Hi guys, today I want to dig deeper into the mysterious Sanxingdui civilization in ancient
China. Sanxingdui is a distinctive Bronze Age culture, which dates between 5,000-3,000
years ago. Its highly advanced bronze artifacts predate the Chinese Bronze Age by 200 years.
Many artifacts are so unusual and unlike anything ever found in China before. Questions arise
regarding these treasures. Why do these masks not look Chinese? Why do these relics appear
to not belong to the cultural tradition of ancient China? Why are the DNA results on
human remains kept secret even though samples were collected decades ago? Who could be the
real creators of this striking culture? Before we jump into this, I want to remind
you of some information from my last video. Compared to civilizations in Mesopotamia and
central Asia, ancient China entered the Bronze Age about 1,400 years later. Most Chinese
archaeologists are in consensus that the earliest bronze technology such as copper smelting
was not invented in China, but imported by nomadic steppe cultures. The creation of two-wheeled
chariots in ancient Sumer and horse riding nomadic cultures highly increased people’s
mobility. As early as 5,000 years ago, steppe cultures roamed freely through the vast Eurasian
steppe route, trading and transferring goods, innovations and people across the Eurasia
continent; thereby stimulating the cultural and technological exchanges and overall growth.
I have conjectured that the Sanxingdui bronze civilization came from Middle East or central
Asia through the steppe route.
First let’s look at the magnificent Sanxingdui bronze masks. The human head masks have no
pupils, but the animal masks do. This doesn’t necessarily mean these masks were depicting
people with eyes closed. During the excavation, archeologists noticed that some of the masks
had paint on the eyebrows, eyes and lips. It’s possible these human masks were once
detailed with paint. The following characteristics are worth mentioning. One: I think this area
that sticks out on the chins of the masks could be beards; hence most masks were portrays
of men, except for this one which could be a woman. Two: all the human masks show ear
piercings. There is no record of ear piecing customs among ancient Chinese men. So, this
is a curious anomaly. Here is a later Chinese bronze figurine of a foreign merchant with
horse, dated 25-220 AD. We can see this individual had a bearded chin and ear piecing. He is
wearing a brimless top hat similar to some Sanxingdui masks. Three: Why do these so called
animal masks have human faces? Especially this one with protruding eyes and an ornate
nose thingy. I think the human masks could be deities or ancient kings. The unusual bronze
artifacts were probably used for ceremonies and rituals. However, ancient Chinese that
lived in the central plain were not known for deity worshiping or making sculptures
to commemorate kings. Sanxingdui bronze civilization existed 2100-1200 BC in the Sichuan basin.
This region was not part of the ancient Chinese empire until about 200 BC. Ancient written
records state that pastoral steppe people lived in the west of ancient China, which
includes the Sichuan basin. Therefore, it’s reasonable to assume that Sanxingdui was a
stand alone culture from the Chinese empire that occupied the central plain. Sanxingdui
people could have had their own religion and rituals. The bronze masks might be used as
memorials to their deities or kings and queens.
In this video, I’ll try to be like a detective as we walk through my thought process and
reasoning. During my investigation, improbable candidates will be eliminated, so eventually
we can filter down to the most reasonable answer. Let’s get started.
When looking at these Sanxingdui bronze masks, some of us might think of the masks from Mesoamerica.
The Mayans and the Aztecs also had ritual masks. Here are some side by side comparison
photos. The Mesoamerican masks are intricate with great style, though most are not made
of bronze. They were made much later than the Sanxingdui bronze masks. The emergence
of metallurgy in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica occurred in West Mexico by roughly 600-800
AD. Sanxingdui is a highly sophisticated bronze-age culture, which dates between 2100 -1200 BC.
This means Sanxingdui’s Bronze Age predate Mayan and Aztec by 2,000 years. Therefore,
we can safely say that ancient Mesoamericans can not be the ones who either influenced
or established the Sanxingdui civilization. Yet there still remains intriguing similarities
between the ancient Mayan and Chinese cultures, which comparisons I might explore in a future
video.
Since Sanxingdui bronzes predate the Chinese Bronze Age that signifies the creators of
Sanxingdui should have come from a culture that entered the Bronze Age prior to ancient
China. There are about six regions, which entered the Bronze Age before China: Mesopotamia,
Central Asia, Egypt, Greece & Rome, the Indus Valley and the Andes.
One notable feature about the Sanxingdui bronze masks is that some are covered with gold foils.
