Sanxingdui

Earlier this afternoon, W msn and told me that Sanxingdui is in Singapore. They are doing a tour and now reciding in Asian Civilisation Museum.

How Sanxingdui came about? The relics of Sanxindui was discovered by a farmer in 1929 and excavations have continued ever since. This site is located in the city of Guanghan, 40 km from Chengdu, Sichuan Province. In 1986, the archaeologists discovered 2 major sacrificial pits which aroused a huge interest in the academic world. From the pits, thousands of gold, bronze, jade, and pottery artifacts that had been ritually disfigured, burned, and carefully buried was discovered. These artefacts dated all the way back to the Kingdom of "Shu" from a period of 5000 years ago.

The unearthed goodie showed exquisite workmanship which means that handicrafts and probably the bronze casting technology had developed by that time creating the foundations for a civilized society. Task Rosen, chief archaeological expert from the British Museum in London, said the discovery seems more outstanding than the terracotta figures of Warriors and Horses buried with the dead in Xi'an.

Despite the dig going on for years, no text have been found or nor there is any mention of this culture in the records in China or other countries. The culture behind Sanxingdui remain a mystery. For me, I thought certain artefacts resemble the Eygptian / javanese figures.

通天神树

The relic is made of green bronze material and stand 3.84m tall. Exquisite workmanship. The tree consists of 3 layers and each layer 3 branches, total of 9 brances. Each branch sits a bird and ornaments decorated the tree. There's also a dragon . We can assume that 5000 years ago, the chinese believe 9 is an auspicious number!

This is the bronze head which was unearthed unspoilt. There's a reason why the eyes are poking out but I can't really recall now. T was saying that there is a saying that goes eyes big means can see very far and ears big means can hear far. I think maybe this one symoblise a king. Together with the 通天神树, this bronze head is classified as 国家一级宝物。

So far, Sanxingdui has toured Guggenheim in New York (1998), the Swiss National Museum in Zurich (1996), the British Museum in London (1996), the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen to overwhelming response.

Now it's in Singapore! Don't miss it!