The Latest Data on the Sanxingdui Culture

Abstract

This article presents the data on the excavation at the Sanxingdui site in the the field season of 2021. Six more sacrificial pits ranging in size from 3.5 to 19 sq. m were added to two pits investigated in 1986. The inventory discovered inside is of exceptional wealth and includes bronze and gold masks, ritual vessels, and other cultic objects (altar, solar “wheel,” fragments of bronze trees). As a rule, metal objects were covered with the layer of elephant tusks. New discoveries include fragments of silk fabric and small wooden chest painted on both sides with cinnabar. Excavations were conducted at highest technological level and clearly manifest big success of Chinese science in the post-pandemic period, which is of great ideological importance. Publication of new archaeological evidence fostered the resumption of scholarly discussions about the functions of the excavated pits and origin of the Sanxingdui culture in general. According to authoritative opinion of Dr. Wang Wei, there should be a temple or other sacred structure, not yet found by archaeologists, next to the pits. As for the cultural genesis of the Sanxingdui culture, the majority of Chinese archaeologists attribute it to the state (culture, ethnos, or civilization) of Ancient Shu located in Sichuan. Precisely Sanxingdui represents the summit in the development of this culture (civilization, ethnos); nothing of the kind has appeared either before or after Sanxingdui. Therefore, the Shu culture, as well as Shang, Liangzhu, and others, can be considered as only one of possible components of the Sanxingdui complex, but hardly the most important. Establishing the origins of this unique phenomenon in the ancient history of China will require new evidence and new methods of its study.