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Sanxingdui (三星堆 san1 xing1 dui1) is an archaeological site, about 40 kilometres from Chengdu in Sichuan Province, China. The relics found at Sanxingdui astonished archaeologists, since they were in an artistic style that was completely dissimilar from Chinese art at the time.
Sanxingdui was a Bronze Age culture, demonstrating advanced bronze smelting technique from about 1,200 years BC. The kingdom appears to have lasted for around 1,000 years, disappearing suddenly. Sanxingdui was a cultural contemporary of the Shang Dynasty, yet developed a different method of bronze-making; surprisingly, the culture was never directly recorded by Chinese historians.
There are no existing recorded texts to clarify the nature of this kingdom. In 1929 a farmer found a large stash of jade relics. Generations of Chinese archaeologists visited the area without much success, until two major sacrificial pits were found in 1986 by accident. The relics were found to be intentionally broken and burnt before being buried in the pits.
The Xinhua News Agency reported: "This excavation pushes Ba Shu history back a further 1,000 years to the time from 1,000 to 2,000 BC". The discovery of advanced animal husbandy was of scholarly interest, but the bronzes were what excited the world. Task Rosen of the British Museum considered them to be more outstanding than the terracotta army in Xi'an. In 1987 and 1990, exhibits were on display in Beijing. In 1993 the bronzes were in Switzerland; in 1995 in Munich, followed by the British Museum in 1996. Each time every ticket for the exhibition was sold out. In 1997, the Sanxindui Museum opened in Sanxingdui itself.
Among the bronze relics are several birds with eagle-like bills. There are bells and human heads with pointed noses - suggesting a non-Han ethnic origin. These relics also contain a bronze tree, three metres high. The most remarkable piece is a giant human statue weighing over 180 kilograms.
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