"The archaeological achievements of Sanxingdui Site are famous in the world, showing the achievements of civilization more than 4000 years ago, and providing more powerful archaeological evidence for the integration of Chinese civilization, the interaction between ancient Shu civilization and Central Plains civilization." In July 2023, General Secretary Xi Jinping said during his visit to the new museum of Sanxingdui Museum.

The golden mask on display in Sanxingdui Museum. Photographed by People's Daily Online reporter Xian Jiangnan

"Sleeping for thousands of years, one wakes up and startles the world." Sanxingdui Site, located on the south bank of Yazi River in the northwest of Guanghan City, Deyang City, Sichuan Province, represents the appearance and development level of ancient Shu civilization thousands of years ago, and is the capital site with the richest cultural connotation and the largest area in the Yangtze River basin at the same time.

Recently, the publicity and media team of People's Daily Online "See China" went to Guanghan, Sichuan to explore the mysterious ancient Shu civilization.

　　 "Archaeological work has been in the unknown process of solving puzzles"

The sun is hot and the sky is dusty. A dozen large sun umbrellas were supported at an archaeological excavation site of Sanxingdui Site. Xu Danyang, a member of the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, is carrying out field archaeological excavation here, digging earth by hand, clearing relics, packaging cultural relics, collecting data, recording information... These are his daily work.

Xu Danyang, a member of the Sichuan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, was interviewed by People's Daily Online. Photographed by Zhang Rong, reporter of People's Daily Online

During the four years of archaeological work, Xu Danyang has unearthed bronze figures of people turning their heads and kneeling, as well as many other cultural relics. Xu Danyang still remembers the problems he encountered in the archaeological excavation. "In the Sanxingdui sacrificial pit, we found many ivory, whose texture has softened due to the long burial time, like melting ice cream." After collecting opinions from many parties, the team finally covered the ivory with wet polymer bandages to fix its shape, and then extracted them one by one. "This is my archaeological work, a process of constant surprise and unknown mystery solving," said Xu Danyang.

At the excavation site, the reporter saw many villagers digging under professional guidance. Xu Danyang told the reporter, "Archaeological work spent a lot of time in the field, dealing with land and villagers." Field archaeology is the forefront of archaeological work, and new discoveries will be made at any time. In fact, all discoveries are first shown to people. As the archaeologist Mr. Su Bingqi once said, "Archaeology is the cause of the people, not the cause of a few professional workers."

With the development of science and technology, archaeology began to use many new technologies and methods. "For example, the polymer bandages I just mentioned, as well as 3D modeling, ultra depth of field microscope, etc., more and more advanced technologies have been applied to archaeological work," said Xu Danyang. The application of these technologies makes the excavation and restoration of cultural relics more scientific, systematic and sustainable.

　　 "The process of cultural relics restoration is our story"

The archaeological excavation of Sanxingdui Site and the restoration of cultural relics were advanced simultaneously. Wearing a white coat, carefully adjusting the angle of the microscope, and observing the fine traces attached to the cultural relics, Xie Li, the cultural relics restorer of Sanxingdui Museum, is cleaning up a bronze head. "We have used a lot of new observation equipment, and I am using a body microscope now, which can observe the details of cultural relics and help to repair them more accurately," said Xie Li.

Xie Li, the cultural relic restoration engineer of Sanxingdui Museum, was interviewed by People's Daily Online. Photographed by Zhang Rong, reporter of People's Daily Online

Because of her love, Xie Li has been engaged in the restoration of cultural relics for ten years since she graduated from college. The restoration of cultural relics seems boring and repetitive to many people, but Xie Li is always full of fresh feelings about it: "This work is not boring, because every cultural relic repaired is different, and the experience is also ever-changing."

"Every cultural relic is precious, because it cannot be copied or regenerated." Every step of cultural relic restoration is very important, and there is no hurry. You should be calm and calm. Xie Li often sits there for a day. "What I do is to restore the broken cultural relics to the audience," said Xie Li.

Xie Li sighed: "Each cultural relic has its own historical story behind it, which also records the story of our repairmen's restoration, and will also bear the story of the audience seeing it. The process of restoration is our story."

　　 "Without Sanxingdui, the picture of Chinese civilization is incomplete"

On July 26, 2023, the new Sanxingdui Museum opened. With a construction area of 54400 square meters, the new museum is the largest single building of a heritage museum built in southwest China. The exhibition arrangement is divided into three parts: "Century Pursues Dreams", "Weiran King City" and "Heaven, Earth, People and Gods". After the restoration of the cultural relics, they were sent to the museum.

Lei Yu, curator of Sanxingdui Museum, was interviewed by People's Daily Online. Photographed by Zhang Rong, reporter of People's Daily Online

Lei Yu, curator of Sanxingdui Museum, introduced that some of the cultural relics unearthed in Sanxingdui are jade and bronze, which are common nationwide; The other part is the typical Sanxingdui style artifacts group, such as bronze Dali people, bronze god trees, bronze masks, etc. These are the most unique and brilliant parts of Sanxingdui ruins, and are also the most interesting parts for ordinary people.

In 1984, Thunderstorm came to Sanxingdui Ruins to work. Two accidental discoveries in 1986 shocked the ancient Shu Kingdom at home and abroad. Lei Yu said that the two rescue excavations still fresh in his memory. In July, when the workers of the brick factory were digging, they accidentally dug into a cultural relic burial ground, and more than ten jade and stone artifacts were unearthed, which revealed the No.1 sacrificial pit. Less than a month later, when the workers of the brick factory dug 30 meters away from Pit 1, they found cultural relics again, and the excavation of Pit 2 started non-stop in the hot summer. A large number of cultural relics are piled up in the pit, including bronze head portraits, standing figures, masks, etc. The discovery of two sacrificial pits shocked the world and was called one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of mankind in the 20th century.

"On the day of the opening of the new Sanxingdui Museum, General Secretary Xi came to the restoration and protection center to visit. He asked me about the combination of gold flakes, bent down to see the half of the sun wheels at the bottom of the cultural relics shelf, and also discussed with us about the fifth division of the sun wheels. I could feel that he was very familiar with Sanxingdui cultural relics and talked very professionally, which impressed me deeply." The year 2023 is the 39th year of Lei Yu's work in Sanxingdui. He said, "The General Secretary told me that it is not easy to do something in 40 years. These words are deep encouragement and encouragement for me."

The sun wheel on display in the Sanxingdui Museum. Photographed by People's Daily Online reporter Xian Jiangnan

Archaeological work can confirm the long history of Chinese civilization and its important contribution to world civilization. Lei Yu said that Sanxingdui Site, on the one hand, shows the achievements of the ancient Shu people in the development of civilization more than 4000 years ago, and changes the public's traditional understanding of the ancient Shu cultural region; On the other hand, it shows that the ancient Shu civilization represented by Sanxingdui is an integral part of Chinese civilization, which greatly enriches the connotation of Chinese civilization. "The formation and development of Chinese civilization is diversified and integrated. Without the discovery of Sanxingdui, the picture of Chinese civilization would be incomplete." (Liu Ning, Wang Yu, Heng, Zhang Rongxian, Jiang Nan [Germany] Oliver)

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