Last full day of our 2-week Sichuan road-trip and we end it on a high point: a visit of SanXinDui, one of the greatest archeological discoveries of all times, anywhere in the world.
Unfortunately SanXinDui is bizarrely unknown in the West, even though it ranks on par with things like the discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb or the Terracotta army in Xi'an.
SanXinDui used to be the capital of China's ancient Shu kingdom which ruled here between 1,700BC and 1,200BC so everything in the museum is 3,000 to 4,000 years old.
The artifacts found here - and they uncovered an incredible 17,000 objects already - are beyond extraordinary, almost otherworldly, revealing a unique culture unlike anything that had been found in China before. And a culture much more advanced for that time period of Chinese history than had been assumed before.
Here you can see 4 pieces we just saw in the museum:
- A monumental bronze mask in pure SanXinDui style, with protruding eyes that archeologists believe symbolizes a far-sighted leader or shaman
- A typical SanXinDui mask with a gold plated mask on top of it
- A monumental 4m tall bronze "tree" with dragons for its roots and birds with 9 fruits and birds on its branches
- A wheel with 5 beams thought to represent the sun
More artefacts we saw in the museum in the 🧵 below 👇
Unfortunately SanXinDui is bizarrely unknown in the West, even though it ranks on par with things like the discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb or the Terracotta army in Xi'an.
SanXinDui used to be the capital of China's ancient Shu kingdom which ruled here between 1,700BC and 1,200BC so everything in the museum is 3,000 to 4,000 years old.
The artifacts found here - and they uncovered an incredible 17,000 objects already - are beyond extraordinary, almost otherworldly, revealing a unique culture unlike anything that had been found in China before. And a culture much more advanced for that time period of Chinese history than had been assumed before.
Here you can see 4 pieces we just saw in the museum:
- A monumental bronze mask in pure SanXinDui style, with protruding eyes that archeologists believe symbolizes a far-sighted leader or shaman
- A typical SanXinDui mask with a gold plated mask on top of it
- A monumental 4m tall bronze "tree" with dragons for its roots and birds with 9 fruits and birds on its branches
- A wheel with 5 beams thought to represent the sun
More artefacts we saw in the museum in the 🧵 below 👇
You can see many, many bronze masks, all with similar features but all unique
You also have more complete statues like this guy who looks like a 4,000 years old weightlifter 😊
This small item, thought to be a kid's toy, is extraordinarily popular on Chinese social media because it looks like the pigs in Angry Birds 😅
The Shu kingdom is famous for its love of gold, which is rare in China's history (they're more of a jade people) and you can see plenty of gold masks
I could go on and on about the pieces in the museum but let me show you what the tourists can't see, which I was lucky enough to be given access to.
How? You may remember that 2 days ago I met Tang Fei, the guy who literally unearthed SanXinDui:
How? You may remember that 2 days ago I met Tang Fei, the guy who literally unearthed SanXinDui:
https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1852041225878278588?t=CoRvQzglmMgV0ZHt7veuYg&s=19
And Tang Fei was kind enough to introduce us to Mr Wei, the director of the museum who very generously offered us a beautiful lunch in a private room in the museum.
Mr Wei in turn introduced to Mr Qiao, one of the lead archeologists who still works one the site. The statue you see on the left? He personally dug it up!
Mr Qiao then brought us to some of the excavation sites where some of the items were discovered. As you can see, the SanXinDui treasure was literally found in the middle of farmland.
But this is the real deal, the location of the 8 so-called "sacrificial pits" where they found the most important treasures of SanXinDui. We were immensely privileged to have access to them and actually go in the pits, which are each in custom made containment rooms.
Mr Qiao also brought us to a place where they're conserving part of the old SanXinDui city wall, which was an incredible 30-50m wide, accompanied by a moat, all around the city.
Let me end this thread with 4 more treasures we saw in SanXinDui:
- A video of the "tree" which to me is the most incredible piece in the museum
- A monumental bird face: birds were obviously very important to Shu culture
- A snake with wings, which is strangely reminiscent of some of the deities in Mesoamerican religions (like the Quetzalcoatl)
- an incredible sculpture of a man with bird feet
After my various discussions today, it's stunning to me how many mystery remain about SanXinDui and the Shu kingdom. Among the biggest are:
- No weapons were found anywhere. Mr Qiao believes this is because they didn't fight wars but maintained social order through rites and religion.
- Virtually all the treasures found were found in "sacrificial pits" and the archeologists believe they were disposed of in these pits as part of religious ceremonies. In fact there's plenty of evidence many of the objects were broken on purpose as part of the ceremonies. Which is deeply strange: why would they dispose of such precious artifacts? And it also of course means that all the stuff we found to date was the stuff they judged should be disposed of... Bear in mind only an estimated 0.2% of the SanXinDui site has been uncovered to date
- The one question that archeologists are most keen to find an answer to is where the SanXinDui kings are buried. They found many burial grounds for common people but none for SanXinDui royalty, which they know existed because there's plenty of evidence the Shu kingdom was very hierarchical. And of course in China, royal tombs are where the biggest treasures typically are. So we probably have a LOT more SanXinDui treasures to uncover yet!
