Bronze Age sites in southwest China. Located in Nanxing Town, Guanghan, Sichuan. Excavate from 1980. 1 city site was found in the site, and it is believed that its construction date was at the latest in the early Shang Dynasty. It is known that the east wall is 1 100 m long, the south wall is 180 m long and the west wall is 600 m long, which is artificially rammed. Clean up the building base, ash pits, tombs, sacrificial pits, etc. There are three kinds of building foundations: round, square and rectangular, mostly wooden buildings on the ground. Since 193 1, many sacrificial pits have been found here, most of which are buried with jade and bronze. 1986 A large number of bronzes, jades, ivory, shells, pottery and gold wares were unearthed from two large sacrificial pits. The golden staff and mask in the golden ware are beautifully made. In addition to bows, statues, plates and bows, there are portraits of big and small figures, standing figures, dragon climbing cylinders, bronze birds and deer. Among them, the head image of bronze figures is exaggerated and full of local characteristics; The portrait is 2.62 meters high, with big eyes and straight nose, square eyes and big ears, wearing a crown, a left-handed robe and anklets, which is a rare material for studying the physique and clothing of Shu people. The date of the sacrificial pit can be traced back to the end of Shang Dynasty and the beginning of Zhou Dynasty, and it is considered as the relic of Shu people's sacrifice to the natural gods of heaven, earth and mountains.
Sanxingdui: An Unsolved Mystery through the Ages
About three or four kilometers away from Guanghan, Sichuan, there are three loess piles that stand out in the Chengdu Plain, hence the name Sanxingdui. 1929 In the spring, local farmer Yan Daocheng found a beautiful jade pit while digging a ditch next to his house, which opened the prelude to the study of Sanxingdui civilization. 1986, the discovery of two large sacrificial pits in the Shang Dynasty in Sanxingdui, containing thousands of rare treasures, caused a sensation in the world and was hailed as the "ninth wonder" in the world.
Since this month, archaeologists in Sichuan Province have excavated 20 exploration sites within 500 square meters of Sanxingdui site, which is expected to end in March next year. This excavation will provide more detailed information and become a prelude to large-scale research in the next century.
Mystery 1: Where did civilization originate?
The discovery of Sanxingdui pushed the history of ancient Shu to 5000 years ago.
Where does Sanxingdui culture come from? A large number of bronze figures and animals here do not belong to any category of Central Plains bronzes. Incredibly, there is not a word left on the bronze ware.
The unearthed "Sanxingdui Man" has high nose and deep eyes, prominent cheekbones, wide mouth and big ears, and pierced ears. Unlike China people, he looks like a "foreigner". Chen Dean, stationmaster of Sanxingdui Workstation of Sichuan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, said in an interview that Sanxingdui people may come from other continents and Sanxingdui civilization may be a "mixed civilization".
Unsolved Mystery 2: The Lost Ancient Capital
The prosperity of the ancient Shu kingdom lasted 1500 years, and then suddenly disappeared like its appearance. When history is connected again, there is a mysterious gap of more than 2000 years. People have put forward various hypotheses about the demise of the ancient Shu kingdom, but all of them remain on the hypothesis because of insufficient evidence.
Flood said. Sanxingdui site faces the Duck River in the north and Mamu River passes through the city, so some scholars think it is the result of flooding. However, archaeologists did not find any sediment left by the flood in the site.
War theory. Most of the musical instruments found in the site were destroyed or burned in advance, which seems to prove this explanation. But later, it was found that the ages of these instruments were hundreds of years apart.
Migration theory. This statement doesn't need much research, but it still doesn't answer the fundamental question: why do people migrate?
Chengdu Plain is rich in products, fertile soil and mild climate, which seems difficult to be explained by disaster theory. So, what is the real reason why the ancient Shu kingdom disappeared in the long river of history?
Unsolved mystery 3: mysterious musical instrument
There are basically no articles for daily use in a large number of bronzes unearthed in Sanxingdui, and most of them are sacrificial articles. It shows that the primitive religious system of ancient Shu has been relatively complete. These sacrificial objects have different regional cultural characteristics, especially bronze statues and golden staff, which are very close to the world-famous Mayan culture and ancient Egyptian culture. Zhang Jizhong, deputy director of Sanxingdui Museum, believes that a large number of sacrificial articles with different regional characteristics show that Sanxingdui was once a pilgrimage center in the world.
More than 5000 shells were unearthed in the pit, which were identified as coming from the Indian Ocean. Some people say that these seashells are used for trading, and they are the earliest foreign exchange in Sichuan. Others say that they are sacrifices brought by pilgrims. There are more than 60 pieces of ivory, which has aroused scholars' controversy about "native ivory" and "foreign ivory". Incredibly, the ancient Shu state, which is "not connected with Qin Sai", has already had "overseas investment".
