At present, with the progress of archaeological work, among the six newly discovered pits in Sanxingdui, pits 3 to 6 have been cleared.
Pits 7 and 8 are also at the end of the excavation.
Yesterday we saw the no. 8 pit star cultural relic unicorn “pig-nose dragon”, a bronze bird with hollow wings, a few days ago, a bronze statue wearing ivory earrings in No.8 pit finally showed its true face.
It holds a dragon with both hands, and its pointed hat is decorated with antlers, showing the imagination of the ancient Shu people over 3,000 years ago, but also to experts to decoding the mystery of Sanxingdui, bringing new clues.
The dragon holder wearing antlers hat standing portrait is a new shape
On August 10, as an eye shape was extracted on the excavation, the pointed hat holding the staff on the east side of Sanxingdui No.8 pit finally showed a complete silhouette.
Sanxingdui site sacrifice area archaeological team Zhao Hao: this is a no. 8 pit to see a relatively strange image, his hand is not hollow, the hand took a thing we temporarily called the dragon head rod.
The dragon head turns up from below like a U-shaped bend, with the dragon head below and the dragon body above.
Ivory as the decoration on the ears, and even on the pointed hat we see the antlers decoration, are not seen before.
Brand new, but since the bottom of the portrait is still broken, experts speculate that it is most likely an accessory part of a larger bronze ware.
Previously, no. 3 pit unearthed a bird holding a portrait, the portrait holding a phoenix bird shaped rod.
As the cleaning work began, the archaeologists also found some figures on the large bronze altar unearthed in the No.8 pit.
The appearance of more handheld ritual figures provides new clues and enlightenment to experts to decode the facts and predict the sacrificial scene of ancient Shu people more than 3,000 years ago.
Zhao Hao, archaeological team of Sanxingdui Site: After the excavation in 1986, there was a lot of speculation about what Dali was holding in their hands. Some scholars proposed to take ivory or some golden poles.
In this excavation we now have some answers, they seem to take different things, each person hold their own ritual utensils.
According to the introduction, during the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the scepter rarely appeared in the Central Plains, while there was a long tradition of scepter use, especially in the southwest region, which was still used until the Warring States Period.
The addition of exquisite decoration at the head of the staff shows that the ancients in these areas formed their own unique material culture after eclecting it.
Bronze square: abdomen hidden more than 100 jade beads jade pieces most thin 0.5mm
Next, let’s walk into the Sanxingdui Museum Cultural Relics Protection and Restoration Center together. The precious cultural relics excavated in this round are shining again here. A bronze lei unearthed from Pit 8 was discovered by cultural heritage personnel, and hundreds of jade beads and pieces were found inside, with the thinnest being only 0.5mm, with extremely exquisite craftsmanship.
This bronze square Lei was unearthed on June 13th this year from the northeast corner of Pit 8, with a height of 33 centimeters and a width of 18 centimeters. Before its excavation, compared to its neighboring national treasure, the large bronze altar and bronze mythical beast in Pit 8, Fang Lei could be called small and exquisite. Recently, cultural heritage personnel have carried out internal cleaning on it. After only half the process, they have successively taken out jade tubes, beads, and pieces, totaling over a hundred pieces.
In addition, in this small bronze square Lei, cultural preservation personnel also extracted dozens of seashells. Experts introduce that archaeological discoveries indicate that the ancient Shu people of Sanxingdui usually used bronze Lei and other objects as storage vessels, with seashells and jade as the main storage objects. Storing jade beads is relatively rare, and it is even rarer to store jade beads with such a high density.
Zhao Hao from the Archaeological Work Team of the Sanxingdui Site Sacrificial Area: Lei is an obvious wine vessel in the Central Plains region. It is used to hold wine, and here it is clearly used to hold precious things.
Experts say that based on past unearthed cultural relics and excavation experience, the function of these jade beads is relatively easy to determine, and they have been preliminarily confirmed as string decorations. Over 3000 years ago, they may have been used as necklaces or bracelets for ancient Shu people. So, how do these jade beads string together? Experts say that the restoration work requires the discovery of more similar artifacts from other bronze containers in order to potentially unravel the mystery.
The cleaning plan for the treasure of No. 7 Pit Town has taken shape
From 1986 to present, during the nearly 40 year archaeological excavation in Sanxingdui, no text has been found. Therefore, the treasure of Zhenkeng, the “turtle shaped grid shaped vessel” unearthed from Pit 7 earlier, is highly anticipated. At present, it has been two months since the excavation of the “turtle shaped grid shaped device”, and its cleaning plan has already taken shape.
According to experts, the turtle shaped grid shaped artifact discovered in Pit 7 has a unique shape, with the upper and lower copper grids firmly locking a complete jade artifact. It has never been seen before in Chinese bronze age artifacts. However, once discovered, it is considered a “treasure of pit control”, and among all the artifacts discovered in the Sanxingdui, the turtle back shaped grid shaped vessel is most likely to contain text, symbols, or patterns. Therefore, archaeologists are extremely cautious about its cleaning.
Li Haichao from the Archaeological Work Team of the Sanxingdui Site Sacrificial Area: We have always believed that this turtle shaped grid shaped vessel will carry some important information, which can be text, patterns, or other unknown symbols. However, regardless of which type of information exists, as long as this information exists, it undoubtedly is a very important new breakthrough point for us to understand and interpret Sanxingdui.
Before excavation, the upper half of the turtle shaped grid shaped vessel had already been cleaned. After excavation, it was immediately flipped in the laboratory, and archaeologists hope to find the long-awaited symbol information on the relatively well preserved soil and jade surface in the lower half. According to the introduction, it has been.The preliminary cleaning plan roughly follows two cleaning ideas: one is to clean each grid according to the existing layout of the copper grid, but it cannot save the entire picture and is prone to missing important information. The second is to completely open the copper grid and clean it as a whole, but there is deformation at the four corners of the grid, and the connection structure between the faucet and the grid is very complex. How to open it has become the biggest challenge for archaeologists.
Li Haichao from the Archaeological Work Team of the Sanxingdui Site Sacrificial Area: Now we first want to clarify the connection between the dragon head and the grid through methods such as X-ray and non-destructive testing. We are now giving it the maximum and most cautious solution to do it, and although the entire process is very difficult, it is still very worth looking forward to.
(CCTV reporter Zhang Lilei, Guanghan, Xu Rui, Li Dongyang)