Where is Sanxingdui site? Sanxingdui site is a major archaeological project in China, and many valuable cultural relics have been mapped. Sanxingdui site left many puzzles, many of which were deeply attracted by its unique culture. Next, I will show you where Sanxingdui site is.

Where is Sanxingdui Site 1 Sanxingdui Site is located in Sanxingdui Town, Guanghan City, Sichuan Province, on the south bank of Tuojiang River in the north of Chengdu Plain. The site covers an area of about 12 square kilometers, and the core area is Sanxingdui ancient city, covering an area of about 3.6 square kilometers. It is the largest and highest-ranking central site discovered in Xia and Shang Dynasties in Sichuan Basin.

The site was discovered in the late 1920s. David C.Graham, an American scholar in the former museum of West China University, first excavated it in 1934. After the founding of New China, the cultural relics department of Sichuan Province organized archaeological excavations on Sanxingdui site for many times, and found important relics such as city walls, houses, tombs, "sacrificial pits" and kiln sites, and unearthed a large number of precious cultural relics.

Among them, in 1986, 1 No.2 "sacrificial pits" were excavated in the sacrificial area of the site, and more than 1000 precious cultural relics such as bronze statues, bronze portraits, bronze sacred trees, Jin Mianju, gold bars, jade Zhang and ivory were unearthed. Most of the cultural relics have never been seen before, among which bronzes are big heads, especially more than 80 bronze statues are unprecedented heavy objects. These are "shocking"

New Archaeological Discovery of Sanxingdui Site: An Empirical Study on the Pluralism of Chinese Civilization

On March 20th, the progress meeting of the "Archaeological China" major project released the staged achievements of important archaeological discoveries and research at Sanxingdui site in Guanghan, Sichuan.

At present, the archaeological work of Sanxingdui site is in progress, and the six newly discovered "sacrificial pits" have been excavated to the physical level. The important cultural relics include gold-faced chrysanthemum fragments, bird-shaped gold ornaments, gold foils, painted copper head eyes, giant bronze masks, bronze sacred trees, ivory, exquisite tooth carvings, jade cong and jade articles. Has been unearthed.

The new discovery of the "sacrificial pit" in Sanxingdui site will enrich and deepen the understanding of Sanxingdui site and Sanxingdui culture, provide new physical materials for a more comprehensive understanding of Sanxingdui culture and its surrounding culture, especially its historical relationship with the culture of the Central Plains and Jianghan Plain, and study the historical process of multi-integration of Chinese civilization.

Where is Sanxingdui Site? In February 20021March, six sacrificial pits in Sanxingdui Site continued to upgrade, which ignited the enthusiasm of the whole people for archaeology. The exaggerated "Sanxingdui mysterious gold mask" has been turned into an expression pack by netizens, which is all the rage and attracts countless powders.

Sanxingdui became popular overnight because of its rich cultural background. Sanxingdui site is located at the western foot of Longquan Mountain in the north of Chengdu Plain, on the fan-shaped plain formed by the composite alluvial of Tuojiang River and Minjiang River. Duck River in the north and Mamu River in the southwest are ideal areas for agricultural planting.

According to archaeological excavations, Sanxingdui cultural accumulation layer has 16 layer, dating from 5000 to 3000 years ago. Judging from the unearthed cultural relics, this culture is deeply influenced by the Yellow River civilization, the Yangtze River civilization and foreign civilizations. Bronze masks, bronze sacred trees and other bronzes unearthed from Sanxingdui site can be compared with Shang and Zhou bronzes in the Central Plains in quantity and quality. The bronze wares of Sanxingdui adopted a brazing method similar to that of South Asian civilization. This technology was not skillfully used in the Central Plains until the Spring and Autumn Period.

Like Sanxingdui's maverick cultural temperament, its disappearance is also foggy and puzzling.

Old photos unearthed from Sanxingdui site

Earthquake and flood?

Sanxingdui culture came to an abrupt end, and earthquakes and floods may be one of the culprits. Tuojiang River and Minjiang River, which originated in the northwest of Sichuan, have huge water volume, complex water system and strong potential energy. According to meteorological data, the ancient Shu area was in the second and third new ice ages 5000-3500 years ago, with a temperature of 2-3℃ higher than now, a humid climate and abundant rainfall.

What is even more frightening is that the source of Tuojiang River and Minjiang River is located in Longmenshan geological fault zone. This 500-kilometer-long and 70-kilometer-wide fault zone is extremely restless and often causes trouble. Since A.D. 1 169, there have been 25 destructive earthquakes, including 20 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or above on the Richter scale. In the past half century, there have been more than 7 destructive earthquakes 10 in this area.