- A video of the "tree" which to me is the most incredible piece in the museum
- A monumental bird face: birds were obviously very important to Shu culture
- A snake with wings, which is strangely reminiscent of some of the deities in Mesoamerican religions (like the Quetzalcoatl)
- an incredible sculpture of a man with bird feet
After my various discussions today, it's stunning to me how many mystery remain about SanXinDui and the Shu kingdom. Among the biggest are:
- No weapons were found anywhere. Mr Qiao believes this is because they didn't fight wars but maintained social order through rites and religion.
- Virtually all the treasures found were found in "sacrificial pits" and the archeologists believe they were disposed of in these pits as part of religious ceremonies. In fact there's plenty of evidence many of the objects were broken on purpose as part of the ceremonies. Which is deeply strange: why would they dispose of such precious artifacts? And it also of course means that all the stuff we found to date was the stuff they judged should be disposed of... Bear in mind only an estimated 0.2% of the SanXinDui site has been uncovered to date
- The one question that archeologists are most keen to find an answer to is where the SanXinDui kings are buried. They found many burial grounds for common people but none for SanXinDui royalty, which they know existed because there's plenty of evidence the Shu kingdom was very hierarchical. And of course in China, royal tombs are where the biggest treasures typically are. So we probably have a LOT more SanXinDui treasures to uncover yet!
Apologies, a couple of other things because I wrote this thread in a hurry whilst visiting the site and in between conversations and driving around the various places 😅
It's of course SanXingDui with a "g", apologies for the typo! The name means "3 starry mounds" and corresponds to a spot on the site originally called SanXingDui, where there are 3 mounds (which I saw too).
There are also a couple of artifacts that I failed to properly mention, even though they're absolute masterpieces such as this monumental statue 👇, which is believed to be that of a religious figure. The statue used to hold something which has since disappeared: the leading theory is that it was an elephant's tusk since we've found tons of them buried on the site, which means they clearly were very important for Shu ceremonial practices.
It's of course SanXingDui with a "g", apologies for the typo! The name means "3 starry mounds" and corresponds to a spot on the site originally called SanXingDui, where there are 3 mounds (which I saw too).
There are also a couple of artifacts that I failed to properly mention, even though they're absolute masterpieces such as this monumental statue 👇, which is believed to be that of a religious figure. The statue used to hold something which has since disappeared: the leading theory is that it was an elephant's tusk since we've found tons of them buried on the site, which means they clearly were very important for Shu ceremonial practices.
China has a classification system for its cultural artifacts and the highest possible classification is "items that cannot leave the country ever, under any circumstances". I asked the museum director which items in the museum were under this classification and it's these 4 👇:
- The monumental statue
- The tree
- A gold scepter with symbols on it
- A jade "zhang" with symbols on it
- The monumental statue
- The tree
- A gold scepter with symbols on it
- A jade "zhang" with symbols on it
Some people wrote in the comments that Shu culture has nothing to do with ancient Chinese culture but that's not true, there are many overlaps:
- The use of ceremonial "zhang" (see first picture for a zhang and the second picture of a small SanXingDui statue showing how it was used during ceremonies): widely used throughout China during the Shang and Zhou dynasty
- The use of "Bi" discs: hundreds of "Bi" were unearthed in Shu kingdom sites, and similarly they're a staple of ancient Chinese culture to symbolize the sky (in ancient China the sky was symbolize as round and the earth as square).
- The presence of dragons and other overlapping mythical creatures
- The legend of the sun birds which can be seen in the "tree" of SanXingDui: a foundational story of Chinese mythology is that originally there were 10 suns orbiting around the earth, often depicted as three-legged birds called "sun birds". Originally, the suns took turns appearing in the sky, but one day all ten suns decided to rise together and their combined heat was devastating. The asked for help from Houyi, an archer known for his exceptional skill who climbed to the top of Mount Kunlun and shot down nine of the ten suns with his magical bow. Many researchers believe that the tree of SanXingDui, with its 9 birds, represent the legend of 10 suns and the cosmic order as it was understood at the time.
- The use of ceremonial "zhang" (see first picture for a zhang and the second picture of a small SanXingDui statue showing how it was used during ceremonies): widely used throughout China during the Shang and Zhou dynasty
- The use of "Bi" discs: hundreds of "Bi" were unearthed in Shu kingdom sites, and similarly they're a staple of ancient Chinese culture to symbolize the sky (in ancient China the sky was symbolize as round and the earth as square).
- The presence of dragons and other overlapping mythical creatures
- The legend of the sun birds which can be seen in the "tree" of SanXingDui: a foundational story of Chinese mythology is that originally there were 10 suns orbiting around the earth, often depicted as three-legged birds called "sun birds". Originally, the suns took turns appearing in the sky, but one day all ten suns decided to rise together and their combined heat was devastating. The asked for help from Houyi, an archer known for his exceptional skill who climbed to the top of Mount Kunlun and shot down nine of the ten suns with his magical bow. Many researchers believe that the tree of SanXingDui, with its 9 birds, represent the legend of 10 suns and the cosmic order as it was understood at the time.
Lastly, if you are interested in the Shu kingdom, SanXingDui is not the only site that was uncovered, there's also Jinsha which I visited 2 days ago 👇 which became the kingdom's capital after SanXingDui. The museum there is also fascinating!
https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1852025071948193880?t=5Loe0dtnEM-LQedt2fzXoQ&s=19
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