Sanxingdui, which literally means “three stars mound,” is an archeological site found in China. The Sanxingdui archeological site is based on the Bronze age culture following the discovery of bronze objects in the second sacrificial pit in the year 1986 (Jingsong 78). The site is located approximately four kilometers northeast of Sichuan’s Guanghan in Nanxing Township (Jingsong 79). Today, Sanxingdui is considered to be the site of the ancient Chinese major city, currently known as Sichuan Province. The Bronze Age culture on which the Sanxingdui site is founded was first discovered in the year 1929 before its re-discovery in 1986 following the archeologists’ excavation of remarkable artifacts dated as having existed between the Twelfth and Eleventh centuries BCE (Xu 149). The archeologists termed the culture that produced such artifacts as the “Sanxingdui Culture," which is linked to the ancient Chinese kingdom of Shu. The discovered artifacts are currently exhibited in the Sanxingdui Museum, situated near the Chinese city of Guanghan in Sichuan Province (Xu 151).
The discovery of artifacts at Sanxingdui, and other related discoveries, such as the unearthing of the Xingan tombs at Jiangxi, tend to challenge the traditional narrative regarding the Chinese civilization, which is believed to have spread from Yellow River’s central plain (Xu 156). Chinese archeologists have, therefore, started considering multiple innovation centers as being ancestral to the Chinese civilization (Xu 161). Besides, most Chinese archeologists believe that the Sanxingdui culture forms part of the ancient Shu kingdom and they associate the artifacts discovered at the Sanxingdui site with the early legendary kings of the Shu Kingdom (Jingsong 83).
However, despite the great interest in the artifacts discovered at the Sanxingdui archeological site, the site suffered great pollution and flooding, which made the World Monuments Fund to include it in the 1996’s World Monuments Watch.
Works Cited
Jingsong, Shi. "Re-Examination of The Artifact Pits of Sanxingdui." Chinese Archaeology, vol 5, no. 1, 2005, Walter De Gruyter Gmbh, doi:10.1515/char.2005.5.1.200.
Xu, Jay. "Defining the Archaeological Cultures at The Sanxingdui Site." Journal of East Asian Archaeology, vol 5, no. 1, 2003, pp. 149-190. Brill Academic Publishers, doi:10.1163/156852303776173006.
