Video: The Bronze Giants of China: Traces of a Mysteriously Lost Civilization Much Older than Rome
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
For a long time it was believed that the ancient culture of China, which originated in one place, later spread along the banks of the Yellow River. But the finds of the 80s of the last century, which stirred up the entire archaeological world, destroyed these traditional ideas.
Back in 1929, near the Sanxingdui settlement in Sichuan province in central China, a local peasant found a cache of jade relics. Excavations in the area were unsuccessful - nothing else was found. Only in 1986, workers accidentally discovered two huge pits filled with artifacts from various materials - clay, jade, bronze, gold - about 1000 pieces.
Among them were statuettes of animals, birds, various sculptural images of human heads, full-length human statues, axes, knives and many other items.
The carbon analysis made it possible to determine their age - it ranged from 3 to 5 thousand years.
Especially many of them were cast bronze items, and the manufacturing technology was amazing. For large objects, the ancient metallurgists used stronger alloys, for this they added lead to the amalgam of copper and tin, at that time they already knew such subtleties.
Among the large artifacts - a tree 4 m high and the world's largest bronze statue, the height of which together with the pedestal is 2.62 m. The weight of the statue is 180 kg, on its head there is an unusual tiara.
Another large figure is a bird with a human head:
Among the artifacts in the form of human heads, there were also very large ones.
The heads are usually made without a top and are hollow on the inside.
On some of them, fragments of a thin gold leaf remain, forming a semblance of masks, half hiding the face. Consequently, their creators possessed the technique of covering the bronze surface with gold, which is the forerunner of gilding.
All artifacts in the form of human heads are made in a unique artistic style, hitherto completely unknown in the history of Chinese civilization - they all have big ears, a long straight nose, huge almond-shaped eyes … They are completely different from Asians. And they are not very similar to other people inhabiting our planet at that time …
There was also another type of bronze masks - with cylindrical eyes and a nose in the form of a complex spiral.
For some reason, the excavations were carried out in China in the strictest secrecy, however, the news of the amazing artifacts very quickly spread around the world and excited the minds of archaeologists.
Such artifacts have never been found in China before. It became clear that they belonged to a completely different, hitherto unknown civilization that was developing on the territory of China. Thus, we can say that there were several centers of independent cultures in China that were in no way connected with each other.
It was also possible to excavate the city walls - powerful defensive structures, erected approximately in the period of 1300 BC, and by their outlines they determined the area occupied by the ancient city. It was about 12 sq km. From 3 to 5 thousand years ago, this amazing and mysterious civilization flourished on the territory of China. So why did the residents leave the city? There is no answer to this question yet. Some scientists suggest that the cause was a strong earthquake that happened in these places, after which, due to the displacement of the earth's strata, the river was blocked. From the city, left without water, residents had to go to another place. But this is still just a theory.
In 1992, the Sanxingdui Museum was opened, where you can see all these artifacts.
And in continuation of the theme, a story about 10 legendary lost cities that modern scientists have discovered.
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