What kind of civilization does Sanxingdui involve?

Although Sanxingdui is the hardest hit area of the street version of the "unsolved mystery", comparable to "Maya" and "Pyramid", no one with at least the basic judgment of middle school students will think that Sanxingdui is really an "alien relic". Another kind of folk science theory, with a slightly higher infatuation but much less influence, thinks that Sanxingdui is the product of western civilization immigrants such as Aryans (Xu Daxin's God gene and an aunt's critical theory), Phoenicians (Susan's Sanxingdui cultural conjecture) and ancient Egyptians (Liu Guangbao's discovery of Xia Dynasty). These temptations seem a little high, but compared with the former, they are better than a hundred steps, if not fifty. What kind of civilization Sanxingdui is and what kind of evaluation it should get is the task of this answer.

In the eyes of ordinary people, the stereotype of Sanxingdui is something with a strange shape, such as a copper head/mask/sacred tree. However, this is only a luxury that accounts for a small part of the material culture at that time. Don't say that compared with a large number of "worthless" pottery and stone tools, even compared with the "luxurious" bronze ritual vessels and claws of the Central Plains, there is no advantage. Archaeologists study more pottery, at least those bronze ritual vessels with Central Plains style, while bronze heads and masks are the research objects of art experts.

Like Mawangdui, Sanxingdui is also named for its striking artificial mound in Chengdu Plain. Sanxingdui site was discovered in the Republic of China, but it has not been systematically excavated for a long time. It was not until 1980s that large-scale excavation really began, and a systematic sequence of stages was established. The bronze statue of Sanxingdui, which we are familiar with, was found in 1986. It comes from the No.1 and No.2 cellars discovered this year (the customary name of this cellars is sacrificial pits, but some people have objections and temporarily use it as "cellars".

The excavation of Sanxingdui site and sites with similar cultural characteristics in Chengdu Plain shows that Sanxingdui culture can be divided into four periods from morning till night, and the first period of Sanxingdui is far away from the second, third and fourth periods. The "Sanxingdui" that most people pay attention to is actually mainly the remains of Sanxingdui Sanxingdui Phase III and Phase IV, and has little to do with Sanxingdui Phase I or even Phase II.

The first phase of Sanxingdui is the earliest, and there is an obvious time distance from the last three phases. According to analysis, its earliest date can be traced back to 4800 years ago. Pottery is mainly divided into two types: brown sand pottery and mud gray pottery. Brown pottery has a polished black pottery surface; There are black pottery with black inside and brown outside, and some with black inside and brown outside. Few pottery is complete. The shapers mainly include serrated, lace-like cans, large lapel cans, round-legged beans and so on. Decorative patterns include line patterns, rope patterns, blue patterns, overlapping rope patterns, grid patterns, grain patterns, engraved holes, thin rope patterns, tooth patterns and so on. From the analysis of pottery, Sanxingdui culture is related to Baodun culture. During this period, Sanxingdui was completely in the Neolithic Age, and there were no bronzes and city sites. Some people dragged the upper limit of Sanxingdui's "civilization" to the so-called 4800 years ago, which actually confused the mistakes of "culture" and "civilization".

Sanxingdui Phase II is equivalent to Erlitou Phase IV and Erligang Phase in the Central Plains. Pottery is mainly brown pottery with sand, with a certain amount of muddy gray pottery and muddy orange pottery. There are mainly small flat-bottomed pots, tall beans, round-footed beans, cups, flat-bottomed, round-footed plates, bird's head handles, jars, urns, lids, spinning wheels and so on. Eat less vegetarian noodles. Decorative patterns mainly include rope patterns, additional velvet patterns and Yun Leiwen. Among these objects, the pottery cup is the most distinctive, which is similar to the pottery cup in Erlitou, Central Plains, and should be the result of Erlitou culture. The earliest bronze ware of Sanxingdui, 1 bronze ornaments, was found in this issue of the Treasure Castle site, which is similar to Erlitou.

