes, stone axes, and jade axes are mainly distributed in the west corner of the pit; A small number of jade artifacts are scattered in the middle of the pit; copper "Yuan" are distributed throughout the pit; large bronze artifacts such as bronze human heads, bronze human faces, copper fields, and bronze statues are mainly distributed in the southwest of the pit; ivory is mainly distributed in the middle of the pit area; the golden staff comes out of the middle and west of the pit. Based on the stacking of the artifacts, experts speculate that these artifacts were not placed randomly, but in a certain order: jade artifacts were placed first, then gold staffs, bronze human heads, bronze human faces, copper fields, and bronze statues. Wait for the large bronze vessel, then pour in the burned bone residue, and finally place the pottery cup, pottery stand, bronze dagger and other utensils. The bone residue is accumulated in a slope shape from south to north in the pit, and the thickest part reaches 60 cm to 80 cm. Most of the bone residue is white, and some are blue-black. There are bamboo and wood ashes mixed in, but there are no traces of smoke in the pit. Why are there so many bones in the pit? What is the use of these bone residues? After observation, the archaeologists found that the bones had been burned and smashed before being put into the pit, and concluded that these bones were the remains of the sacrifices used for sacrifices. Burning refers to the burning of the sacrifices. sky. The bronze heads unearthed in the pit have an inverted triangle-shaped neck and are filled with seashells or ivory. They have also been burned by fire. Some people believe that these utensils symbolize the gods worshiped by the ancient Shu people. However, some experts object that according to historical records and archaeological discoveries, there were two types of sacrifices in the Shang Dynasty: "human sacrifice" and "animal sacrifice", which were replaced by "figurines" The use of human sacrifices as sacrifices began with the jade figures and stone figures buried in Fuhao's tomb in the Yin Ruins. The bronze heads in the sacrificial pit should symbolize the "human sacrifice" that was killed, rather than the object being sacrificed. From the oracle bone inscriptions of the Yin Ruins, we can see many inscriptions about "burning sacrifices". There were many sacrifices and a wide range of objects. The sacrifices included cattle, sheep, hogs, etc. In the Sanxingdui sacrificial pit, there are bone residues that have been smashed by fire, and gold, bronze, jade, pottery, ivory, shells, etc. also have traces of being burned by fire. There are various indications that the relics in the pit were buried by the ancient Shu people after they held a large-scale and grand "burning sacrifice" event. Most scholars agree that the pit is about 3,400 years old and is a relic left behind by the ancient Shu people after they performed sacrificial activities, so it is named Sacrifice Pit No. 1. This is the first sacrificial pit discovered in the Bashu culture. The cultural relics found in the pit provide extremely valuable materials for understanding the sacrificial etiquette and religious awareness of the ancient Shu people. Among them, cultural relics such as gold staffs, gold masks, and bronze human heads have special significance in the history of Chinese metallurgy and sculpture.
At 6 pm on August 14, about 30 meters away from Pit No. 1, brick factory workers discovered another large pit while collecting soil. After hearing the news, the archaeological staff rushed to the pit and looked into the pit. They found that a bronze mask had been revealed. They immediately covered it up and backfilled it to protect the site. After asking for instructions from superiors and receiving approval, another rescue excavation and cleanup was carried out from August 20 to September 17. Archaeologists named this newly discovered pit No. 2. The excavation of this large pit is even more exciting and shocking. The pit is a rectangular vertical hole with a depth of 0.55 to 0.65 meters from the surface, a length of 5.3 meters, and a width of 2.2 to 2.3 meters. The depth from the pit mouth to the pit bottom is 1.4 meters to 1.68 meters, the pit bottom is 5 meters long and 2 meters wide to 2.1 meters wide. The bottom of the pit is high in the southwest and low in the northeast. The pit is filled with yellow five-flower soil, and the filling soil has been rammed. According to the stacking and stacking conditions when they were unearthed, the relics in the pit can be divided into three layers: upper, middle and lower. The lower layer contains a large amount of plant ashes, charcoal scraps, small bronze objects, bronze animal faces, bronze branches, jade objects and a large number of sea shells. The middle layer mainly contains large bronze objects, such as large standing figures, car-shaped objects, and large human faces. Statues, human heads, tree trunks, tree bases, statues, Yi, etc. The upper deposits are mainly composed of more than 60 ivory tusks.