Historically, earthquakes often occurred in Chengdu Plain. "Hanshu" records: in the third year of Emperor Yan Yuan of Han Dynasty (BC 10), "In the first month of Bingyin, Lushan Mountain in Shu County collapsed and drowned the river; The river went upstream for three days. Naitong. " "Huayang Guozhi" also contains: In the second year of Jincheng Cheng Kang (AD 336), "In winter, the Minshan Mountain collapsed and the river was exhausted." It can be seen that the flood caused by the earthquake in Chengdu Plain is not a case.

Archaeologists found that the eighth accumulation layer of Sanxingdui site has 20-50 cm water-rich sediment, which is usually caused by stagnant flood. This layer is equivalent to the fourth phase of Sanxingdui culture, which is located in the late Shang Dynasty and early Zhou Dynasty, which is consistent with the age of the sacrificial pit in the site. Not only that, Sanxingdui ancient city wall was crossed by Mamu River from southwest to east.

Geological survey shows that the Minjiang River and its tributaries Zagunao River, Yanmengou and Wenzhenggou suffered an earthquake in 1099 BC, which caused landslides to block the river course and caused the water level to skyrocket. Accordingly, experts speculate that under the earthquake, Mamu River was forced to change its course, resulting in the destruction of Sanxingdui culture.

Above _ "Sanxingdui" Bronze Homo erectus

Lightning damage?

The earthquake and flood destroyed Sanxingdui, which seems reasonable, but it is still not perfect. In the sacrificial pit, there are a lot of bone residues and plant ashes, and most of the items in the pit have been damaged, deformed or even semi-melted. It is puzzling that there is no trace of burning smoke in the sacrificial pit. Such destructive power is obviously beyond the reach of earthquakes and floods.

The lack of lightning protection knowledge in ancient times often led to lightning strikes. In traditional ideas, lightning is considered as a punishment from heaven. Frequent lightning strikes have stimulated people's desire to worship the gods, offering sacrifices such as bronzes, ivory and jade. The tall bronze ware became a benign conductor, which triggered lightning strikes again. In the vicious circle of sacrifice-lightning strike-sacrifice, a large number of artifacts are inevitably lost.

Above _ "Sanxingdui" wears a gold mask and has a blue bronze head.

From the meteorological environment, Chengdu Plain is a high-frequency lightning area, which further expands the probability of lightning strike. From August 7, 2065438 12 to 17: 54, there were 9774 lightning strikes in Thundurus, Sichuan, and 2 120 lightning strikes in Thundurus, Chengdu. In July 3, 2065438/day/day/hour, Deyang was struck by lightning for more than 9,000 times, causing personal and property losses.

Even in modern times with lightning protection measures, Sanxingdui, which lacks lightning protection knowledge, will only get worse and worse. Sanxingdui's large building was damaged after being struck by lightning for many times, so the ancient Shu people had to scrap it and move it to the safer Jinsha area, and the cultural relics destroyed by lightning were buried in the sacrificial pit. I'm afraid that a powerful lightning strike forced the ancient Shu people to give up Sanxingdui, where they had lived for many years.

Above _ Sanxingdui bronze vertical mask excavation site

The Shang army destroyed Shu?

Sanxingdui may also be destroyed by war. Sanxingdui ancient city is bigger than Yanshi Mall and Zhengzhou Mall, which shows its strong economic strength. Moreover, the smelting technology of ancient Shu was more advanced than that of Shang Dynasty. In the competition with Shang Dynasty, the ancient Shu kingdom obviously gained the upper hand. In Oracle Bone Inscriptions at the end of Shang Dynasty, there were Oracle Bone Inscriptions about "cutting Qiang and Shu", "complaining about Shu" and "cutting Shu", which showed that Shang Dynasty launched many attacks on ancient Shu.

Under the heavy blow of the Shang army, the ancient Shu kingdom perished. Zheng Yi, a Shi Mao, said frankly: "Duke Tan said,' The country died in a big county and city, but cried in the afterland', and the vassal kept the country and cried in the country, so the cloud said,' The afterland, the country is also'." It shows that dealing with the funeral of national subjugation requires a ceremony of offering sacrifices to the country, and Shang Dynasty is no exception.

The artifacts in the No.1 sacrificial pit of the site are stacked on each other and follow a certain order. First put the jade tools, then put the large bronzes, then pour the burnt bone slag, and finally put the pottery and bronzes. Every cultural relic in the pit is an artifact for sacrifice. Most of these cultural relics were badly damaged, and besides being crushed during burial, there were traces of burning. Jade is weathered or incomplete, and fragments of the same object are distributed in different positions in the pit.

