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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 gigantic city wall, reaching a width of around 40m at the base. But the real shock followed in 1986, when workers digging clay for a brickyard chanced upon two rectangular pits. Their contents were nothing short of sensational: sumptuous bronzes, gold objects, jades, elephant tusks, and cowrie shells. One bronze statue featuring a figure with a slender waist, elegant robes, and giant, grasping hands stood 2.6m high in total. There could no longer be any mistaking the ancient wealth, power, and ingenuity of Sanxingdui.
As a group, the objects from the pits astonished by virtue of their quality and quantity. But most striking of all was their content. The bronze masks, heads, statues, and even trees discovered in the pits were unparalleled in China, and indeed anywhere else. It seemed that this sublime artistry was expressing a unique view of the world that developed in and around Sanxingdui, which lay in the Sichuan basin of the Yangtze River: a remote region ringed by high mountains. Given the wonders unearthed in the 1986 pits, expectations were understandably high when a further six pits were detected near the original two in 2019. Sure enough, excavations from 2020-2022 produced a wealth of new wonders from the Bronze Age city. Some of these finds shed fresh light on the 1986 objects, while others have added strange and beguiling creations to the Sanxingdui corpus, such as a curious creature that is part tiger, part dragon. As well as providing plenty to ponder about the meaning of such mystical beings, the recent archaeological investigations have also unearthed less glamorous, but just as fascinating, details about how these objects were committed to the earth. As such, the Gazing at Sanxingdui: New Archaeological Discoveries in Sichuan exhibition at the Hong Kong Palace Museum offers an opportunity to learn the latest from the site (see Further Information box). As well as displaying 55 finds from the latest dig, it also anchors the discoveries from Sanxingdui within the wider archaeology of the Sichuan region.
Visions in bronze
‘It took us more than two years to plan this special exhibition,’ says Dr Tianlong Jiao, Head Curator of the Hong Kong Palace Museum, who is also a co-curator of the exhibition. ‘It began with the new discoveries in 2019. By 2021, the excavations had reached the objects within the pits, but that was during the COVID period, so we were not able to visit the site. Fortunately, media groups did live broadcasts of the excavation, so I saw some of the fantastic objects coming out of the pit. Because of that, I began a conversation with the people in Sichuan, and that’s how everything started.’
A key reason why the contents of the pits are simultaneously a source of wonder and bafflement comes from something that has not been found in the pits, or anywhere else at Sanxingdui: writing. This existed further north at around the time the bronzes were being buried, as scripts are known from sites belonging to the Shang state, such as Anyang on the Yellow River. ‘It is possible that the archaeologists will find writing in the future at Sanxingdui,’ says Jiao. ‘We hope that they will. It would definitely help, so long as we could decipher the text. That might take some work. After all, if you look at the contemporary scripts from the Shang sites, we still can’t recognise a lot of the characters. Even so, archaeologists can rely on other means to try to understand the lives and rituals of the Sanxingdui people. There has been an effort over the past decade to secure precise dates for the site and understand the pottery sequence. Work on the craft materials has also shown how trade networks connected Sanxingdui to other parts of modern China and beyond. When it comes to ritual and religion, though, trying to reconstruct this without writing is always a puzzle for any archaeologists. And even when you have texts, lots can still be uncertain. But given the nature of the pits, it is certain that some kind of ritual was involved. And we can also be confident that the sculptures in the pits were made by people who lived in or around Sanxingdui.’
Knowledge of the Bronze Age city has come a long way since the mid 1980s. Although modern villages lying on top of the ancient settlement limit the areas available for investigation, excavations have successfully exposed its basic structure. ‘The urban centre covered an area of 3.6km²,’ says exhibition co-curator Dr Shengyu Wang. ‘The Mamu River flowed through this, while a second river ran along the northern edge of the city. Elsewhere, along the western, eastern, and southern sides of the city, the course of the city walls has now been established. We know that a palatial quarter was established just to the north of the Mamu River, while a sacrificial area where all eight pits were located lay to the south of the river. There was an area of workshops to the north of the Mamu River, while scattered residential areas for the non-elite inhabitants have also been found.’
Part of this city was presumably also once populated by the bronze sculptures recovered from the pits. Of these, perhaps the most distinctive are the masks of human faces, which were stylised to the point of caricature. ‘There are different kinds of masks,’ says Jiao, ‘some of them made of bronze and some of gold. The bronze masks come in many different sizes, ranging from the tiny to the huge – the biggest one is 1.31m wide. It is gigantic. And all of the masks vary to some degree. Some of them have protruding eyes, for example, so we know these ones were not based on reality, because nobody looks like that. The others more or less resemble humans, but with exaggerated eyes and ears, and mouths that are always closed. So there was an artistic formula that the people casting these masks followed. At the same time, the variations show that they were not being mass-produced using a fixed mould. Every mask was cast differently.’
This bronze human head is 41cm tall and wears a gold mask. It was found in pit 2 in 1986. Several examples of such head and mask combinations have been found. It is possible that they served to distinguish someone with high rank and secular power. Image: © Sanxingdui Museum
‘What, then, were these masks used for? There were holes in them to attach them to something, so they were not used independently. Because the attachment is missing, we can only guess at what the whole sculpture originally looked like. There is also a lot of debate about what the masks represent, but I think it is likely that the gigantic one represents some kind of god. Most scholars agree that the masks with protruding eyes also represent a deity or spirit. An alternative possibility is that there is a link with the legendary first king of the Shu state, because much-later historical texts refer to him having protruding eyes. Now that’s definitely a myth, but the Shu state did emerge in the Sichuan basin, so people have argued that this story might reflect some kind of historical memory of events at Sanxingdui.’
