The lost world of Sanxingdui: Fabulous finds from a forgotten civilisation

Sanxingdui disappeared for a long time. The site could once be counted among the greatest Bronze Age metropolises in Southeast Asia, but it was not to last. Sometime around 1000 BC, the settlement was abandoned and its significance was eventually forgotten. A hint of its former grandeur remained enshrined in its name, though, with the characters for ‘Sanxingdui’ meaning ‘Three Star Mounds’, a reference to earthworks visible at the site. Further clues emerged in 1927, when jades were found during ditch-digging operations, but it was only in the 1980s that the true scale of the Bronze Age accomplishments became apparent. First, it was realised that the mounds were the remains of a giga