The discovery of Sanxingdui site?
What is ancient? It refers to the period from about 6.5438+0.7 million years ago to 2070 BC, that is, the secret history of mankind before the establishment of the Xia Dynasty in China.
In 1980s, villagers near Sanxingdui, Sichuan accidentally dug up a huge bronze mask during excavation. This mask is ferocious and looks fierce. However, the villagers realized that this may be related to the legendary treasure of the local elderly, so they immediately reported it to the relevant departments.
After the archaeological department came to the scene, it was found that this huge bronze mask was very old and was determined to be a cultural relic before the Shang Dynasty. I also know that this will be very important to the archaeology of the Yangtze River basin, so the archaeological department did not relax for a moment and immediately started all kinds of work to facilitate the archaeological excavation of Sanxingdui site.
Cultural relics unearthed in Sanxingdui
After years of excavation, experts found that Sanxingdui is not so simple. First of all, in terms of chronology, Sanxingdui has a very long time span, basically distributed from 3000 BC to 1200 BC, and some related cultural relics have been unearthed. It is no exaggeration to say that Sanxingdui site is an ancient treasure.
As for the Sanxingdui site, what was dug up? In fact, many people find it hard to imagine the cultural relics unearthed in Sanxingdui. After all, these cultural relics are too rebellious.
The first is the bronze mask. There are many bronze masks unearthed in Sanxingdui with special shapes, which look different from those in the Central Plains. Some people think that this is the image of Can Cong in the ancient Shu State, while others speculate that Sanxingdui civilization is another civilization different from the Central Plains civilization, but both belong to Chinese civilization.
Followed by bronze scared tree. In ancient books such as Shan Hai Jing, there are records about bronze sacred trees. It is said that the sacred tree is a ladder for ancient Shu people to communicate with people and gods and go up and down the world. In 2002, the bronze sacred tree unearthed in Sanxingdui was listed as the first batch of cultural relics prohibited from leaving the country for exhibition, which can be said to be a national treasure.
What else? Bronze sun gear? . This cultural relic looks very much like the steering wheel of a car now and the logo of a domestic car, but it is strange in appearance. What is even more incredible is that the bronze sun gear was actually used by ancient Shu people to observe the sun. This directly shows that our ancestors began to study the sun and explore the universe thousands of years ago.
In addition to a large number of bronze cultural relics, more than 1 10 jade articles, more than 70 pieces of pottery and 654.38+10,000 pieces of pottery were unearthed.
Permanent prohibition of excavation
However, such an important ancient treasure site was permanently banned from archaeological excavation after 1995. Why?
In fact, this is to protect ancient tombs, ancient sites and cultural relics. If all the sites and ancient tombs discovered today are excavated, there may be no ancient examination for future generations, or even a cultural fault.
Not only that, before this, there were many ancient tombs that brought great damage to cultural relics after excavation. Like the Terracotta Warriors Pit and the archaeological tragedy of Dingling in the Ming Tombs.
Shortly after the discovery of the Terracotta Warriors, archaeologists immediately began archaeological excavations. However, due to lack of technology and awareness of cultural relics protection. After the terracotta warriors and horses were unearthed, they immediately changed from colorful to gray-black today. After being opposed by many people, relevant experts are also rethinking a question:? The purpose of archaeology is to protect or destroy cultural relics. If you can't protect it, why dig it? .
Before this, a more serious archaeological accident happened, which was considered as the first tragedy in archaeological history. That's the Ming Mausoleum excavated by Guo Moruo and others. At that time, the cultural relics unearthed from the Ming Dingling Mausoleum were randomly discarded in the cultural relics warehouse. Such an important royal cultural relic of the Ming Dynasty has been neglected and unprotected for more than ten years. When the world reopened, all the cultural relics except some porcelain were destroyed. Emperor Wanli's robes were almost as bright as new from the very bright colors when they were first unearthed, but they were later destroyed as straw piles.
Therefore, when dealing with some large-scale sites and ancient tombs, the principle of archaeology is that if cultural relics can be protected in situ, they will not be dug up for protection in different places. This is the main reason why archaeological excavation of Sanxingdui site was banned after 95 years.