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Holly Chik

Archaeologists continuing their hunt in the remarkable Sanxingdui ruins in southwest China have written about unearthing more than 10,000 relics and artefacts from two new pits in recent years.
The latest discoveries were found buried under hundreds of elephant tusks, according to details published in the journal Sichuan Cultural Relics last month.
The dazzling finds ranged from gold masks, jade and sea shells, to bronze heads, vessels and statues.
One of the excavation sites was the largest burial pit among eight in what is called the Sanxingdui “ritual area”. Measuring 19 square metres (205 sq ft) and dating to between 1117BC and 1015BC, the pit contained bronze vessels featuring characteristics peculiar to the late Shang dynasty. The Bronze Age dynasty was also the first Chinese royal line backed by historical evidence.

As many as 7,400 ceremonial objects were recovered here, remnants of a little-known culture that flourished more than 3,000 years ago.
The Sanxingdui or “three star mound” site was first discovered in the 1920s. The ancient city is believed to have been at the heart of the mysterious Shu kingdom from 4,500 years ago, one of the many smaller kingdoms surrounding central China’s Shang dynasty.
No written records have been found to explain where these ancient Shu people came from or the significance of the relics they left behind.
In 1986, Sanxingdui gained wide attention after advanced bronze, gold and jadeware in previously unknown styles were discovered in the pits, suggesting a high degree of economic prosperity and technological skills.


The site in Guanghan, Sichuan province, was excavated between 2020 and 2022 by researchers from the Sichuan Province Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and Peking University.
The second pit was on a riverbank, where scientists from the Sichuan institute and Shanghai University unearthed around 2,700 artefacts in 2021.
Their finds included “precious cultural relics” made of bronze, including a kneeling figure holding a ritual vessel on the head, a large mask, an altar, a sacred tree and a round-mouthed square vessel.
Of at least four gold masks discovered, one was 20cm (8 inches) wide and attached to a bronze head. The other masks were stand-alone but thought to have originally also been attached to bronze heads.
Around 420 items crafted from gold foil were unearthed. While most were crumpled, the researchers were able to identify some as ornaments – shaped as fish, feathers or birds – as well as a long belt.
Many of the large gold artefacts, including the gold masks, showed signs of damage, the scientists said, while some gold foil items had been subjected to high temperatures, resulting in melting and deformation.
Almost 5,000 bronze items were among the relics recovered from the largest pit, including ritual vessels, containers, sacred tree branches, sculptures of heads, masks, human and animal figurines, altars and eye-shaped ornaments.
One large, detailed altar was found set up on a square base, on which sat a platform adorned with 13 bronze figures. Four of them were kneeling figures with double-horned crowns, four were seated and had fangs and pointed ears, while four larger figures held a frame on their shoulders. The last figure was a single crowned person at the centre, kneeling on a hill-like raised platform.
In the smaller pit, a kneeling figure was found with a well-decorated vessel on his head.
The researchers said that in the large pit, they also found a doglike divine beast artefact with a small figure standing on its head, which could be assembled into a single artefact with the figure from the smaller pit.

Measuring 1.15 metres, the kneeling figure had thick eyebrows, large eyes and a high-bridged nose with broad nostrils. The iconic facial features also included a wide mouth, square jaw and large ears.
The figure had a straight torso with arms raised in front, the hands clasped as if holding an object, which remains undiscovered.
In the large pit, the archaeologists found nearly 400 pieces of elephant tusk, with the longest measuring 1.4 metres. Nearly half of them were longer than 50cm.
Most of the tusks were found to have been placed intact into the pit – only a small number were cut into shorter segments. Some of the pieces showed blackish-brown, apparent burn marks.
The 100 pieces of ivory found in the other pit were also found to have been placed whole, while some were burned. The scientists said the burial showed a general pattern of keeping larger bronze items and ivory higher up, while smaller artefacts were positioned lower.

“The ancient community placed ivory pieces on top of bronze artefacts, with an intention to fully conceal the bronze items below. Although they are positioned without a strict order, the tusks are generally organised at the same level so that none protrude,” the teams wrote in the paper published last month.
The discovery also included 660 jade pieces, including a rectangular base crafted from a single piece of jade about the size of a human hand and adorned with carvings.
The carvings included the face of a beast that closely resembled the bronze beast artefacts found in a Sanxingdui pit excavated in 1986, as well as sacred trees. Two sides had carvings of the phoenix accompanied by shells on the sides.
The team also found meticulously polished jade ceremonial blades, jade discs in colours such as green and white, as well as chisels with burn marks.


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A platform adorned with 13 bronze figures is among the dazzling relics recovered from the Sanxingdui pits between 2020 and 2022. Photo: Sichuan Cultural Relics

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One of almost 5,000 bronze items recovered from the largest pit. Photo: Sichuan Cultural Relics

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News

China

Bronze items buried under hundreds of elephant tusks in attempt to ‘fully conceal’, paper by archaeologists behind the find says


Bronze items buried under hundreds of elephant tusks in attempt to ‘fully conceal’, paper by archaeologists behind the find says.


Chinese history

History

Archaeology and palaeontology