If at least some of the masks show gods, it could help explain where they were originally placed. ‘There have been suggestions that these masks were worshipped in the main temple of the Sanxingdui people,’ Wang says. ‘We have also found gold-foil masks, and some of these were worn by bronze heads, while others might have been attached to wooden statues. Either way, I think they had a religious significance. We know that some bronze heads – which are different to the masks, because they don’t just show the face – were attached to a wooden body. They usually have a triangular shaped bronze neck at the base, and some of these still had wooden remains within them. It also seems likely that the heads represent different groups of people. One suggestion is that those heads with a flat top represented individuals with secular power, while others that rose to a dome held religious significance. By this reading, the statue made entirely of bronze would be the figure with the highest rank, perhaps combining both secular and religious power as a king shaman. Of course, we don’t know for sure, but another find from the pits was gold foil wrapped around a stick, which is viewed as a sceptre for a king or another high-ranking member of society.’
Nature and the supernatural
Whoever the figure was intended to represent, his importance is certain. The overall height of this sculpture is believed to make it the tallest surviving bronze representation of a human-style individual from anywhere in the world during this era. Remarkably, though, some sculptures from Sanxingdui would have towered over even this lofty figure. ‘At least eight bronze trees have been found,’ says Wang. ‘We have digitally reconstructed tree 1, which was found in 1986, for the exhibition. The tree itself was found in pieces in pit 2 and pieced back together over a decade. The resulting reconstruction is 3.96m tall, but originally the sculpture would have been even higher, perhaps reaching about 5m. The tree has nine branches, and there are also nine birds on it, as well as fruit and flowers. Like the heads and masks, the trees were all different. Tree 3 has recently been reconstructed, and it was only 1m tall, but had gold foil wrapping around the branches. Some scholars have suggested that they were like Christmas trees, with different accessories and even bells hanging from them.’
‘The different pieces were cast separately,’ Jiao notes, ‘and then joined together using a recast technique. It’s a very complicated procedure. As most of the trees are still in pieces, they do require some interpretation. If you only had one, it would be easy to say that it represents a tree and leave it at that. But when you have eight – and probably more – that are all different shapes and sizes, well then you have a forest, and it is easy to get lost. This is another Sanxingdui mystery, but there are some clues. You can look at what was put on the tree, for instance. Most of the trees have birds, so they were very important. On top of tree 3 there is even a bird with a human head. Of course, that is not something you see in nature, so this is a mystic animal. Once again, we’re not just looking at a straightforward representation of reality. Interestingly, the trees do not only appear as sculptures, they were also used as decorative motifs by the Sanxingdui people, so they must have been significant. Intriguingly, over 500 years later on – during the era known as the Warring States period – you also get something called “money trees”, which were believed to bring wealth and good fortune. These are also unique to the Sichuan area, so there seems to be a belief involving trees carrying through.’
These trees are not the only examples of elements of the natural world receiving a supernatural twist. ‘It looks like elephants also had a religious significance,’ says Wang. ‘Seven out of the eight pits contained a layer of burnt elephant tusks. There is also a jade blade that shows little figures kneeling at the mountains, with something like an elephant tusk beside them, so this might be a depiction of rituals being conducted. We also know that the giant bronze human-like sculpture was originally holding something. Given the shape and position of his hands, there are some scholars who think the missing object was an elephant tusk. This finds some support in the statue pedestal, which features images of elephant trunks and flaring ears that also look like they come from an elephant. There are other bronzes that also seem to be hybrids with elephant elements in them. And there is now research showing that Asian elephants did once live nearby. Not certainly at Sanxingdui itself, but within Sichuan or Southwest China.’
Into the earth
Placing a layer of burnt tusks in the pits is just one of the ways in which the contents were carefully arranged, rather than being haphazardly dumped. ‘Most of the objects that we’ve been discussing were deliberately broken or smashed before being placed in the pits,’ says Wang. ‘Indeed, some of the fragmentary pieces found in different pits are now known to belong to a single original object. For example, pit 2, which was excavated in 1986, contained pieces that can be joined with fragments from the latest discoveries. This indicates that the pits were all being filled at around the same time.’
What then, does the destruction and burial of these stunning objects signify. ‘Looking at the pits it is clear that this was a very well-planned operation,’ says Jiao. ‘First the pits were dug out, and then the broken objects were buried layer by layer. In each pit there is a sequence to the burial process: first it was the bronzes, jade, gold, and elephant tusks, before most of the pit was filled with a layer of ashes. This was covered with clay earth from the surrounding area, which was sometimes pounded down on top of the pits. So, there was a procedure to follow. The pits were not being filled in a hurry. What can this tell us about the reason for doing it? There was clearly a purpose, but whether it was a closing part of the ritual, or a response to some kind of emergency event, is not something that we can say conclusively.’
What is certain, though, is that closing the pits did not mark the final time that these sorts of objects were seen until the 1980s. Instead, the story becomes a tale of two cities, with a second Bronze Age urban centre developing about 50km away at Jinsha. ‘You can see several echoes of Sanxingdui at Jinsha,’ says Wang, ‘including the presence of elephant tusks, gold masks, and even a little bronze statue with big, grasping hands, in an identical pose to the giant one from Sanxingdui. So, there must have been some connections between these cities. Most archaeologists see Jinsha as the successor settlement to Sanxingdui, but perhaps they coexisted for a time. What is certain is that ultimately Sanxingdui was abandoned, while Jinsha went on to flourish alone.’
FURTHER INFORMATION: The Gazing at Sanxingdui: New Archaeological Discoveries in Sichuan exhibition will run at the Hong Kong Palace Museum, Hong Kong, until 8 January 2024. For more details, see: www.hkpm.org.hk/en/exhibition/gazing-at-sanxingdui-new-archaeological-discoveries-in-sichuan
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