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Sanxingdui archaeological new discoveries and new thinking
Huo Wei
Sanxingdui archaeology has experienced nearly a century since 1929. Recently, with the continuous achievement of new results in the archaeological excavation of the 6 newly discovered sacrificial pits in Sanxingdui, the public's attention to sanxingdui archaeology has been heating up, and the academic community has also restarted new observations and discussions on academic issues related to Sanxingdui archaeology. Although the excavation of a new round of sacrifice pits in Sanxingdui is still continuing, from the artifacts and various relics and phenomena unearthed so far, we can also strongly feel the visual impact brought to us by Sanxingdui, and thus set off a new "brainstorming". With my limited understanding of the newly discovered archaeological remains of Sanxingdui, I would like to put forward a few new thoughts for discussion.
Sanxingdui bronze animal face (courtesy of Sanxingdui Museum)
Sanxingdui civilization was born in the land of China, which is an outstanding contribution of the ancient Shu civilization to Chinese civilization
One of the most important topics that has aroused heated discussion in all walks of life, that is, the inherent attributes of sanxingdui civilization, is it a foreign civilization? Or is it China's indigenous civilization? The most extreme speculations even appeared such as "Sanxingdui is a civilization created by aliens" and "Sanxingdui sacrifice pit is the product of the war between foreign religious theology and indigenous civilizations". I think that the most important reason for these discussions about Sanxingdui from different levels, different fields and even all walks of life is that the archaeological phenomena such as gold masks, bronze statues and a large number of ivory buried in the pit (including the cultural relics excavated from the No. 1 and No. 2 sacrifice pits in 1986) are all fresh in people's existing "knowledge maps", especially the bronze age relics excavated in other parts of China seem to be very different in their overall appearance.
The newly excavated artifacts of the Sanxingdui Sacrifice Pit provide us with some new observation points.
First of all, in one of the pits, several bronze statues were unearthed in groups, and a uniquely shaped "kneeling figure of the top figure" was also unearthed. Similar phenomena have also been found in the No. 1 and No. 2 sacrifice pits, but the shape and combination of bronze statues are different, and the size and shape of the kneeling portraits of the top statues are also different, but in terms of their overall cultural characteristics, they are in the same line. These groups of bronze statues should obviously be used as "ceremonial vessels" in sanxingdui bronzes as sacrificial occasions, which is essentially no different from the bronze culture of the Central Plains Shang Zhou Dynasty, which combined bronze containers such as dings and gui as ritual vessels for sacrifice. The newly unearthed statue of the kneeling figure of the top statue also vividly shows the scene of the bronze statue of such a container in the Sanxingdui civilization being "worshiped by the top", indicating that although the sanxingdui does not use the combination of bronze ding and gui, the status of the bronze statue is very prominent.
Many professional workers engaged in metallurgical archaeology have further noticed that the bronze statues unearthed before and after the Sanxingdui sacrifice pit, from the perspective of production technology, use the same casting method as the Central Plains bronzes, that is, the "mud module casting method", rather than the popular "lost wax method" in the West; in some ornaments and decorative patterns, in addition to imitating the bronzes of the Central Plains system, they are similar to the bronzes in Hubei, Hunan and other places in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, such as the formation of birds, sheep heads (bull heads) on the surface of the bronze body. Taking the bronze ridge as a model place, etc., all show the exchange and connection between Sanxingdui and the bronze civilization in the Yellow River and Yangtze River Basin, and even do not rule out that the bronze craft of Sanxingdui is directly influenced by the Jingchu region in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.
Secondly, the jade system of Sanxingdui, including the yazhang, jade bi and other artifacts excavated in the past, belongs to the same system as the prehistoric jade in the Yellow River and Yangtze River basins, and is an important part of China's prehistoric jade culture, which is basically missing in Western civilization, and its cultural "background color" is very different. Sanxingdui's yazhang has been popular in the Central Plains Erlitou and Erligang culture, and later began to be made and used in most of the Chinese mainland, and is one of the "six ritual jade instruments" of sacrifice, so it can be considered that Sanxingdui is an important link in the chain of prehistory in China and the Circulation of Yazhang in the Xia, Shang and Wednesday dynasties.
