A forgotten civilization
In 1929, a farmer digging a ditch in Sichuan province found a collection of jade artifacts, the first hint of a lost Bronze Age culture. Decades later, in 1986, archaeologists excavated two large pits filled with extraordinary objects that looked unlike anything else found in China. These pits contained hundreds of items, including bronze masks, elephant tusks, and jade tools, which had been deliberately broken or burned and then buried. Radiocarbon dating places the main burial activity in the 12th to 11th centuries BCE.
The discovery revealed the existence of the ancient Shu kingdom, a sophisticated civilization that existed at the same time as the well-known Shang Dynasty but developed independently. The site of Sanxingdui was a massive walled city, founded around 1600 BCE and covering 3.6 square kilometers. The city walls themselves were substantial, measuring 40 meters wide at the base and up to 10 meters high. Unlike the Shang, who left extensive oracle bone inscriptions, the Sanxingdui culture left no known written language, making its artifacts the primary source of information.
A gallery of bronze marvels
The artisans of Sanxingdui created bronze objects of a scale and style previously unknown. The most famous is a standing human figure that is, including its pedestal, 2.62 meters tall and weighs 180 kilograms, making it the world's oldest known life-size bronze statue. The figure has exaggeratedly large hands and wears three layers of patterned robes.
Another massive artifact is the "divine tree," a bronze sculpture standing 3.96 meters (13 feet) tall. It was found in pieces and its reconstruction took archaeologists eight years. The tree has a central trunk, a circular base, and three levels of branches. Nine birds perch on the branches, which relate to a sun myth prevalent in ancient China.
The site is most famous for its collection of bronze masks. These objects have angular and stylized human features with large, almond-shaped eyes and prominent ears. Some masks have pupils that protrude several inches from the face. Many of the dozens of masks and heads originally had a thin layer of gold foil applied to their surface. A gold mask fragment found during excavations between 2020 and 2022 is made of 84% gold and weighs 280 grams. The largest bronze mask found at the site measures 1.31 meters wide.