Visitors watch as workers work at a sacrifice area of the Jinsha Relic Site on December 18, 2005 in Chengdu of Sichuan Province, China. The Jinsha Relic Site was first unearthed in early 2001, now over 2,000 relics have been found in the ruins, including gold masks, gold ornaments, pieces of jade, bronze wares, stone statues, elephant tusks. Experts with the National Administration of Cultural Heritage have hailed the Jinsha finding as 'one of China's most important archaeological discoveries at the start of the 21st century'. Archaeologists said the civilization that produced the antiques unveiled the prosperous culture of ancient Shu in the region more than 3,500 years ago. One of the relics excavated from the site, the Sunbird motif goldleaf was chosen as the logo for 'China Cultural Heritage'.
Jinsha Village is an important Bronze Age site, located south of Huangzhong village in Sichuan province. The site was identified during a construction project in 2001, and has proven to include an area of nearly 3 square kilometers with three separate localities within its limits: these are called the Orchid Garden, the Plum Garden and Athlete Park.
The site has a substantial early Western Zhou and Shang dynasty occupations. One enormous pit was discovered to contained eight layers of elephant tusks, interspersed with numerous jades and gold artifacts.
Excavations at Jinsha have been conducted by the municipal archaeologists from Chengdu city.
Sources and Further Information
Lawler, Andrew. 2009. Beyond the Yellow River: How China Became China. Science 325:930-943.
Yang, Xiaoneng. 2004. Chinese Archaeology in the Twentieth Century: New Perspectives on China's Past. Yale University Press, New Haven.
- Shang Dynasty 1700-1050 BC
- Zhou Dynasty 1046-221 BC