Third, the existence of silk was confirmed in the newly excavated sacrificial pit in Sanxingdui, including the remnants of silk and plant silk proteins mixed in the soil. As we all know, silk is a great contribution of Chinese civilization to world civilization, as early as the Central Plains and the lower Yangtze River in the Neolithic sites, silkworm cocoons or silkworm pottery, stone models have been found. In the Han Dynasty, Chengdu was called "Jincheng", and it was famous for its silk and brocade exported to home and abroad. The newly discovered silk of Sanxingdui proves that the history of silkworm weaving on the ancient Shu land can be traced back to at least the Sanxingdui era in the late Shang Dynasty. After carefully observing the bronze statues unearthed in Sanxingdui wearing ornaments on three layers of clothing, many scholars have suggested that the king or god king, who had the supreme status in Sanxingdui at that time, may have been dressed in brocade robes and served with silk. Judging from the phenomenon of many silk-using relics found in Sanxingdui this time, this possibility should be very large. The word "Shu" in the Shang and Zhou oracle bones, the upper is longitudinal, the lower is next to the word "worm", which is likely to retain the historical memory of ancient Shu from another perspective, which has both the traces of the legend of the Shu people's "longitudinal eye" and the traces of the ancient custom of cultivating silkworms by the Shu people.
In the literature, two ancient writing systems that are closely related to the Sanxingdui civilization can also be seen. One is the central plains cultural system, there is a record of "Shu" in the Western Zhou Dynasty, the "Shangshu Mu Oath" records that the King of Zhou Wu cut down the Silk, and there were Shu people participating in the war in the "Eight Kingdoms of Western Turkey". The "History of the Five Emperors" records that when Shu was first provoked by the emperor, the Yellow Emperor and his wife Changyi, the son of Changyi, married the "daughter of the Shushan clan", descended to Ruoshui, and later sealed her branch to Shu. The other is the Bashu cultural system, the Shu King Benji, Huayang Guozhi all record that the ancient Shu period has experienced silkworm bushes, Bai Guan, Yu Yu, Du Yu, enlightened generations, from the founding of the silkworm cong clan, to the enlightenment of the Qin dynasty (316 BC), although the ancient Shu kings are far away from the Central Plains Dynasty, by the Central Plains princes regarded as the "barbarian tribe" of "vertebral knots", but also a family of their own, if looming always maintain a connection with the Central Plains Dynasty, neither foreign visitors, nor foreign tribes.
In summary, there is sufficient evidence that the Sanxingdui civilization was born in the land of China and is an outstanding contribution of the ancient Shu civilization to the Chinese civilization. As General Secretary Xi Jinping said, archaeological discoveries have "extended the historical axis, enhanced historical credibility, enriched historical connotations, and activated historical scenes", and the new archaeological discoveries of Sanxingdui once again prove that the formation process of Chinese civilization is a long historical river from "pluralism" to "one". Countless local regional civilizations with unique styles and independent creations like Sanxingdui eventually merged into the Central Plains civilization system and brought many dynamic and creative civilization factors to chinese civilization, which made the ancient Chinese civilization enduring and endless. To understand "oneness", we must first recognize "diversity", Sanxingdui's archaeological findings show that she has the same "cultural genes" as the Central Plains culture, but also has its colorful and original cultural appearance, thus writing a colorful chapter for the chinese Bronze Age, which is of landmark significance in the development of ancient civilization in the world.
