Chapter 1,433 Ancient Shu Civilization, an important member of Chinese civilization
Looking at the bronze in front of him, Chen Wenzhe was very emotional.
If you are not knowledgeable, who would have thought that some of the bronzes here might have been made by our ancestors five thousand years ago?
The technology displayed by the bronzes here is definitely not something that any tribe can achieve.
To form and develop a civilization of this level, at least a city-state or even a kingdom must be formed.
"I wonder if the Sanxingdui civilization has been thoroughly studied now? Who left behind these exquisite works of art?"
No matter who it is, they will have this idea after seeing so many exquisite bronzes.
Even Chen Wenzhe wants to know what kind of era such exquisite works of art came from, which allowed them to develop and grow.
Who it is is probably still a mystery.
However, it is certain that it belongs to the ancient Shu civilization.
It is not difficult for modern people to resolve years of disputes and confirm the age of the Sanxingdui sacrificial pit.
Now the archaeological team has conducted carbon-14 dating on nearly 200 samples, and the dating data is concentrated between 1131 and 1012 BC.
Except for Pit No. 5 and Pit No. 6, which are slightly later, the burial age of Pit No. 3, Pit No. 4, Pit No. 7, and Pit No. 8 is the same, which is the late Shang Dynasty, about 3200 to 3000 years ago.
This resolves the controversy over the past thirty years regarding the burial age of the "Sacrificial Pit".
It is such a large-scale discovery that proves that ancient Shu civilization is an important part of Chinese civilization.
Excavations again and again, and new artifacts discovered show the close cultural connections between the Sanxingdui site and other parts of the country.
For example, the bronze statues, copper liu, and copper gourds found in Pit No. 3 and Pit 8 are typical bronze vessels of the Yin and Shang culture in the Central Plains.
The jade congs found in Pit No. 3 and Pit 4 come from the Qijia Culture in the Gansu and Qinghai regions.
The collared jade bis, jade seals, and jade Ge discovered in Pit No. 3, Pit No. 7, and Pit No. 8 have been found in Nanhe, Xishan, Qilu, and the vast South China region.
The large number of gold objects found in each pit are consistent with the ancient tradition of using gold objects in the half-moon area.
The sacred tree, the statue of a kneeling figure on top, and a large number of dragon-image artifacts indicate that the users of the Sanxingdui site are similar to people in other parts of the country in terms of their own identity, etiquette, religion, and understanding of nature.
This undoubtedly shows that the ancient Shu civilization to which the Sanxingdui site belongs is an important member of the Chinese civilization.
If you take a careful inventory of the precious cultural relics unearthed in Sanxingdui, you will find many interesting things.
Since the first excavation of Sanxingdui, many precious cultural relics of various forms have appeared.
Including the "pottery pig" that looks like the "Angry Birds", the "bronze mythical beast" that looks like a robot dog, etc.
Of course, these are all strange and unusual, and more of them are precious treasures connected with our Greater Chinese civilization.
Like a bronze mask, this bronze mask is 131cm wide, 71cm high, 66cm deep and weighs 131 kilograms.
He has a broad forehead, an exaggerated face, smooth lines on his eyebrows, eyes, nose, lips and ears, and sharp edges and corners.
This is the most complete, largest and best-preserved large bronze mask unearthed from the Sanxingdui site.
There are many such bronze masks found in China.
Bronze masks are actually a kind of ancient masks, which have been unearthed in many places in my country.
These bronze masks have different shapes, among which they are mainly divided into Yin Shang bronze masks and Sanxingdui masks.
Since the 1960s, archaeologists have excavated many bronze masks from the Shang Dynasty.
For example, one animal mask was collected from Panlong City in Hanwu City.
There are also 14 bronze animal masks unearthed from Gusu Village in Xishan City.
Others include a merchant tomb in Liujiahe, Pinggu, the capital of China, where 5 bronze human masks were unearthed.
In 1976, twenty-three Yin Shang bronze masks were unearthed in Gusu Village, Western Shaanxi City.
The face shapes in these bronze masks include oval and round, with deeply concave eye frames and convex eyeballs with round ties in the middle.
The ears are upright, the nose is protruding, and the fangs are exposed.
The face is convex on the outside and concave on the inside, and the position of the facial features is similar to that of a human face.
The shape is fierce and can be worn on the face.
Judging from the shape and characteristics of these masks, they may be war masks of that time.
Why are bronze masks unearthed many times among the cultural relics of the Shang Dynasty?
The latest research by experts on Chu studies believes that these bronze masks are related to the popularity of witchcraft in the Shang Dynasty.
Judging from the documentary records, the contents of oracle bone inscriptions and the unearthed bronze ritual vessels, witchcraft was prevalent in the Shang Dynasty, and bronze masks were used as props for witchcraft activities.
The Shang Dynasty was the heyday of the prosperity of slavery, and the rulers carried out a large number of sacrificial witchcraft activities.
On the one hand, they hope to be blessed by gods and ancestors; on the other hand, they show their affinity with gods and make the ruled think that their rule is the will of God.
At the same time, some Shang Dynasty tomb owners were shamans themselves. After their death, they were buried with the daily necessities they used while alive. Bronze masks were one of the burial objects.
Then there are the bronze masks unearthed from the Sanxingdui site. This period should be earlier than the Shang Dynasty.
Because the Sanxingdui site is an ancient Shu cultural site dating back about 5,000 to 3,000 years ago.
It lasted for nearly 2000 years, that is, from the late Neolithic Age to the end of the Shang Dynasty and the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty.
This has pushed the history of Sichuan Province forward by more than 1,000 years, so the discovery of the Sanxingdui site is one of the most significant archaeological discoveries in my country in the last century.
At the Sanxingdui site, many bronze human masks were unearthed. A total of more than 20 human masks were unearthed, divided into three types: large, medium and small.
These bronze mask groups, represented by Zongmu masks, are one of the most distinctive cultural relics in Sanxingdui and have the most spiritual and cultural connotations.
They are the earliest and largest group of masks unearthed in our country.
In the exhibition hall of the Bronze Hall of Sanxingdui Museum, there is a special hall for bronze masks, focusing on Zongmu masks, crowned Zongmu masks and extra-large masks.
Among them, one mask is 64.5 centimeters high and 138 centimeters wide. It has a wide mouth, big ears, and the ears extend diagonally, which is extremely exaggerated.
In particular, there is a square hole in the middle of the forehead, which may have been originally installed with decorations.
The most peculiar thing about this mask is that its eyes are cylindrical and protrude up to 16 centimeters, which is commonly known as "clairvoyance and wind-smooth ears".
This style is unique in the world!
There is also a medium-sized mask with a height of 22.5 cm and a width of 42.5 cm.
The mask is square in shape, with a broad forehead, long eyebrows and a straight nose.
It has long ears, a wider auricle, a perforated earlobe, and a hole cut into the upper and lower cheeks in front of the ears and in the middle of the forehead.
What deserves the most attention is the one that Chen Wenzhe looked at at the beginning, which is a large bronze mask that is 1.31 meters wide at its widest point, 80 centimeters high and weighs 131 kilograms.
Of course, these bronze masks are not really important among the Sanxingdui ruins.
When it comes to important weapons, they must still be cultural relics related to dragons.
If my system is not serious, just remember the domain name_