A fascinating mystery
The story about the rediscovery of Sanxingdui begins a relatively short time ago. First evidence that the city had ever existed was only found in 1929, when a farmer digging a well encountered a large number of jade objects. Although this immediately piqued the curiosity of archaeologists, their initial excavations turned up almost nothing. There was no further interest until 1986, when workers from a local brick factory were stunned to stumble across a sacrificial pit filled with thousands of ceramics, gold, bronze and jade objects – a veritable treasure trove. Some art historians believe the artistic value of these objects is even greater than that of the famous Terracotta Army of Xi'an. The find, however, was riddled with mystery; there were no written records about this civilization, and the style seemed completely different from any other society in the same period. However, contemporaries never mentioned a different culture and it quickly became clear that something very special had happened in this far-flung corner of Sichuan. Before, it had always been assumed that the cradle of the Chinese civilization was found on the banks of the Yellow River. Sanxingdui did not fit the bill, but the strange masks with bulging eyeballs and trunks and elephant ears suddenly had to be included in the history. That turned out to be no simple task: to this day little is known about this culture.
A mysterious collection
Although the history of the images on display in the museum goes back thousands of years, the museum itself is pretty modern. The many dark rooms emphasize the mysterious atmosphere. The exhibit space is spread over 2 halls. The first is devoted to ceramics and jade and gold artefacts that have been found in the region. The second hall displays most of the bronze showpieces. The 2.62-metre-high bronze statue and enormous 1.34-metre-wide bronze mask are incredibly impressive.