Sanxingdui bronze bird statue (courtesy of Sanxingdui Museum)
Recreate scenes of deity sacrifices and gold worship
Among the latest archaeological discoveries of the Sanxingdui Sacrifice Pit, what is particularly striking is that there are new human figures and new artifacts unearthed, and such bronzes reflect that they are related to the sacrifice of the gods. In addition to the above-mentioned kneeling figure, in the same sacrificial pit, there is another figure with a sacrifice scene on the head; this person holds the bottom of the altar with both hands upwards, and another person on the altar lies on his back, with his legs hanging down, which is likely to reflect a mysterious sacrifice scene, and the full picture can only be seen after the specific details are unearthed as a whole. In another sacrificial pit, a platform with pillars was unearthed, and under the platform was a tall sacred beast, on which there were several figures of people who were holding sacrifices. Bronzes, which are more similar to such artifacts, have been excavated in the past in the No. 2 sacrifice pit, and their basic feature is that the lowest level is a divine beast, topped with a multi-layer altar; on each layer of altars there are groups of sacrificial figures in parallel, wearing high crowns and robes, some holding rod-shaped curved artifacts in their hands, and some making a posture with their hands, not clinging to any utensils. This kind of bronze did not appear in the Central Plains bronze culture system in the past, and should be a unique creation in the Sanxingdui bronze civilization.
Among the gold artifacts are both the gold masks that were previously known and the gold ornaments that have been expanded into a "half-bird, half-human" gold ornament that has not been seen in the past. This was accompanied by a large number of gold circular ornaments scattered in the pit, on which a circular perforation in the center can be clearly observed, which speculates that it could have been connected or threaded together through this small hole. As for the relationship between these ornaments, it is quite difficult to guess, and their original state can probably only be glimpsed through careful stitching and restoration in the laboratory in the later period. In the past, gold masks covering the surface of bronze heads, "scepters" and other artifacts made of gold were also found in the No. 1 and No. 2 sacrifice pits, and later in the Chengdu Jinsha site, gold masks similar to Sanxingdui were also found, gold belts with bird, arrow, and human face patterns, "sun god bird" ornaments and frog-shaped ornaments, and a large number of leaf-shaped and fish-shaped gold ornaments with perforations, indicating the commonality of cultural characteristics between the two, and also one of the important bases for people to regard the archaeological culture of Jinsha sites as one of the subsequent cultures of Sanxingdui. The above archaeological findings prove that Sanxingdui and Jinsha are highly respected for gold products, and both identify gold as symbols of preciousness, rank and authority. This is very similar to many archaeological cultures in the world's ancient civilizations that valued gold. For example, in the Cretan and Mycenaean cultures of the ancient period in the West, there was a long tradition of making wine vessels and jewelry from gold. Especially in the Eurasian steppe culture, the nomadic "Scythians" (also known as "Cypriots" in ancient Chinese history) were very popular in the use of gold products in clothing, ornaments, harnesses, and utensils. Although a large number of gold products have also been found in the archaeology of the Three Dynasties of The Xia and Shang Dynasties in China, on the whole, compared with jade and bronze, they still do not occupy the mainstream. The archaeological phenomenon that both Sanxingdui and Sands value gold has undoubtedly changed the traditional concepts of people in the past, and we need to compare and study them from a new and global perspective.
Copper bell excavated from No. 7 Sacrifice Pit at Sanxingdui Site (Archaeological Research on Cultural Relics of Sichuan Province)
New reflections on the ritual behavior of Sanxingdui
The discovery of the six sacrificial pits of Sanxingdui also puts forward new thinking for the discussion of the sacrifice behavior of Sanxingdui. In fact, the excavation of the Sanxingdui sacrifice pit was unveiled as early as 1929, revealing a mysterious corner of the Sanxingdui civilization. In 1929, when the father and son of Yan Daocheng, a farmer in Guanghan Moon Bay, were expanding the canal in their residential "Yan family yard", they inadvertently dug up a pile of jade tools buried in a pit, as well as many pieces of pottery that had been broken. The most interesting phenomenon is that in this pit of jade tools, there is also a set of stone bi stacked on top of each other from large to small, and their use has aroused many speculations. Some people say that they may be similar to the "legal codes" in the primitive cultures of the South Pacific and the South Island Islands that use large stone circles as measuring instruments; some people think that they may be "stone bi" related to sacrifices according to the records of "worshiping the heavens with bi" in ancient Chinese books. Now it seems that the latter is clearly more reasonable. Judging from the nature of this artifact pit, it is likely that Bunsen is a "sacrificial pit", but the location, object and type of buried artifacts (no gold, bronze, ivory, etc. were found) are different from the 8 sacrificial pits found later, and the level and specifications of the sacrifices are also different. If this speculation is correct, it shows that the Sanxingdui civilization has a long-formed tradition of sacrifice, with a whole set of rituals and procedures, which is of great significance in the ritual system of bronze age worship and belief mixed with man and god. Through these strange and mysterious artifacts and their burial methods, it is possible to form an atmosphere that triggers people to have a psychedelic atmosphere, forming a mysterious ritual of worshiping heaven and earth and communicating with the gods (wizards, and possibly also representatives of royal power).
