Sanxingdui Treasures Exhibited in the United States Mysterious Beauty Caused a Strong Reaction
Release Time: 2017-10-25
Sun Bird of Shang and Zhou Dynasties, Unearthed from the Jinsha Site of China
The Bowers Museum has been dedicated to presenting the latest collection to highlight the magnificent treasures from all over the world. Recently, the theme exhibition "China's Lost Civilization: The Mystery of Sanxingdui", which is jointly organized by the museum and the Sichuan Provincial Cultural Heritage Administration, is continuing to showcase more than 120 pieces from China's Sanxingdui and Jinsha archaeological sites for the majority of collectors and art lovers to have an in-depth understanding of the ancient civilization mystery 3,200 years ago. On Mar. 15, 2015 the exhibition will move to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. It is worth mentioning that the Sanxingdui Site is identified as one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of mankind so far by many experts and scholars, known as the "9th Wonder of the World". It evidences that the Yangtze River Basin is also a cradle of Chinese civilization as jus the Yellow River Basin, known as the "source of the Yangtze River civilization."
In the summer of 1986, the construction workers accidentally discovered an exquisite jadeware about 24 miles (about 38.6 km) outside of Chengdu, Sichuan Province. With the continuous advancement of archaeological work, the world famous Sanxingdui Site gradually showed with all kinds of rare treasures, including 200 ancient jade wares, weapons, burned animal remains, more than 60 pieces of ivory, huge bronze wares and real-size bronze statues. It is regrettable that most of the objects buried in the two pits have been intentionally destroyed. This accidental discovery became one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the 20th century, which led scholars to rewrite early Chinese history. It is reported that the unearthed cultural relics have a long history traced back to around B.C. 1200. They belong to the same period of the Yellow River Basin, the cradle of the Chinese civilization (located 745 miles north of the Central Plains region) and readjusted the weight of the Yangtze River Basin and the Yellow River Basin.
A large number of bronze wares unearthed at the Sanxingdui Site, belonging to the Shang Dynasty, supported the highly developed period. One of the cast bronze ware not only larger than the one we have seen before, but also in a more peculiar shape. The largest three masks are bronze man's face with extremely exaggerated features, including the wind ears, columnar convex eyes or gorgeous ornaments. Other bronze ware still retains paint marks or gold-plated appearance. It is understood that Sanxingdui culture did not leave any written record or human remain, but just disappeared about 350 years later.
In 2001, some other traces of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties were found in Chengdu Jinsha Site, which are expected to clue why the Sanxingdui culture disappeared. The site has been found with a sacrifice area, a palace area, a tomb area, a resident living area and other different regions. According to research, Jinsha Site is another capital of the ancient Shu culture after the Sanxingdui civilization, and also the Chengdu's political, economic and cultural center 3,000 years ago.
