A visit to Sanxingdui Museum

It would have been a great loss, had I not been there.

We have been talking about visiting the Sanxingdui Museum back some weeks. But as almost all of us were busy at the end of the semester, we could not materialize our plan.

On 14 January, finally, we set to visit this well-known museum. It is some 60 kilometers far from the city center of Chengdu and unfortunately, the subway has not yet been extended up to there. So, it was not so convenient for us to go there, especially for us who can't speak and understand Chinese very well.

But where there is a will, there is a way. As we have heard about the significance of the Sanxingdui Museum from many Chinese friends, we are eager to visit there. One fine morning on 14 January, we started our excursion from the South Gate of the Sichuan University and by noon we arrived there, after almost an hour-long journey.

Unlike museums in our country, there were many visitors to the Sanxingdui Museum. Visitors from all age groups were entering the gate full of curiosity.
The foremost part that impressed me at the first sight when I just entered the gate was the grand architecture of the building. Many visitors before entering the museum were clicking the grand artistic building. Numbers of groups were entering the museum led by the curators holding peculiar flags of varied colors.

Inside the Sanxingdui Museum, a large quantity of ancient artifacts and relics unearthed in the recent past have been well preserved. The story started in 1927. Some peasants at the Yueliangwan discovered jade artifacts while dredging irrigation ditches. Till then the world was unknown about the immense treasure lying underground. Then, the West China Union University Museum started its first excavation to find out more historically significant artifacts.

Located on the southern banks of the Yazi River in Guanghan city of Sichuan province, the Sanxingdui site since then has been the consistent concern and field of research for hundreds of Chinese and foreign archeologists.

Even though research and evacuation works were continued since the 1920s, the decade 1980s were of special significance because by then systematic excavation and research on the Sanxingdui area were further enhanced by naming the archeological site, 'Sanxingdui Culture.' In 1986, two sacrificial pits were discovered there, opening a wide avenue of possibilities for more findings with large impacts on the civilizational history of China and humanity. In 2019, six more sacrificial pits were discovered, creating a sensational impact throughout China and the world. Ancient artifacts made up of jade, clay and metal are unearthed there, have not only shown the prosperous history of Chinese civilization rather they have also complemented some of the established assertions of ancient history.

As we were surfing the well-managed and intricately preserved artifacts inside the museum, like many visitors we were also amazed to see the meticulous work done by our ancestors some three thousand years before.

Metal masks found there in hundreds of numbers with different interesting and noticeable gestures look impressive. The fact that they were made some three centuries before has made them even more awesome. These findings smashed some of our prejudicial assumptions about ancient humans.

According to the research, 'nearly a century of archaeological excavations and research has revealed that the Sanxingdui site developed into a large settlement from the late Neolithic period to the Xia period. By the early Shang period, there were already city walls and large-scale buildings. During the middle Shang period, the site reached a grand scale with metallurgy, jade carving, and silk weaving techniques reaching their peak.' The findings of the Sanxingdui site have clarified many gloomy historical assumptions about the Xia period of Chinese history.

From a total of eight sacrificial pits discovered from 1986 to 2019, nearly 20 thousand precious cultural relics were unearthed.

Sanxingdui Museum is not only the mere display of what the researchers have found there rather it is managed in such a way that visitors can easily know the historical significance of those relics. How can these artifacts impact the ancient history of China? In what ways they are different from the archaeological findings found previously? How wise and civilized were the ancient people and what was the level of civilization they lived? These questions are answered comfortably as visitors observe every relic there.

Besides those answers, one can also see how hard it was to excavate, preserve and examine those artifacts. How hard the archaeologists and historical researchers work to restore such historically imperative properties of entire human beings ?

All artifacts are displayed in more than 40 sections of the huge building, divided under different themes employing various technology and methods of presentations. That shows that besides archaeologists and historians, large number of experts from different genres of knowledge and skills have used their brains to preserve those qualitative historical treasures. Through those tangible artifacts, experts have drawn myriads of intangible conclusions about ancient human living then, from multiple perspectives.

By drawing connection lines between various ancient civilizations inside and outside China, the Sanxingdui Museum has made it easy to understand the various lines of human civilization. That made the Museum itself a grand epic where every visitor can be proud of wise and hardworking ancestors.

It was almost late evening when we exited the museum with many questions and answers in our heads. It is said that till now only 2 percent of the whole site has been excavated. That means manifolds of history are yet to be recovered. It will show the complete picture of 'a large settlement from the Neolithic period to the Xia period' making China as a civilizational country more prosperous.

Hats off all researchers and scholars for their hard work and Chinese government for the huge investment to dig in and preserve the joint property of whole human society.

Niraj Lawoju is a Nepali student studying at the Sichuan University, Chengdu.

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