Secondly, are the 8 sacrificial pits discovered in Sanxingdui a remnant of a one-time sacrifice, or are they the result of multiple and continuous sacrifices? As early as 1986, after the excavation of the two sacrificial pits, Mr. Chen De'an, who was in charge of the archaeological excavation work at the time, observed that although the artifacts of the two sacrificial pits were the same in basic cultural appearance, they may still belong to two periods, dating from each other by about 100 years, and thus speculated that "the artifacts of the two pits are the utensils used in the two temples of different ages". The C14 dating data of the newly excavated No. 4 sacrificial pit are mostly concentrated in the era range of 3148-2966, which also belongs to the late Yin Ruins, and is the same age as the No. 1 and No. 2 sacrificial pits. Does this mean that the six newly discovered sacrificial pits, like pits No. 1 and No. 2, are also remnants of sacrificial activities held in a period that is roughly not far apart?
Mr. Chen De'an believes that these artifacts excavated from sanxingdui No. 1 and No. 2 sacrifice pits are constantly added after a long period of use, and finally a rich set of sacrificial vessels is formed, and their initial offering place may be within the Zongmiao Temple, which originally belonged to the Zongmiao Instrument. Later, due to the destruction of the Jongmyo Temple, these "Jongmyo Heavy Instruments" were buried in the pit separately. If according to this speculation, the original Zongmiao temple was the "first scene" of sacrifice, and the sacrifice pit seen now is the "second scene" where these heavy objects were buried in the pit after the destruction of the Zongmiao Temple. If this is true, then are the six newly discovered sacrificial pits from different temples, or are they from the same temple as pits 1 and 2? It's also worth noting.
Third, why was the temple destroyed? What is the reason for the formation of the sacrificial pit? In the past, there were two speculations on this issue: one was the invasion of the enemy country and the destruction of the temple; the other was the transfer of power within the ruling class due to power struggle, that is, the "change of dynasty". From a phenomenological point of view, the artifacts in these pits are not thrown into the pits in a disorderly manner, but buried in a certain order, before being buried in the pits, it seems that some kind of ritual was also held, and a large number of sacrifices were also used in the process of burial, which was burned together with the heavy instruments of the Temple, indicating that these Temple utensils also held some kind of sacrifice ceremony in the process of being smashed and burned, which did not look like the work of foreign enemies, so Chen De'an advocated "internal power struggle theory". But the biggest challenge facing this hypothesis right now is: If it is an internal power shift, will it be necessary to bury all these precious kingdomal artifacts—gold, ivory, jade, and bronze?' If it is a one-time "sacrifice" act, it can only indicate that a very serious sudden event occurred at this time, such as capital relocation, turmoil, catastrophe, etc.; if it is a multiple "sacrifice" behavior, which constantly consumes a large amount of valuable resources held by the ethnic group and the country, is it the national strength of Sanxingdui that can bear it? The preservation and burial methods of the artifacts in the six newly excavated sacrificial pits may provide new evidence for further unraveling this mystery.
Sanxingdui dome bun (Courtesy of Sanxingdui Museum)
In short, the Sanxingdui archaeological discoveries raise far more problems than they have already solved. With the continuous in-depth development of Sanxingdui archaeology, the Sanxingdui civilization, which has just revealed the tip of the iceberg, will also bring new surprises to the world and write a new chapter for the ancient Shu civilization and Chinese civilization.