Sunbird Jade Unearthed from Sanxingdui

In ancient times, this tribe believed that sacrificial ceremonies were extremely important, and any damage to gods or utensils was regarded as blasphemy, otherwise it would lead to the abandonment and revenge of gods. The situation in the sacrificial pit is extremely abnormal. The large-scale destruction of cultural relics is not the behavior of aborigines, but must come from foreign conquest.

Archaeologists found at the scene that "Sanxingdui No.1 Sacrificial Pit not only used the sacrificial ceremony, but also burned it and buried it", which was very similar to the sacrificial ceremony in Shang Dynasty. About 3 cubic meters of broken bone fragments were cleared in the pit, probably a group of wizards who died with the gods of the ancient Shu State, in order to prevent the ancient Shu State from continuing to hold sacrifices to the gods. Shang dynasty can use human sacrifice or human sacrifice. Judging from this, the failure of the war with Shang Dynasty may have caused the annihilation of Sanxingdui culture.

Shangsanxingdui bronze mask

The unexpected appearance of Sanxingdui site broke the pattern of China's cultural unification and provided new evidence for the theory of multi-source integration. Compared with grotesque bronzes, the disappearance of Sanxingdui culture has also aroused people's curiosity. The bronze vertical face asked a similar question: "Where am I from, what am I going to do, and where am I going?"

Where is Sanxingdui site? Sanxingdui is the greatest archaeological discovery in the 20th century, because there are various unexplained phenomena in it, which are as mysterious as Mayan civilization. Today, Sanxingdui civilization is just the tip of the iceberg.

But this "corner" is enough to fascinate scientists from all walks of life. In fact, most civilizations have traces to follow, and they can always find the course of development. The biggest feature of Sanxingdui civilization is that it "appears out of thin air" and then "disappears out of thin air", and the cultural elements involved can even extend to Egypt.

But the key question is, how could Sanxingdui people four or five thousand years ago have anything to do with Egyptian civilization thousands of miles away?

The ins and outs of Sanxingdui site

1926, Yan and his son dug a pit to load a water truck. As a result, they came across a slate. After opening it, Yan and his son were shocked, because there were a lot of jade articles lying quietly under the slate.

At that time, the news was blocked, so it did not attract much attention from all walks of life. Until 193 1, some jade articles flowed into the hands of cultural relics experts. After some textual research, experts believe that these jade articles belong to the Shang and Zhou Dynasties.

1934, the relevant departments gathered manpower and began to dig the bottom of the ditch where Yan's father and son found jade. After 10 days, about 600 antiquities were excavated.

At that time, the war was raging, so archaeological things didn't get much attention. Time soon came to 1963, and the relevant departments gathered manpower to start the archaeological work of Sanxingdui again, and some cultural relics were unearthed one after another. However, due to some reasons, the archaeological work of Sanxingdui was once stagnant.

During the period of 1978, several brick factories were built around Sanxingdui site, and the site was damaged to some extent. Two years later, the relevant leaders visited the site again and found a large number of ancient artifacts near the brick factory, so they quickly reported to their superiors.

1980 in may, the relevant departments officially started the excavation of sanxingdui site with permission, and tens of thousands of cultural relics such as pottery, jade and pottery pieces were unearthed.

After technical analysis, experts believe that Sanxingdui culture existed about 4500 years ago 150 ~ 3000 years ago, that is, in the late Neolithic period in the Central Plains, during the Shang Dynasty in Zhixia.

At first, experts thought that Sanxingdui site was a little older, but with further excavation, their knowledge was constantly refreshed, because the unearthed antiquities included ivory, seashells, bronzes, goldware and so on.

For example, these cultural relics, such as bronze sacred tree, bronze vertical mask, gold scepter and bronze sun gear, are all "weird" in terms of elements and production technology!

Why Sanxingdui Site is the greatest archaeological discovery in the 20th century?

1. Advanced manufacturing technology

There are traces of bronze smelting technology, but Sanxingdui culture alone is very strange. Among the bronze relics in China, almost all of them are made of copper-zinc alloy. After all, the smelting technology was limited at that time, and it was not realistic to remove "zinc".

But the bronzes unearthed in Sanxingdui are different. They contain no "zinc". How do they remove "zinc"? Have you mastered some advanced technologies?

The melting point of copper is 1083.4℃. Which material could reach the melting point of copper by burning 4500~3000 years ago?

