Sanxingdui
Sanxingdui
Sanxingdui is about 40 metres from Chendgu in Suchuan province. The relics found here are without parallel, since they are in an artistic style quite dissimilar from Chinese art and demonstrate advanced smelting technique about 1,200 years BC. The are a suprising chapter in the history Ba Shu. The kingdom appears to have lasted 1,000 years and to have disappeared suddenly without further influence.
There are no texts or inscriptions, or legends to clarify the nature of this kingdom. In 1929 a farmer found some relics. Generations of Chinese archaeologists visited the area without much success until two major sacrifical pits were found in 1986. The Xinhua News agency reported: "This excavation pushes Ba Shu history back a further 1,000 years to the time from 1,000 to 2,000 BC". The discovery of quite advanced animal husbandy is of scholarly interest, but the bronzes are what excite the world. Task Rosen of the British Museum considered them more outstanding than the terracotta army in Xi'an. In 1987 and 1990 exhibits were on display in Beijung. In 1993 the bronzes were in Switzerland in 1995, and in Munich in 1996, followed by the British Museum. Each time every ticket for the exhibition was sold out. In 1997 a museum opened in Sanxingdui itself.
There are several bronze birds with bills like eagles. There is a bell, and a human head with a pointed nose - suggesting an ethnic origin outside China. Chapter one of James Frazer's "The Golden Bough" is largely about tree-worship and these relics contain a bronze tree, three metres high, fitting perfectly into his theory.
