The third season of New Discoveries at Sanxingdui was on the air on CCTV for three consecutive days since June 14. The breathtaking treasures have become the talk of the country, arousing widespread attention among the general public. The live broadcast features excavations at No. 5, 6, 7 and 8 sacrificial pits of Sanxingdui. Joining efforts with the Sichuan Provincial Cultural Relics and Archaeology Research Institute, the Sichuan University archaeological team was responsible for excavations at No. 5, 6 and 7 sacrificial pits. Archaeologists have found a large number of precious cultural relics in the sacrificial pits, including the gold mask unearthed in pit 5, the mysterious wooden box in pit 6, and in pit 7 the grid vessel resembling a tortoise back, which was never seen before. All are amazing. These startling discoveries are attributed to the hard work of SCU’s archaeological workers.
For this excavation, the School of Archaeology and Museology(SAM) organized a multidisciplinary team with a cadre of more than 10 teachers. Nearly 100 teachers and students have participated in the excavation. The person in charge was Professor Li Haichao of SAM. The archaeological team of Sichuan University has been working at the Sanxingdui Archaeological Site since 2020. They have sacrificed weekends and holidays, worked continuously in the pits for at least eight hours a day. They then sorted out all kinds of unearthed records and materials at night.
Besides more than 200 tusks in pit 7, the team has unearthed thousands of precious cultural relics in pits 5, 6 and 7 altogether. Li Haichao served as a guest commentator in the CCTV live broadcast which started on June 14. Of the three pits 5, 6 and 7, pit 7 is the largest sacrificial pit. The artifacts excavated in the pit are small and exquisite. Among them, the most eye-catching is the "moonlight treasure box" which looks like a turtle back (as shown in the picture below). Netizens call it a "barbecue grill rack".
Li Haichao said that there are many things worth studying with regard to the turtle back shaped vessel. What's more surprising is that a large piece of gold ware was found beneath the lower part of the grid rack, which was covered by soil. Whether the gold ware is part of the bronze grid or not needs to be found out. In addition, there are many well preserved and exquisite jades in pit 7. 20 jade chisels have been found here. Pit 5, known as the "gold pit", has previously unearthed the largest gold mask at Sanxingdui, and there are more exquisite gold articles and ivory carvings to be excavated.
In the meantime, the Celebrity Lecture Hall also ushered in the second lecture of the 2022 archaeological season. Huo Wei, president of the Sichuan Archaeology Society, curator of the Sichuan University Museum, started from the discovery of bronzes in Sichuan in recent years and explained the status of ancient Sichuan in cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries and multi-ethnic cultural interaction. He further introduced the distinctive and mysterious ancient Shu bronze as epitomized by bronze wares unearthed at Sanxingdui and Jinsha, as well as the bronze of Bashu, which appeared after the collision and integration with the culture of the Central Plains from the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period to the Qin and Han Dynasties, reproducing the style of the "bronze kingdom" of Sichuan for the audience.
CCTV, Xinhua News Agency, The Paper, Tencent and other mainstream media continue to report the archaeological excavation of Sanxingdui sacrificial pits.
The Sichuan University Archaeology has a long relationship with Sanxingdui. Archaeologists of Sichuan University have participated in many archaeological investigations and excavations of Sanxingdui. At present, the university museum boasts about 200 items (pieces) of Sanxingdui cultural relics, which are divided into three categories: pottery, jade and stoneware.
The Chinese names begin with family name in this report.