Unsolved Mystery 4: Words or Pictures
A priceless treasure-the earliest golden staff in the world-was found in the sacrificial pit. His scepter theory has long been recognized by academic circles, but carving patterns such as fish and arrows have caused a storm.
Sanxingdui has all the necessary elements of civilization of a nation except writing. Scholars have been arguing about this for some time. Shu Wang Shu holds that ancient Shu people "don't know words, have no manners and music", while Huayang Guozhi says that Shu people "have colorful writing".
As to whether the pattern on the golden staff is a picture or a text, people have different opinions. Some people have been trying to decipher it, and some people think that the depicted symbols basically exist alone and cannot express language. However, if we can interpret these patterns, it will greatly promote the mystery of Sanxingdui. There is also a question mark in the writing of Sanxingdui, which is one of its attractions.
Unsolved mystery 5: When will it be revealed?
The cultural relics exhibited in Sanxingdui Museum are the results of 70 years of archaeological excavation. Now the intensive excavation work is 13 excavation.
Chen Dean, the stationmaster of Sanxingdui Workstation, told the reporter that this excavation is concentrated in the center of the ancient city, and it is very likely that the palaces of the ancient Shu State will be discovered. At present, pottery fragments involving dozens of dynasties have been unearthed. 65438+February 17, CCTV will broadcast the excavation live. The archaeologist smiled and said, "We will learn all about it on 17 and 17."
The result is still a mystery. But one thing is certain, the mystery of Sanxingdui will not be uncovered so easily. Within the cultural protection scope of 12 square kilometers, only 7,000 square meters have been excavated. After seeing Sanxingdui, Yu said, "A great civilization should be a bit mysterious. China's cultural record is too clear. Fortunately, there are Sanxingdui. "
A large number of horror treasures that have been sleeping for thousands of years in Sanxing Village, Southwest Xing Town, Guanghan City, Sichuan Basin first appeared in 1929, 1986, and thousands of cultural relics from Pit 1 and Pit 2 were unearthed. Sanxingdui quickly shocked China and foreign countries, as General Zhang Aiping said: "Sleeping for a thousand years is shocking to wake up."
The cultural relics unearthed in Sanxingdui are exquisite to the extreme, just like modern technology. Carl Borg, an internationally renowned archaeologist, said: "Compared with the culture anywhere in the world at the same time, it is too exquisite." As far as bronze is concerned, there is an unexplained mystery: there is no zinc in the bronze composition of Sanxingdui, but zinc is usually associated with lead in nature. How do lead and zinc in these bronzes separate? Sanxingdui bronzes also contain a small amount of phosphorus, which can increase the fluidity and elasticity of bronzes, while contemporary bronzes do not contain phosphorus; Surprisingly, some bronzes in three or five piles, such as the center of the bronze tree base, contain a small amount of calcium (calcium can greatly enhance the strength of the alloy), which is unprecedented in the history of bronze in the world. The above rare ingredients must make people ask: Where did Sanxingdui people come from? Where does their smelting technology come from?
The bronze masks in unearthed cultural relics are extremely strange. Among them, there is a huge bronze vertical mask with a width of 138 cm and a height of 65 cm. Eyebrows are wide and big, nearly 7 cm wide. A pair of eyes is even more amazing. The long and narrow eyeball is columnar, protruding from the orbit as 16 cm, with a hoop in the middle, which seems to be rotatable, much like a modern telescope. His face has a huge aquiline nose, his big mouth sticks up to his ears, and his big ears are like pig grass. There has never been such a monster on the earth, and there has never been such a huge and strange bronze mask in the cultural relics unearthed all over the world. Scholars' explanation is very cautious. They think it has something to do with Can Cong, the early king of ancient Shu. Ancient times: Can Cong's general view. This leads to another mystery: If Can Cong is the ancestor of Shu people, then he should be human. How can he grow mechanical "vertical eyes"? On another vertical mask with a crown, the crown looks like a remote sensing antenna. Is this used to receive the mysterious signal of Tamaki? In ancient history, Du Yu, the king of Shu, fell from the sky, that is, from the sky. Does this mean that the creator of Sanxingdui bronze culture is whisperd?
This statement is not groundless, and the production process of the "Bronze Legion" has an unexplained mystery. Most of these masks have square perforations on both sides, up and down and forehead; These square holes are not cast, but chiseled. It's incredible. 5000-3000 years ago, what tool could cut a hole in such a hard bronze? Even today, high-strength alloy tools should be used.