bjbj Hi guys, today I want to discuss the great mystery of a lost civilization in China,
called Sanxingdui. A distinctive Bronze Age culture, Sanxingdui dates between 5,000-3,000
years ago. Its most striking one of a kind artifacts are these large scale bronze masks
and other relics, which have attracted international attention. However, there are no historical
records about this previously unknown civilization. More than 30 years have passed since its initial
discovery in 1986, but there has been little progress to unravel this mystery. One thing
we do know is that Sanxingdui has rewritten the history of Chinese civilization. What
is the origin of this culture and what kind of people could have created such incredible
art? A metropolis of its time, Sanxingdui covered about 3.5 square kilometers or 865
acres. It had highly developed metallurgy, agriculture and ceramics. In 1986, two giant
pits were unearthed containing thousands of objects made from gold, bronze, and jade along
with ivory tusks and pottery artifacts. Most items found in the pits were damaged; some
were burnt with scorch marks. Experts say these artifacts might be ritual offerings.
Carbon dating has been performed on organic items. Per Chinese archeologists, phase II
and phase III are the layers that contain the bronze items. Therefore the bronze artifacts
were produced between 2100-1200 BC. The earliest bronze relic in China was a 4,700-year old
blade though the consensus is that the Chinese Bronze began around 1900 BC at Erlitou near
the Yellow River. This means the Sanxingdui bronze could predate the Chinese Bronze Age
by 200 years. Here are side by side comparison photos of Sanxingdui and Erlitou bronze relics.
Sanxingdui bronzes are much larger, more complex and visibly more advanced. Isn t that interesting?
The earlier artifacts are superior to the later ones. This might lead to an entirely
new and different understanding of the development of Chinese metallurgy and hence Chinese culture.
Among all the artifacts, the most exciting ones were large bronze masks, including a
few with gold foils. These masks have square faces, big almond-shaped eyes, and straight
noses which don t reflect those of East Asian decent. They are so unusual and unlike anything
ever found in China before. Other bronze objects include decorative animals such as dragons,
birds, several 4-meter tall beautiful bronze trees and hundreds of other fantastic items.
Among the collection remains the world s largest and best preserved bronze upright human figure,
measuring 8 feet/ 2.6 meters. The most unusual discoveries were these oversized masks with
protruding eyes, animal-like ears, and ornate nose thingies. These bronze masks demonstrate
an unprecedented artistic style. They are wonderfully schematic and abstract, and would
be considered modern and contemporary if made today. Besides the uncanny style, the highly
accurate and advanced bronze craftsmanship astounded the scientists. The thinnest portion
of the bronze masks is only 2 mm thick. The large-scale items show well developed technology
that was the most advanced in ancient China. New research suggests that Sanxingdui culture
may have been moved to another site at Jinsha due to an earthquake that occurred around
3,000 years ago. Archeologists found symbols on pottery, which might belong to an ancient
language. Even though the excavation work has been going on for decades, archeologists
claim that they haven t even completed 1% of the overall work. There is so much more
to be discovered at Sanxingdui s possible that written records remain buried. The discovery
of these artifacts has opened up a world of intrigue. There are too many unexplainable
objects, for example, this gold foil covered cane is not a cultural tradition of ancient
China. Why do these masks not look Chinese? Who made them and why? There are several tombs
with human remains found within the Sanxingdui city walls, and over 30 tombs close by. Also,
there are hundreds of tombs with human remains at Sanxingdui s successor city Jinsha. DNA
testing would be very helpful in trying to decipher this lost civilization. Over 15 years
ago, several news outlets reported that archeologists collected DNA data and planned to do tests
on these mysterious people. However, a 2019 news release claimed the DNA extraction was
unsuccessful because of wet soil conditions. That begs the question, since there are hundreds
of remains to take samples from, how can none provide useful DNA? Plus, why did they wait
15 years to tell us the DNA analysis can t be done? This is suspicious. On the Chinese
version of Quora, a post states the DNA analysis has actually been done, but the results do
not match Asian races. Thus the authorities have decided not to disclose their findings
to the public. Whether this is true or not, we can tell there must be something unusual
about the Sanxingdui people. Does this imply these people were not East Asian or even Southeast
Asian? If so, this prompts questions about the history of Chinese civilization. Even
though there is no DNA data available, we can find clues through metallurgy analysis.
