Sanxingdui archaeological site has a new discovery! The jade and stoneware production workshop has been found!

On the 23rd, the reporter learned from the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology that the jade and stoneware "production workshop" had been found! This is an important progress in the archaeological excavation of the Sanxingdui ruins, a major project of "Archaeology China".

The Sanxingdui ruins, located in Guanghan City, Sichuan Province, reveal the history and culture of the ancient Shu civilization, vividly demonstrate the diversity and unity of Chinese civilization, and open a window for the world to understand Eastern civilization.

01 The first handicraft workshop was discovered at the Sanxingdui site

This is the first time that a handicraft workshop has been discovered at the Sanxingdui site. Using new materials to verify the source of Sanxingdui jade and stoneware and other raw materials, and to answer a series of questions such as the functional layout of the Sanxingdui ancient city, is an important step in Sanxingdui archaeological research.

From 2022 to 2024, archaeologists discovered new remains related to the production and processing of jade and stone tools at the Sanxingdui site. Experts initially judged it to be a jade and stone tool "production workshop" dating back to the middle of the Shang Dynasty, about 3500 to 3400 years ago, which is earlier than the burial date of the Sanxingdui sacrificial pit.

Near the Yan Family Courtyard in Moon Bay, Sanxingdui, the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology carried out archaeological exploration, and successively found more than 400 high-level building foundations, ash pits, ash ditches, and stone production and processing relics, and unearthed more than 4,000 pieces of pottery, jade, and stone tools.

The site of the jade and stoneware workshop is located in a protected open space. The reporter saw at the scene that the "production workshop" is about one kilometer north of the eight sacrificial pits of Sanxingdui, and less than 100 meters away from the Yanjiayuan jade and stoneware pit that was first discovered in Sanxingdui in 1927.

The newly unearthed cultural relics, including jade raw materials, blanks, waste materials, fragments and finished products, form a relatively complete chain of early handicrafts. It is preliminarily judged that the new discovery is a jade workshop.

02 Jade Artifacts from Sanxingdui

More than 2,000 jade artifacts have been unearthed in Sanxingdui. The people of Sanxingdui used jade zhang, jade ge, jade cong, jade bi, etc. as important sacrificial objects and intermediaries to worship the heaven, earth, mountains and rivers, and communicate with gods and ancestors, carrying the idea of ​​using jade to worship heaven and communicate with gods.

As early as 1934, after reading the materials from the Sanxingdui archaeological excavation, Guo Moruo believed that "the jade bi, jade zhang and jade gui are similar to those found in North China and Central China. This is evidence that ancient Western Shu had cultural contacts with Central China and North China."

Guo Moruo's "first impression" of Sanxingdui was continuously confirmed by more discoveries and research later. Wang Fang, deputy director and researcher of the Chengdu Jinsha Site Museum, believes that most of the jade artifacts in Sanxingdui are inherited and borrowed from other regional cultures in China, and together they have formed a splendid long river of ancient Chinese jade culture. "The shape and decoration of the jade zhang are influenced by the Erlitou culture in Henan and the Shimao culture in Shaanxi. The shape of the jade dagger is similar to the jade dagger unearthed from the Erligang culture in Henan, the Panlongcheng site in Hubei, the Yin Ruins in Anyang, and the Shang Dynasty tombs in Xin'gan, Jiangxi. The collared jade bi is similar to similar artifacts unearthed from the Yin Ruins in Anyang and the Shang Dynasty tombs in Xin'gan, Jiangxi. The shape characteristics of most of the jade cong have the typical style of the Northwest Qijia culture."

The jade artifacts on display in the new Sanxingdui Museum not only shine with multicultural charm, but also show the unique creativity of the ancestors of Sanxingdui thousands of years ago based on inheritance and reference. Even these "original works" still contain the cultural connotation of "using jade to worship the sky" in the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties.

03 "Production workshop" helps unveil the mystery of the dawn of civilization

"The discovery of the 'production workshop' will reveal the mysteries of where the raw materials of the large number of jade and stone artifacts unearthed in Sanxingdui came from, the production technology, the production process and the distribution method," said Ran Honglin, director of the Sanxingdui Site Work Station of the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology.

From "discovery" to "interpretation", in the future we will also look for bronze production workshops, further unveil the "veil" of ancient Shu civilization, and provide more powerful evidence for verifying the diversity and unity of Chinese civilization.

Over the years, more than 60,000 cultural relics have been unearthed, and the achievements are well-known in the world. The new Sanxingdui Museum has been open for nearly a year and has attracted more than 5 million Chinese and foreign tourists.

The dawn of civilization of Liangzhu and Erlitou, the written heritage of oracle bones of Yinxu, the cultural treasures of Sanxingdui... People are drawing historical wisdom and increasing their self-confidence from more unsolved mysteries of civilization.

Comprehensive sources: Xinhua News Agency, Guangming Online, etc.