Sanxingdui

30°59′35″N 104°12′00″E / 30.993°N 104.200°E / 30.993; 104.200

For the museum, see Sanxingdui Museum.
Sanxingdui culture
Sanxingdui is located in Continental Asia
Sanxingdui
Sanxingdui
Sanxingdui is located in China
Sanxingdui
Sanxingdui
Sanxingdui is located in Sichuan
Sanxingdui
Sanxingdui
Geographical rangeChengdu Plain
PeriodBronze Age China
Datesc. 1700 – c. 1150 BC [1]
Type siteSanxingdui
Major sitesGuanghan, Deyang
Preceded byBaodun culture
Followed byJinsha
Ba and Shu
Chinese name
Chinese三星堆文化
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinSānxīngduī wénhuà
Sanxingdui bronze heads with gold foil masks

Sanxingdui (Chinese: 三星堆; pinyin: Sānxīngduī; lit. 'Three Star Mound') is an archaeological site and a major Bronze Age culture in modern Guanghan, Sichuan, China. Largely discovered in 1986,[2] following a preliminary finding in 1927,[3] archaeologists excavated artifacts that radiocarbon dating placed in the 12th-11th centuries BC.[4] The archaeological site is the type site for the Sanxingdui culture that produced these artifacts, archeologists have identified the locale with the ancient kingdom of Shu. The artifacts are displayed in the Sanxingdui Museum located near the city of Guanghan.[4]

Sanxingdui is on the UNESCO list of tentative World Heritage Sites, along with the Jinsha site and the tombs of boat-shaped coffins.[5]

  1. ^ Flad, Rowan; Chen, Pochan (2013). Ancient Central China: Centers and Peripheries Along the Yangtze River. New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 89–90. ISBN 978-0-521-72766-2.
  2. ^ Mystery of Ancient Chinese Civilization's Disappearance Explained
  3. ^ Xu, Jay (2011). "Lithic Artifacts from Yueliangwan: Research Notes on an Early Discovery at the Sanxingduiu Site". In Jerome Silbergeld; Dora C. Y. Ching; Judith G. Smith; Alfreda Merck (eds.). Bridges to Heaven: Essays on East Asian Art in Honor of Professor Wen C. Fong, Volume I. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-15298-1.
  4. ^ a b Sage, Steven F. (1992). Ancient Sichuan and the unification of China. Albany: State University of New York Press. p. 16. ISBN 0791410374.
  5. ^ "Archaeological Sites of the Ancient Shu State: Site at Jinsha and Joint Tombs of Boat- shaped Coffins in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province; Site of Sanxingdui in Guanghan City, Sichuan Province 29C.BC-5C.BC". UNESCO. Retrieved 23 February 2018.