In addition, among the unearthed bronze sacred trees, the tallest one is 3.96 meters high, with three layers of branches, a dragon at the bottom and nine birds on the branches. From the perspective of manufacturing technology, it includes welding, connection, riveting and socket connection.

Surprisingly, there was no welding process at that time. How did they do it?

Judging from the bronzes unearthed in Sanxingdui, its production technology far exceeded the level of that time. Where did their technology come from?

Sanxingdui site contains many cultures.

Although Sanxingdui site is located in Bashu area of China, it should belong to the broad category of Chinese civilization, but from the cultural relics unearthed from Sanxingdui site, experts are puzzled. What kind of civilization does this belong to?

Ivory and shells

A large number of ivory have been unearthed in Sanxingdui site, but these ivory are bigger than Asian ivory. Could it be African ivory? Sanxingdui civilization developed to Africa as early as 4000 years ago, or was it trade?

If it is not African ivory, where did such a huge ivory come from?

The same is true of shells. Because of the complex terrain in Bashu area, it is incredible to say that Sanxingdui civilization began to trade with other civilizations more than 4000 years ago.

"It is difficult to get through the road, and it is difficult to go to the sky."

So where did these shells come from?

Copper vertical mask

This mask has high nose and deep eyes, prominent cheekbones, wide mouth and big ears with perforated ears. The overall shape is strange, which does not conform to the appearance characteristics of China people at all, but is somewhat similar to those of Europeans and Americans.

If it is a mask with a biological belt, the width is 1.38 m and the height is 0.645 m, how many creatures do you need to wear it?

Golden staff

A golden scepter with a total length of 1.42 m, a diameter of 2.3 cm and a net weight of about 500 g was unearthed in the No.1 sacrificial pit. Its internal staff has long been carbonized, leaving only a layer of gold skin on the outside.

We all know that the symbol of power in Chinese civilization is mostly "Ding". Sanxingdui, on the other hand, dug up a "scepter". The symbols and mysterious patterns on the outer gold skin of the scepter can't be compared with their similar cultures in our history and culture, but they are very related to the three major civilizations of ancient Egypt, ancient Greece and Babylon.

Bronze sun gear

The bronze smelting technology of Sanxingdui is undoubtedly advanced, and the unearthed bronze sun gear is also controversial. From a distance, it looks like the "steering wheel" of some equipment, and the five supporting columns of bronze sun gear are divided into five parts on the excircle. How could people do it 3,000 or 4,000 years ago?

Although most experts think that bronze sun gear is a manifestation of their worship of the sun, there is no reasonable explanation for the phenomenon of "five equal parts".

Bronze sacred tree

Maybe when you see this, you will think that Sanxingdui civilization is all foreign elements. Have other civilizations migrated to Bashu area?

Where's the bronze scared tree?

The overall shape of the bronze sacred tree is very similar to the hibiscus sacred tree in Shan Hai Jing, and the nine birds correspond to the "sun sacred bird". Isn't the dragon under the tree the totem of Chinese civilization?

Huangjing culture

Another feature of Sanxingdui culture is "golden culture". Although the Shang Dynasty also mastered the gold smelting technology, they only made a few pieces at best, but a large number of gold products were unearthed at Sanxingdui site, including gold bars, Jin Mianju, Hu Jin, Zhang Jin, gold leaves and other gold wares 100.

Moreover, from the perspective of technology, the gold products unearthed from Sanxingdui site are complex and exquisite, which is enough to show that gold culture belongs to the mature stage in Sanxingdui civilization.

The key problem is that there is no gold production around Sanxingdui. According to the analysis of modern science and technology, most of this gold comes from Lishui and other places in Yunnan, not only gold, but also other varieties of copper and lead.

So can we assume that Sanxingdui civilization was extremely prosperous and its territory was very vast? Generally speaking, they are a big country.

But why did Sanxingdui civilization suddenly disappear?

What makes people feel goose bumps is how did Sanxingdui civilization develop? Where is its origin?

The most incredible thing is that Sanxingdui civilization, as a highly developed civilization, why didn't characters find in unearthed cultural relics, so how did they communicate? If you expand your imagination, can they communicate with their thoughts?

Their civilization combines many cultural elements, but Bashu area is extremely closed. How did they "jump out"? Or how did things outside "come in"? Coincidentally, Sanxingdui site is also located at 30 degrees north latitude.

Where did they come from? Why did it mysteriously disappear?

Why can their civilization be so advanced?

These mysteries have been puzzling scholars from all walks of life. Because of this mystery, Sanxingdui site is called the greatest archaeological discovery in the 20th century.