Defining the Archaeological Cultures at the Sanxingdui Site - Report Example

Insert Sanxingdui Archaeological site Sanxingdui is a Chinese word meaning "three stars mound.” The most popular use of the wordSanxingdui is in reference to a valuable archaeological place in southwestern China, which was initially not associated with the Bronze Age culture. The site is now thought to be the exact location of a big ancient city in China Sichuan region. The Bronze Age culture established in the place was re-discovered in the late 1980s when archaeologists dug important artifacts dating back to 11th or 12th centuries for the first time. The cultural movement that generated these relics is now referred to as the Sanxingdui Culture and which archeologists have associated with the classic Shu kingdom. The artifacts have since been gathered and are on display at the Sanxingdui Museum situated close to Guanghan city. Background of the site The Sanxingdui archaeological site is made up of two collections. Students, archaeologists, historians and other adventurers pass through the first collection to arrive at the second. The first gallery displays a wide range of metallic items made of gold, jade and bronze as well as ceramics. The second gallery displays bronze items, sculptures, veneers, and other bronze objects that have stunned archaeologists by their fine workmanship and distinct styles (von Falkenhausen 191). The craftsmen arguably blended different metals in the right ratios to produce alloys which eased their casting to create enormous Bronze-age images that they encountered at the time. Visitors are normally attracted to the design and sheer size of some items made of bronze, which quickly enables them to come to terms with the ancient technological abilities and craftsmanship of the then civilizations (Li and Luo 77). The Four Halls also play an important role in creating the image of the ancient Chinese civilization and its importance in the subsequent cultural evolution. The first facility provides many insights into the kind of life lived by the people in this civilization. The second is equipped with religious symbols and other complementing artifacts. The items give invaluable insights into the ways of worship, politics, social connections and common cultural practices of the then society. The third hall is equipped with the prominent artifacts and substantial numbers of them are considered to be vital Chinese national riches (Li and Luo 77). The fourth hall focuses on the outcomes of archeological studies that have been conducted over centuries, and on the significance of Sanxingdui itself as an archeological site. Research Question The focus of the paper is: what is the significance of Sanxingdui in understanding the ancient Chinese civilization? The archeological finds in Sanxingdui arguably challenges the classical account of Chinese culture cradling from the Yellow River Plains (Li and Luo 77). This is because Chinese archaeological trends are beginning to expand their assessments on multiple possible cradles of innovation which have clearer pointers to the ancient Chinese civilization. Sanxingdui archeological site is located 25 miles northeast of Chengdu in Sichuan province where it holds a huge collection of vital artifacts as old as 5,000 years. The site is the biggest museum located in southwest China, hence its reference as Yangtze River’s cradle of the civilization (Li and Luo 7). The collections in this massive museum can be traced to the Bronze Age and gathers a broad variety of relics including bronze masks, jade imagery and other items made of gold. Among the artifacts is the worlds earliest and valuable human statue, standing at 8.5 feet tall and weighing a sheer 180 kilograms (von Falkenhausen 192). The term Sanxingdui is known for the landmark ‘Three Star Mounds’, a term used to refer to the three large heaps of soil at the place. The mounds are believed to be what remained of a classic wall made of earth and brick by members of the ancient city, possibly for protection against the enemy or natural disasters such as floods. The discovery of two enormous sacrificial pits in 1986 aroused archaeological activities in the area and globally in an effort to unearth its cultural significance. Archeologists discovered that the artifacts located at these holes and subsequent insights at the site were the relics of originally unknown but economically important urban dwelling. The city represented a civilization that was created by the Shang Dynasty around the 11th century in what shed more light on the massive political and economic power wielded by the then administration. Until then, Li and Luo (79) noted that many historians believed that the Shang Dynasty which existed in northern regions of China around the Yellow River and the Yangtze was the only civilization of the Bronze Age. Nonetheless, von Falkenhausen (201) noted that the discovery of the site continues to be a remarkable mystery: the Sanxingdui artifacts appear to provide interesting insights into the ancient Chinese civilization in as much as they remain mysterious. No elaborating scripts have been discovered so far, and this culture is equally missing from the documentation or any referencing made by other civilizations. Some assessments of the metallic components of the relics have links which are comparable to those of other civilizations along the lower plains adjacent to Yangtze River. As of now, however, the distinct culture that generated these artifacts continues to trouble archaeologists’ minds. Importance of the Sanxingdui artifacts The twin sacrificial pits discovered in the Sanxingdui site provide a rare insight into the culture of the ancient Shang Dynasty. The discovery of the first sacrificial pit which lies in Sanxingdui’s southward regions explains the socio-economic and political culture of the ancient civilization; for instance, several jade dagger-axes and the accompanying tablets unearthed by workers suggests the military culture of the classical society which had to arm itself against external attacks and conquer other regions for various strategic interests (Li and Luo 78). In addition, the protective tamped-down mound exposed by the archaeologists mostly likely explains what could be understood as a protective feature for members of the royal family and their interests. The subsequent revelation of additional dagger-axes made of bronze added to the militarism culture of conquests during the classical Shang Dynasty. Cultural origins and significance The civilization objectified in the various Sanxingdui artifacts is believed to be split into a number of categories, depending on the layers of valuables unearthed from the site. The Sanxingdui culture best explains the importance of the mysterious civilization practiced by the ancient people of the southern China: that the civilization was unique and deeply closed from the rest of the Chinese society, otherwise important links to the civilizations could have been discovered by China’s