Archaeological Sites
Sanxingdui
~1200 BC · found 1986 · Guanghan, Sichuan, China
Active excavationThe prize. A lost Bronze Age civilization with no name
Where. Guanghan, Sichuan, China
Status. Active excavation
Where. Guanghan, Sichuan, China
Status. Active excavation
The account
A brick-worker's spade broke into a sacrificial pit in 1986 and out came faces, towering bronze masks with protruding eyes, a god-tree, gold, jade, and ivory from a culture that left no writing and matches no known dynasty. New pits opened in the 2020s keep adding thousands of relics. A whole civilization, rich and strange, that history forgot to record.
Leads, where the trail points now
- Sacrificial pits at Sanxingdui in Sichuan keep yielding bronze masks and gold from a lost civilization that left no written name; new pits were opened from 2020.
- It is a protected state excavation, so the open work is interpreting a culture with no records, and more pits very likely remain.
- The unanswered questions are who these people were and where the city that made this gold actually lies.
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