Master Archaeologist

There are four phases of cultural layers in the Sanxingdui site.

The first stage is the early accumulation, which belongs to the late Neolithic culture, that is, the earliest Neolithic civilization in the Sichuan Basin, which can roughly be compared with the Dawenkou Culture and Yangshao Culture in the Central Plains.

The second period of culture has already entered the early bronze civilization, which is almost the stage when the Xia Dynasty existed.

The third period of culture is the bronze civilization in the middle period. The use of bronze has entered a mature stage, corresponding to the late Xia to early Shang period in the Central Plains.

The fourth period of culture is also the middle period of bronze civilization, corresponding to the period from the middle and late Shang Dynasty to the early Zhou Dynasty!
From the distribution of cultural layers, it can be seen that the Sanxingdui civilization bred in the Sichuan Basin should be a culture developed locally.

Of course, in the process of development, Sanxingdui culture should have communicated and integrated with outside cultures.

In the Sanxingdui site, jade ritual vessels typical of the Yellow River Basin culture have been found, as well as pottery styles from the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

However, because Shu is far away from the Central Plains, it is also a basin surrounded by mountains.

Therefore, the culture developed in Shu is more independent than the cultural independence of the Yellow River Basin and the Yangtze River Basin!
The most distinctive features are the bronze statues unearthed from the Sanxingdui site.

The "faces" on these bronze figures are basically quite different from the human figures in the Central Plains culture.

So much so that many modern netizens once believed that the Sanxingdui site was left by aliens.

That's why their eyes are so big and protruding, they look like aliens.
Of course, this statement is completely nonsense.

Through archaeological discoveries, it is absolutely certain that the Sanxingdui culture is a native culture that originated from the earth.

It is only because they do not have too much intersection with the culture of the Central Plains that they appear to be very different from the cultural relics in the Yellow River Basin.

The Sanxingdui civilization itself is a very unique civilization with unique artifacts.

And this particularity of civilization is mainly manifested in the unprecedented height of art.

Especially the unique and exquisite shapes of some bronze wares and the exquisite casting technology.

This civilization is full of human factors.

On the utensils unearthed in the Central Plains during the same period, people are not the main body, but decorations.

Sanxingdui is different. It takes people as the main body and creates art based on the blueprint, giving full play to the romantic imagination of the ancient Shu Kingdom.

At that time, the Central Plains was dominated by authoritarian politics and royal politics.

The political system of the ancient Shu Kingdom was different. The dominant theocracy was stronger, and religion was used to maintain the operation of the country. Therefore, the bronze Dali Man is likely to be the image of the highest-level priest or wizard.

Because they are priests or wizards, they should show some characteristics of "non-ordinary people" in terms of image.

Therefore, when these bronze figures were made, they incorporated the romance of many ancient Shu people. They exaggerated the images of these "priests" with very large and protruding eyes, which is a kind of abstract art.

...

It's not that people from the ancient Shu Kingdom really looked like this.

This can actually be seen in some figures and murals from the late Neolithic period in Europe to the early bronze culture.

The sculptures and portraits of some early European cultures and nations are also very abstract, so abstract that they look more like toads than people.
This kind of "abstract art" has been widely present in early civilizations in various regions of the world, especially the more religious civilizations, the more abstract they become.

Perhaps the people of the ancient Shu Kingdom were indeed a group of people with relatively large eyes, but they only had a pair of beautiful "big eyes", not to the extent of goldfish eyes.

The reason why the Sanxingdui ruins are definitely regarded as the ruins of the Chinese culture is an inseparable part of the Chinese civilization.

It is because, although Sanxingdui culture developed independently in Shu, its culture itself has accepted the integration of many other branches of Chinese culture.

Its main cultural factors are local, and it has continuously absorbed a large number of foreign cultural factors.

Its bronze casting technology originated from the core civilization areas from Erlitou to Yinxu in the Central Plains during the Xia and Shang dynasties.

Secondly, it also absorbed production techniques such as planting rice and building city walls from the Shijiahe Culture in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.

Some jade cong and cone-shaped vessels are almost similar to those unearthed in Liangzhu, which is enough to judge that Sanxingdui was also influenced by Liangzhu culture.

The Qijia culture in the Gansu and Qinghai regions of the northwest also had a considerable impact on the final formation of the Sanxingdui culture.

It can be said that openness and inclusiveness are the most prominent characteristics of Sanxingdui culture!
Although this is a local culture that developed in Shu, it has not been separated from the influence of Chinese civilization from the beginning to the end!

We might as well understand it this way.

Sanxingdui is not a civilization that follows the rules. It is like a naughty child with a lot of personality.

Although the Central Plains region and the Yin and Shang dynasties had a great influence on it, it did not fully accept these cultures, but selectively absorbed them, and then carried out reforms and innovations according to its own wishes, thus forming its own cultural characteristics .

It is also the "rebellion" of Sanxingdui culture that has left such a splendid cultural relic!
Over the past hundred years, the excavation of the Sanxingdui site has been carried out intermittently.

Although, in the Sanxingdui Museum established locally, the cultural relics on display are basically from the Shang Dynasty.

But this does not mean that the Shang Dynasty more than 3000 years ago was the origin of the Sanxingdui civilization.

In fact, the late Shang Dynasty was the prosperous period of the Sanxingdui site and the Sanxingdui civilization, or the peak period.

After this peak, the Sanxingdui culture suddenly and mysteriously disappeared about 2800 years ago.

As for how the Sanxingdui culture perished, archaeologists currently have various theories and theories, but it is temporarily impossible to determine the reason.

But for the past of Sanxingdui culture, the research is almost done.

The Sanxingdui culture, especially the Sanxingdui site, not only covers the short few hundred years of the Shang Dynasty, but also lasts for a very long time.

The Baodun culture in the late Neolithic age around 4600 years ago is the origin of the early ancient Shu civilization represented by the Sanxingdui culture.

From then until the late Shu culture of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, which was more than 2600 years ago, lasted for more than 2000 years.

In the past 2000 years, the ancient Shu civilization and its predecessors were conceived, born, developed, brilliant and then declined here, which is basically a complete process of human development.

Except for how the Sanxingdui culture suddenly disappeared between 2600 and 2800 years ago, and then transitioned to the late Shu culture, the academic circles have not yet had a definite conclusion.

Other contexts about Sanxingdui culture are basically clear.

And now, Chen Han led seven or eight archaeological researchers from the Institute of Archaeology, Academy of Social Sciences, on a plane to Sichuan, and will participate in the great mission of unearthing the "past" of Sanxingdui civilization!

Master Archaeologist