archaeological historians (Li and Luo 79). This civilization is synonymous with the 11th century Shang Dynasty but the archaeological finds suggests a different technique of making bronze items from the methods used by Shang. The initial phase which draws multiple similarities to the artifacts of the lowest layer of the earth seems to be synonymous with those of the Baodun culture, whereas the top-most artifacts shows an integrated culture of the Ba and Chu. As von Falkenhausen (211) said, the Sanxingdui civilization ended, arguably as a consequence of natural calamities in the form of widespread flooding or through assimilation of a different cultural civilization. Based on the artifacts, the culture arguably manifests the influential theocracy with important links of business to the bronze made by Yin society and Southeast Asian ivory. Such proofs of unique cultures in diverse regions of China rewrite the conventional hypotheses that the origin of the Chinese civilization was along the Yellow River. The Sanxingdui artifacts point to an elaborate bronze casting civilization of the ancient China which supported the making of several impressive items such as the worlds earliest, and arguably the most enormous standing human bronze image and a statue of a tree complete with birds, decorations, and jewelry. These artifacts, especially the Fusang tree are clearly reminiscent of the origins of Chinese mythology. To emphasize the culture mythical culture, Li and Luo noted that the most conspicuous finds in the large masks and human heads, angular human qualities, overstated almond-shaped faces (some with bulging eyes), and huge upper ears suggest the then artists’ penchant for aesthetics in the ancient Chinese civilization (79). According to Li and Luo (77) many Sanxingdui statue faces bear traces of dye on the darker side; disproportionately huge eyes, and some red lip pigment, nostrils, and ears in what can be construed as a coloring strategy that was meant to convey rituals administered to improve the senses of human beings or the ability to understand cultural beliefs and traditions in a better way. The design of the masks has led archeologists to consider the likelihoods of the items being made while hoisted on wooden totems, whereas some are covered with some clothing, in what is suggestive of the fact that masked rituals contributed significantly towards the life of the community members of the classical Sanxingdui people. In addition, the design typifies these bronze ceremonial masks that were likely preferred by some dead person or an impersonator or a ritual symbolism of a departed relative (shi). von Falkenhausen (223) noted that the shi was normally a family member who would be personified by young kin who was required to sport special attire including a head mask manifesting the qualities of the deceased as a way of appeasing the spirits. During such rituals, the impersonator was expected to play a bigger role than a mere impersonator. Li and Luo (78) noted that despite the likelihoods of the exact connotation of the artifact being different, the collection of Sanxingdui masked statues in bronze all displayed the character of an impersonator. It is possible the masks were worn as a form of disguise to other community members but was deemed as cutting the image of a particular supernatural individual so as to fulfill some communal goals. Jay (149) noted that some scholars associate these protruding-eyed finds and supersized bronze facemasks with eye gods: that, portraits with oversized eyes and equally large mouths geared towards evoking hallucinations. As such, it is likely that southern impersonators of the southern China adorned these fascinating bronze masks in order to signify the immortal powers of a fallen ancestor. Other bronze items comprise birds resembling eagles, tigers, an enormous snake, bells, and wheels decorated by bronze. Aside from bronze, the jade artifacts available in Sanxingdui archaeological site are consistent with classical Chinese Neolithic civilizations and theories of the universe. The origin of the Universe The Neolithic Era witnessed the then Chinese civilization being assigned four animals to represent each of the quadrants of the universe: Azure Dragon, Vermillion Bird, White Tiger, and Black Tortoise, for the East, South, West and North respectively. Jay (161) noted that each of these quad representations of the Chinese cosmology was attributed to a pattern of stars that could be seen in the particular seasons they represented; for instance, the dragon was spotted in the spring. These cultural symbolisms in the form of jade artifacts predominates the archaeological items at Sanxingdui, in which case, the bronzes most likely symbolize the ancient Chinese understanding of cosmology. It is, however, unclear whether the animal symbols were part and parcel of rituals aimed at appeasing any spirits. In addition, owing to the lack of elaborative evidence, it is not easy to establish the expected uses of the items discovered by the excavators (Li and Luo 79). There are suggestions that the prevalent portrayals of these fauna, more so during the subsequent Han era, were an effort by the southern Chinese to reflect their social knowledge in tangible objects. Yet the Sanxingdui jades also appear to share some similarities with several of the ritual jades of classical China. In a nutshell, Sanxingdui interestingly adds to the controversy surrounding the history of the ancient Chinese civilization, but offers valuable insights into the originally diverse culture, which integrated over time into a single entity. Conclusion Sanxingdui is an important archaeological site whose discovery in 1986 has enabled China to find some missing links to its classical civilizations tracing back to 11th century. The huge collections of the relics excavated from the site reveals that Chinese of civilizations was diverse as opposed the previously-held assertion that its cradle was the Yellow River Plains. The buried Sanxingdui classical city and the civilization that reigned in it during the Bronze Age before the population was wiped out by a natural calamity suggests that the south Western site also contributed to the evolution of the Chinese contemporary history. Various artifacts such as shields, wheels, swords, masks and other human imagery made of different metals and ceramics, for example, have a rich history of the then cosmological thoughts of the community, accompanying cultural rituals, and socio-economic and political beliefs that evolved overtime through assimilation to make the currently closed Chinese civilization. Works Cited Jay Xu. Defining the Archaeological Cultures at the Sanxingdui Site. Journal of East Asian Archaeology, 5.1-4 (2003): 149-190. Li Xianyao and Luo Zhewen. Chinas Museums: Introductions to Chinese Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. von Falkenhausen, Lothar. The External Connections of Sanxingdui. Journal of East Asian Archaeology, 5.1-4 (2003): 191-245. Read More