Such a clear layering situation shows that there is obviously a certain order in the placement of relics. Compared with Pit No. 1, this pit is about 3100 years old, which is later than Pit No. 1. The unearthed relics are much richer in both type and quantity than in Pit No. 1. More than 1,300 relics were unearthed, including 735 bronzes, 61 golds, 486 jades, ivory, etc., and more than 4,600 seashells. . Among them, large bronze standing human statues, large bronze human masks, bronze sacred trees, etc. are not found in Pit No. 1. The unearthing of this batch of cultural relics further reflects the sacrificial rules and content of the ancient Shu people. It also demonstrates the bronze cultural level and bronze art characteristics of the ancient Shu people. It provides a basis for studying the era of sacrificial pits and the politics and economy of ancient Shu culture. , art, metallurgy, religion, etiquette, etc., providing important information. However, what is puzzling is that most of the relics in the pit have been damaged, mutilated, or have been specially treated. For example, a bronze standing figure is folded into two parts at the waist. The upper body is located in the middle of the pit, and the lower body is located in the northwest of the pit, pressed by a bronze tree base. Bronze vessels such as Zun, Lei and Yi are mainly located in the southeast and northeast corners of the pit. Most of the vessels are painted vermilion on the outside and contain seashells and jade objects inside. A bronze animal face was placed in the northwest corner of the pit, accompanied by a large number of sea shells. Bronze human heads and bronze human faces are mainly distributed around the pit, and some of the heads also contain a lot of seashells. The heads and faces were partially damaged and burned, especially the human faces, which were mostly damaged or burned. Ivory and bone vessels also had obvious signs of being burned, and some jade vessels were burned and cracked. Some experts speculate that most of the relics were intentionally damaged when people performed some kind of ceremony before entering the pit, and a small number were broken when ramming the earth. From July to September 1986, two large sacrificial pits were discovered one after another, and more than 4,000 fine cultural relics were discovered, which shocked the world.
In 1986, a large number of relics and complex stratigraphic superposition relationships were unearthed. Based on the excavation materials of this year, some archaeological researchers began to attempt to stage the Sanxingdui site. It was also in 1986 that two rectangular artifact pits containing rich treasures were accidentally revealed. The discovery of a large number of metal artifacts contained in them attracted the attention of academic circles at home and abroad to the ancient Shu civilization in southwest China. At the same time as the large-scale excavation of the Sanxingdui site, the Twelve Bridges site in Chengdu was excavated from 1985 to 1987. The cultural features of the lowest layer of the site are the same as the latest remains of the Sanxingdui site, providing clues to the whereabouts of the Sanxingdui culture. Important material.
Starting in 1990, the exploration of Sanxingdui culture and civilization extended from the Chengdu Plain to the eastern Chongqing and southern Shaanxi regions. Due to the preliminary revelation of the Neolithic culture in the Sichuan Basin that preceded the Sanxingdui culture, and the discovery of many ancient city sites from the Longshan period and several remains from the transitional stage from the Neolithic culture to the Sanxingdui culture, it has provided a basis for in-depth research on the Sanxingdui civilization. Provides a broader perspective.
Facing the Sanxingdui Civilization, Tong Enzheng, director of the Sichuan University Museum and archaeologist, said with great excitement: "This is simply a miracle!" Jessica Rosen, chief Chinese archaeologist at the British Museum in London, also said He admired from the bottom of his heart: "These discoveries now seem to be more extraordinary than the famous Chinese Terracotta Warriors and Horses." Hong Kong's "Wen Wei Po" reported: "It is older and more numerous than the cultural relics in Mawangdui, Hunan, and its historical value and artistic value The value is even higher, comparable to the Banpo ruins in Xi’an!”
On June 13, 2015, a reporter from Sichuan News Network learned that there was a new discovery in the Sanxingdui archeology in Guanghan, and a section suspected to be the North City Wall was discovered! , coupled with the previously discovered east-west and south-west city walls, the Sanxingdui ancient city circle has initially appeared. In addition, there are three tombs under the city wall. The human bones in the middle tomb are complete and fingers can be seen. They are said to be Neolithic human bones, earlier than the Shang and Zhou city walls.