Sanxingdui,a Civilization Independent from the Central Plains

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Sanxingdui Site is the ruins of the Bronze Age in the southwest part of China. The location is Nanxing Town of Guanghan, Sichuan. Around 4 kilometers away from Guanghan, three loessial hills abruptly sit on the Sichuan plain. The name of Sanxingdui(Three Star Hills) got its name from its appearance. In the spring of 1929,a peasant named Yan Daocheng found a pit of fancy jade utensils while digging ditches near his house. This led to the discovery of Sanxingdui civilization. Since 193 1, sacrificial ditches were frequently discovered, with jade and bronze utensils inside.

The excavation started from 1980. The relic of a town was discovered. Research found the age of the town to be early Shang Dynasty. The length of the east wall of the town is 1,100 meters, the south wall measured to 180 meters, and the west wall measured to 600 meters. Allof the walls were built by hand. Later, bases of houses, ash pits, mausoleums, and sacrificialpits were discovered. The forms of the bases of houses include round, square, and rectangle.

The houses were mostly wood architectures above the ground. In 1986, two huge sacrificial pits were discovered, and many bronze wares, jade statues, ivory, shells, ceramics, and gold wares were excavated. The time of the sacrificial pits is estimated to be at the end of Shang and beginning of Zhou. The pits are the relics of Sichuan people worshipping all the gods of nature.

The discovery of Sanxingdui was dynamic news worldwide and is regarded as the”ninth miracle”on the globe.

It was a relatively independent cultural system apart from the central area. The discovery validates the authenticity of the recordation of ancient Shu in literature. In the past, peopleassumed that ancient Shu is a relatively isolated place, with no attachment or little communication with the central state. However, the discovery of the Sanxingdui Site argues otherwise.

Shu should have been an important prince state during the Shang and Zhou periods. Although its culture is unique, it still has the same origin with the culture of the central state. The Sanxingdui Site becomes a significant approach when we want to understand the historical and cultural development of Sichuan and even the southwest area.

Where did Sanxingdui culture come from? The numerous bronze figures and animal figures don’t belong to any category of the bronze ware of the central state. It’s inconceivable that not a word was left on the bronze wares. The excavated Sanxingdui figures don’t look like Chinese but rather like “foreigners”with high noses, big eyes, extruding cheekbones, wide mouths, big ears, and holes in the ears. The head of Sanxingdui workstation of Sichuan Cul-tural Relic and Archaeology Institution, Mr. Chen De’ an, thinks that Sanxingdui people migh have come from other continents and Sanxingdui civilization might be a “mixed civilization.”

The prosperity of ancient Shu lasted over 1,500 years and it suddenly disappeared like when it suddenly appeared. When history is recorded again, there is a mysterious gap of over 2,000 years. There are many assumptions on the perdition of ancient Shu, but all of them lack enough evidence and stay assumptions. First there is the flood assumption. The north of Sanxindui Site lies the Yazi River, and Mamu River flows through the city. Thus some scholars think that the civilization was destroyed by the flood. However, achaeologists have not foun sediment layers left by floods at the site. Then there is the war assumption. The utensils andwares in the site were destroyed or burnt prior to excavation and this seems to confirm this explanation. But later it was found that these wares are from different times over hundreds of years. And there is the migration assumption which does not need too much research. But thisassumption does not explain the reason people migrate. Chengdu Plain is rich with good soiland various products. The weather is also mild. It’s hard to justify the calamity assumption and the real reason for the disappearance of ancient Shu in history is still a myth. The contin.

ued discovery of Jinsha Site in 2001 after Sanxingdui might provide a persuasive reference to the myth of Sanxingdui civilization. As experts speculate, Jinsha is the new political center of ancient Shu state after San Xingdui. The Jinsha civilization existed from the later years of the Shang Dynasty to the early years of the Spring and Authumn Period(c.1200-650 BC). In316 BC, two regimes in Suchuan, Ba and Shu, were destroyed by Qin. The ancient Shu civilization started to blend gradually into the Chinese civilization from then.

Among the numerous bronze wares excavated from Sanxingdui，there are seldom daily utensils.The majority is articles for sacrifice.This indicates that the ancient religious system in Shu is already mature.These articles have their unique cultural characteristics and the bronze statues and gold staffs are very close to those of Maya and Egyptian civilizations in form.The deputy curator of Sanxingdui Museum，Mr.Zhang Jizhong，claims that Sanxingdui might have been the center of world pilgrimage due to the numerous sacrificial articles from different regions.Over 5，000 shells were excavated from the pit and were identified to have come from the Indian Ocean.Some scholars think these shells were early foreign exchange currency for trade in Sichuan，while others think they are sacrificial articles brought by pilgrims.It would be an inconceivable phenomenon if the assumed isolated Shu had”foreign investments”then.

An invaluable treasure was discovered from the sacrificial pit and it’s the earliest gold staff in the world.The explanation of its use as a royal staff is already agreed by the academic circle，but the inscribed fish and arrows on it generated lots of arguments.Sanxingdui has already possessed the necessary factors of civilization，lacking only written language.Argument on this issue has a long history.The Biography of Lord Shu recorded that ancient Shu people “did not have any written language and thus did not have ceremonial music.”The History of Huayang State says that the Shu people”are rich with good writings.”Whether the inscriptions on the gold staff are pictures or letters，there is no agreement yet.Some scholars are aiming at deciphering them，others regard the symbols as individual existence and not expressive language.If these pictures can be deciphered，the myth of Sanxingdui will be solved to a great extent.Whether Sanxingdui had written language or not remains to be a myth.

The gold stick unearthed in Sanxingdui site and the gold crown band unearthed in Jinsha site. Both of them have the combined designs of man heads, arrows, birds, and fish. They bear an almost same style, which shows the continuity of the Jinsha culture and the sanxingdui culture.