Ancient Shu Civilisation (古蜀文明) - 三星堆 And 金沙遺址
Posted On Saturday, November 26, 2011 at at 6:13 PM by Alvin
Some 4,000 years ago, these dudes settled along the fertile Upper Yangtse River near Chengdu and gave rise to the ancient Shu Civilisation (古蜀文明) - a third pillar in piecing up the ancient Chinese culture along with the Huang He (黃河文明) and Yangtse River (長江文明) civilisations. It was only in the past 20 years that precious artifacts were dug up near Chengdu at the sites of 三星堆 and 金沙遺址 which revealed the depth and sophistication of the Shu culture. The most famous of these artifacts included The Gold Masks, The Sun Bird, The Bronze Head Pieces and numerous ivory tusks, religious sites and city walls. The ancient Shu peoples were sun devotees, had a penchant for dedicating tusks to their religion and enjoyed their alcohol - their downfall remained a mystery, perhaps due to the fact that they did not have writing skills. Nevertheless, staring face to face with these intriguing statues and masks, one seemed to hear the muted voices from these peoples of the distant past. BTW, the Sun Bird (太陽神鳥) had been used as the official logo of Chinese Cultural Heritage (中國文化遺產標誌) - neat !
