Chinese archaeologists have discovered a 1-meter tall bronze statue at the site of ancient Sanxingdui ruins site in southwest China’s Sichuan Province.
The Sichuan Provincial Cultural Relics and Archaeology Research Institute held a press conference at the Sanxingdui Museum on Monday to announce the results of archaeological excavation at the Sanxingdui site, a major project of “Archaeological China.”
The sacrificial area of the ruins is basically confirmed. The Shang Dynasty(1600 BC-1046 BC) relics distributed in the sacrificial area are all related to sacrificial activities, covering an area of nearly 13,000 square meters.
The sacrificial area includes the No. 1 pit, the No. 2 pit excavated in 1986, and the six pits newly discovered between 2020 and 2022. The eight pits are surrounded by rectangular trenches, small circular, and rectangular sacrificial pits, as well as trenches in the south and buildings in the northwest.
A large bronze figurine was unearthed from the Sanxingdui Ruins, along with other relics, as archaeologists continue excavations on the No. 7 and No. 8 sacrificial pits at the site revered as one of the greatest archaeological finds of the 20th century.
So far, around 13,000 items buried for more than 3,000 years have been unearthed from the six pits.
Archaeologists are currently at a crucial stage of excavation with pits 7 and 8. The bronze figure is the only large intact human figurine retrieved from No. 8, which has unveiled more buried treasures.
The standing bronze figure is about one meter tall, physically strong in arms and legs, and dresses in ancient traditional attire. The figure appears to be holding thin bronze ware and carries a lei (an ancient wine vessel), an ancient wine container, and ceremonial ware.
A bronze altar was discovered in a sacrificial pit last weekend. According to CGTN‘s news, the Bronze altar is about a meter high and is decorated with mythical creatures. There are also important finds in another pit where large amounts of bronze fragments and jade items were found.
