The new dig shows how awareness of the need to protect cultural relics has changed in the country. A China Central Television Station (CCTV) livestream of the current Sanxingdui excavation has proved popular as viewers watch in hope of seeing a new discovery.
The shelters erected above the dig sites provide controlled temperature and humidity. Excavators wear protective suits to prevent contaminants.
“If we compare the excavation to giving birth, the previous conditions were like we only had a midwife, but now we’ve moved to a professional gynecological and obstetrical hospital with protective equipment,” Chen De’an, former director of the Sanxingdui archaeological team and one of the archaeologists that discovered No.1 and No.2 pits, told NewsChina.
“I’m deeply impressed by the advanced technologies used in the latest excavation,” Xu Feihong, supervisor of No.3 pit, told NewsChina. He revealed that the Sichuan Archaeology Institute provided archaeologists with an integrated excavation platform. An scissored platform allows excavators to dangle Tom Cruise-like over the dig to avoid damaging artifacts. In addition, there is a crane to lift heavy objects, a photography platform and a hyperspectral scanner for forensic investigations.
“It’s very different from the 1986 excavation. We’re really well prepared for the excavation of these six new pits,” Xu said. “We’ve established a lab and we can conduct experiments on site so we don’t have to wait for answers,” he added.
“It’s like we’ve moved the dig into a lab with these new technologies and equipment,” Sun Hua, a professor at the School of Archaeology and Museology, Peking University, told NewsChina.
According to CCTV, there are more than 100 archaeologists and experts working on the six pits from 34 departments and organs, covering metallurgy, botany, environment, zoology and relics protection. There are regular meetings to exchange ideas and discuss plans.
Ran Honglin, executive leader of the Sanxingdui relics excavation team, told NewsChina that the excavation has two phases. The first, from October 2019-August 2020, formed the basis of the second phase. “In the 1986 excavation, archaeologists failed to connect the No.1 and No.2 pits to the neighboring areas, but in the first phase we systematically explored the whole area where the eight pits are,” Ran said. “If we had not done that, the excavation would have just been like a random dig.”
“We won’t miss even a handful of soil now,” Sun Hua said. “For example, archaeologists couldn’t distinguish silk fragments mixed in the soil with the naked eye, so the fragments might have been overlooked in the past. Now we take all the soil from the six new pits to the lab, except surface soil that’s already contaminated,” he added.
According to Sun, the latest excavation will refine and update their understanding of the culture and civilization that was mainly derived from the first two pits. Archaeologists expect the new information could unlock mysteries and settle disputes, such as the exact age and function of the sacrificial pits.
According to Lei Yu, director of the Sanxingdui Ruins site station, their work will not stop at studying the burial objects, since their objective is to gain a clear understanding of the Shu settlement, its form and how it functioned. He revealed that the Sichuan Archaeology Institute’s three-year plan has defined the focus of their work as “settlement archaeology,” which means assessing the relics from different phases and zones to understand their relationships, and “social archaeology” which means gathering information about the identities, social stratum and tribal structure of the people who lived there.
“According to our plan, the next task is to conduct multiple disciplinary studies on the cultural relics from in and around the pits to get an idea about the sacrificial system of the ancient Shu culture,” he told NewsChina.
“We’re just taking the first step in our long journey,” Xie Zhenbin, the Sichuan Archaeology Institute’s culture relics protection director, said.