Important sites found around Sanxingdui cover nearly 5000 years of uninterrupted regional development history

Xinhua News Agency, Chengdu, July 29 (Reporter Tong Fang) According to the announcement of Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology on the 28th, an important site - the Joint Site has been found around Sanxingdui. Experts believe that this site should be an important settlement around the Sanxingdui ancient city site, covering the continuous regional development history of nearly 5000 years. This discovery opened the prelude to the study of the surrounding area of Sanxingdui.

The Joint Site is located in Group 1, Lianhe Village, Nanfeng Town, Guanghan City, Sichuan Province, about 8 kilometers south of the Sanxingdui Ancient City Site.

From October 2019, Sichuan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Deyang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and Guanghan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology will carry out rescue archaeological excavations at the joint site, with a planned excavation area of 7000 square meters. By the end of June 2020, the excavation area of 4500 square meters has been completed, and extremely rich remains of Neolithic, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, Qin and Han Dynasties, Wei and Jin Dynasties, Tang and Song Dynasties, Ming and Qing Dynasties have been found. Thousands of ash pits, tombs, kiln sites and other relics in various periods have been exposed. At the same time, a large number of pottery, porcelain, stone tools, etc. have been unearthed. At present, the excavation work is still in progress.

"The Joint Site covers four cultural factors, namely Guiyuan Bridge, Baodun, Sanxingdui, and Twelve Bridges. It is the first site around Sanxingdui that has a complete sequence of ancient Shu civilization. The main cultural factors of Sanxingdui are the most abundant in the Joint Site, and a large number of cultural relics similar to Sanxingdui have been unearthed." Xin Zhonghua, associate researcher of Sichuan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, introduced.

It is understood that a large number of high handle beans, hollow ring foot beans (plates), small flat bottomed pots, etc. were unearthed and recovered at the United Site. The unearthed pottery with the combination of dragon and phoenix carved on the Yin line was in the late Shang Dynasty, and it is the earliest pottery with the pattern of "dragon and phoenix presenting good fortune" found in China at present.

Xin Zhonghua believes that the discovery of the Joint Site is of great significance to the study of the origin, development and evolution of the ancient Shu civilization.