Figure 1 bronze decoration

Comparison between Erlitou and Sanxingdui Bronze Ornaments

Sanxingdui civilization entered its heyday from the third period, equivalent to Baijiazhuang period and early Yin ruins in the Central Plains. Pottery is still dominated by mixed sand pottery, with grayish brown and black gray. In addition, there are a few argillaceous gray pottery and argillaceous reddish brown pottery. In addition, there are small flat-bottomed pots, pots, tall beans, round-footed beans, jars and urns. These are common in the second stage, and there are new containers that respect shape, shaped containers, shaped containers and so on. In the evening of this issue, there are also pointed bottom cups and holders. In this period, the small flat-bottomed tank changed from the arc shoulder in the second phase to the round shoulder, from the thin curled lip to the pointed round lip, and the abdomen became shallow and bowl-shaped; The high-handle bean has changed from a straight column handle to a bamboo-like handle or a linear handle, and the realistic toe is raised. During this period, the bronze ornaments unearthed in Sanxingdui increased, and the earliest bronze ritual vessels appeared. Strange bronze masks and figures of artifact pits are also likely to appear in this period (there are three and four periods about the age of artifact pits, but it is understandable considering that bronzes can be used until they are buried). This issue also found a kind of jade called tooth Zhang. Sanxingdui ancient city, with an area of 2.6 square kilometers and many broken walls, was also built during this period. We can say that Sanxingdui's "civilization" was formed in this period, about 3300 years ago, even in East Asia.

Sanxingdui site plan

In the fourth phase of Sanxingdui, Sanxingdui civilization continued to develop along with the prosperity of the third phase. In the fourth period, the pottery was mainly grayish brown pottery mixed with sand, and the proportion of muddy gray pottery increased greatly. In addition, there are a small amount of red-brown pottery sand and black-brown pottery sand. In the third stage, the common types of devices are basically used, but the shape of the devices has changed greatly. Almost all small flat-bottomed pots have evolved into small flat-bottomed pots, and some have evolved into pointed-bottomed cups; There are two kinds of high-handle beans: thick high-handle and thin short-handle; The fetal wall of the foot becomes thicker, the legs become slender and papillary toes appear. At the end of the third stage, the shape of the container seat is increased. Pottery is plain, and the decorative patterns are mainly thick rope patterns and concave chord patterns. The surface of coarse rope pattern is mostly smooth, and chord pattern is mostly applied to the neck and shoulder of utensils. In addition, there are additional pile patterns, net patterns, engraved holes, Yun Leiwen, etc. , equivalent to the late Yin Ruins to the early Western Zhou Dynasty. The change of pottery shows that some new factors have entered Sanxingdui civilization, which has increased the localization color. At the end of the fourth phase of Sanxingdui, Sanxingdui civilization finally declined, and its relationship with Bashu civilization in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty is still unclear.

The bronze and jade ritual vessels and weapons unearthed in Sanxingdui are also precious cultural relics worth studying. The ritual vessels unearthed here are huge and magnificent, and their craftsmanship is similar to that of Yin Ruins. However, the combination of vessels is mainly Zun, Lei and Yi, lacking vessels such as Jue, Yi, Ding and Gui, which are common in the Central Plains, especially the wine vessels represented by Jue and Yi, which embodies a completely different cultural outlook from the Yin people. In the bronze culture of the same period, only the combination and shape of bronze ware group in Ningxiang, Hunan Province are most similar to Sanxingdui. Therefore, it is very likely that the ancient Shu culture has a communication channel with the bronze culture in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River through the Three Gorges. There are a large number of teeth and jade pavilions similar to Erlitou culture in jade articles, and the appearance of Tao Qi implies the direct connection between Sanxingdui and Xia people.

National treasure four sheep Fang Zun

Sanxingdui bronze statue

Bronze sacred tree

As for the so-called western influence, the empirical evidence we have seen so far is not sufficient. Only factors such as golden cane, seashells, and golden chamomile may have a certain influence on West Asia and the Indian Ocean (@ Program thinks that golden chamomile may also be a factor of the Central Plains, but the color of golden cane in West Asia is much more obvious, and the tradition of using cane in East Asia almost does not exist. The earliest scepter head originated from burning ditch, and experts agree that it is the influence of West Asia and Central Asia. Those bronze portraits with exaggerated images and obvious stylization are not realistic works. Su San, Liu Guangbao and Auntie's so-called "Europa race" is just a posturing language, and the connection between the bronze statue without shoes and barefoot and "aliens" and "astronauts" is naturally even more nonsense.

A bronze mask should be a style.

In a word, Sanxingdui civilization is a bronze civilization based on local culture and deeply influenced by Xia culture and the culture in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. As for its height and depth, Zhengzhou Mall in the Central Plains, which is more than 200 years earlier than Sanxingdui ancient city, is larger than Sanxingdui, and Sanxingdui has not found any Oracle Bone Inscriptions and bronze inscriptions. Although it can be called one of the bright stars in China, it can only be said that each has its own advantages and disadvantages.