Which bronze cultures also share this practice? Here are ancient cultures that also had gold
foil masks: Mycenae ancient Greece, with the most famous one being the gold foil mask of
Agamemnon, made around 1550 BC. Central Asia steppe culture Scythian, a gold foil mask
from 700-300 BC. Persia/ Ancient Iran, this mask is from the Oxus treasure, dates to 550-330
BC. Mesopotamia region, masks from Nineveh Iraq and Saudi Arabia, both made in 1st Century
AD. The Andeans, Peruvian gold funeral masks, date to 11-13th century.
Ancient Egypt also had fantastic gold masks such as the King Tut’s mask, created in
1323 BC. However, the Egyptian gold masks are very different from the rest because they
were made with much thicker gold and gem inlays and not gold foils. Since we want to figure
out the culture that directly related to Sanxingdui, we should take Egypt off the list.
I noticed that the Peruvian masks showed up much later than the others. Even though Wikipedia
has a timeline showing the Andes region entered the Bronze Age earlier, when you read the
detailed description, it states the Andean people first used gold and copper instead
of bronze. Evidence of fully developed smelting practices only appears with the Moche culture
from 200 BC–600 AD. That means the Andean culture’s Bronze Age came after Sanxingdui;
hence, the Andean people can’t be the creators of Sanxingdui.
So far, we have narrowed it down to three regions: Greece/Mediterranean, Middle East,
and Central Asia. Now let’s look for clues among the Sanxingdui artifacts.
Some of the most fascinating and impressive items are the 4m tall bronze trees. Archeologists
indicate these trees were damaged because there should be some uprising parts at the
top. In my opinion, however, these trees don’t exactly look like trees. Most trees have branches
going upwards or horizontal but the Sanxingdui trees’ branches curl down with only leaves
at tips. We can tell they could be trees since there are birds on the branches. These interesting
characters remind me of the Sumerian “tree of life”. Here is a Sumerian stone relief
depicting Sargon standing before a tree of life. We can see the Sanxingdui’s bronze
trees do bear resemblance with the Sumerian sacred tree: the branches all spread out,
the upper branches curl down; some leaves are up and some down. This Assyria relief
shows a different version of a tree of life, if I zoom in, we see nodes that look kind
of like birds with eyes and beaks. The Sumerian’s “tree of life” is the earliest such symbol.
Many cultures all around the world have their own versions of the “Tree of life” theme.
While researching, I found another ancient artifact, which looks like the Sanxingdui
trees. This graph is part of a big felt tapestry dated to 241 BC. The tapestry was recovered
in a Pazyryk tomb in the Altai Mountains, Siberia. The repeated pattern shows the seated
goddess Tabiti and a horse rider. Here the goddess is holding a sacred item resembling
the Sanxingdui bronze trees.
Pazyryk is a part of the Scythian culture, an ancient nomadic group stretching across
the Eurasian Steppe. The Scythians were master metallurgists. They created splendid ornamental
items. Their amazing artwork is evidence of a sophisticated society. They used gold foil
to make masks and to decorate artifacts – this was also practiced at Sanxingdui. The nomadic
Scythian culture flourished from approximately 900 BC to 200 AD. Sanxingdui civilization
dates to 2100-1200 BC. Therefore, we need to trace back to the culture that precedes
Scythia which is the Andronovo culture. The Andronovo culture was a collection of similar
Bronze Age steppe cultures from 2200–900 BC. They occupied the Altai Mountains and
surrounding areas in Siberia, very close to ancient China. The Andronovos inherited from
the Afanasievo and Yamnaya steppe cultures, which are dated 3300-2500 BC.
In this historical region, archeologists found steppe burials from the Bronze Age. Metal
earrings were discovered on male human remains. It appears that ancient nomadic men wore these
earrings.
So now we have a steppe culture that was close to ancient China, possessed advanced bronze
making knowledge prior to the Chinese Bronze Age, had the tradition of gold foil masks,
a similar tree of life symbol, and their men had ear piercings. This Andronovo / Yamnaya
step culture in central Asia seems pretty promising. Could they be the creators of the
Sanxingdui civilization?
There are indeed interesting similarities between the Sanxingdui civilization and the
steppe culture. And not too surprisingly, the red haired mummies found in Tarim Basin
might be related to the people of the Sanxingdui civilization. I will discuss my findings in
detail in the next video. If you have any insights, please leave me a comment. If you
like my video, please give me a thumb’s up and subscribe. I have a wide range of topics
that I want to share with you. This is Curious Being, I am Tina. Thanks for watching and
see you next time.