Identifying the bronze source and supply network would significantly contribute to our understanding
of Sanxingdui culture. Decades ago, scientists discovered puzzling highly radiogenic lead
in Sanxingdui bronzes. They then tested more ancient relics and found that many earlier
Shang bronze objects contained the same kind of lead with highly radiogenic isotopic compositions.
Some geochemists argue that the ores in China do not match these bronze lead isotopes, thus
the ingots or raw materials must have been imported from a foreign land. Since these
bronze radiogenic lead isotopes match the ores in Africa, some researchers claim the
ingots might come from Africa. This is a controversial topic in China. No matter how you view this,
the fact remains researchers cant find matching ores in China. This leads to the assumption
that the bronze raw materials were imported from outside ancient China. Some people might
think this is unlikely because ancient people were not so mobile and not able to do wide
ranging exploration. Once again, we underestimate our ancestors because they were much more
capable and adventurous. Cross-regional trading was prevalent 4-3,000 years ago during the
Bronze Age when copper was highly prized. It was used to manufacture weapons, jewelry,
tools and other valuable goods. Hence trading copper ingots was profitable and frequently
practiced. In 2018, Czech scientists analyzed some Egyptian bronze artifacts from a German
museum. They found an Early Dynastic Egyptian object that is high in nickel, something that
is consistent with ores and artifacts from Early Bronze Age Anatolia, in present-day
Turkey. In 2019, a 3,600-year old shipwreck was found off Turkey s Mediterranean coast.
This 14-meter merchant ship was loaded with 1.5 tons of copper ingots. Another Bronze
Age sunken ship, dated to 13th century BC, the Uluburun shipwreck held mostly raw materials
that were trade items. It contained 10 tons of raw copper and 1 ton of tin ingots. These
findings prove there was frequent trading among states, all of which was documented
in ancient Egyptian tomb texts. Turkey is relatively close to Egypt. So trading between
these two nations might not seem impressive. Then how about trading between Sweden and
a Mediterranean island? The Nordic Bronze Age emerged about 1700 BC. Evidence has proven
without a doubt that the metals dated to the Nordic Bronze Age found in Sweden were not
smelted from the local copper ores. A 2014 scientific paper points out that the main
sources of Swedish copper seems to come from mines in the Iberian Peninsula and/or Sardinia
in the Mediterranean Sea. So during the Bronze Age, Turkey exported copper to Egypt and Nordic
people imported copper from the Mediterranean area. This is proof that long trade routes
among states and regions were common in ancient times. Therefore, the foreign source of the
Sanxingdui and Shang bronzes should not be considered unusual. It s possible that the
raw copper materials of Sanxingdui were transported to ancient China from elsewhere. When did
Chinese bronze metallurgy originate? It is a question that is still being explored in
academia. The Middle East was the first region to enter the Bronze Age, beginning with the
rise of the Mesopotamian civilization of Sumer 5,300 years ago. Compared to Sumerian civilizations,
ancient China entered into the Bronze Age about 1,400 years later. The idea that copper
smelting was not invented in China is a relatively new theory but is increasingly accepted by
Chinese archaeologists. So far evidence favors that the earliest bronze technology in China
was stimulated by contacts with western steppe cultures. What are steppe cultures? The Great
Eurasian Steppe is an area of vast grassland, which stretches from eastern Hungary to Mongolia
and China. It has hot summers with dry winters. The Steppe Route was an ancient highway through
the Eurasian Steppe, extending for approximately 10,000 km or 6,200 miles. Since the Paleolithic
age, the Steppe Route has connected Europe, Central Asia and East Asia economically, politically,
and culturally through trade routes. The steppe trade route precedes the well-known Silk Road
by at least two millennia. Back then, there were no border patrols. Ancient people traded
and migrated with great freedom. The Middle East region invented bronze metallurgy and
two-wheeled chariots. These creations worked well with the horse-riding culture in the
Eurasian Steppe and greatly increased the mobility of ancient people. As early as 5,000
years ago, new innovations spread rapidly and widely through the highly-mobilized nomadic
people who roamed across the Steppe. People who settled by the steppe borders copied and
utilized these innovations. For thousands of years, nomads brought trade, technology
and war by turns. When there was war, advances in metallurgy and weaponry was crucial. s
not easy to find archaeological records on nomads, because they did not have permanent
structures. Despite of this difficulty, archeologists found a pattern of burial sites with similar
bronze artifacts dated to 23-1700 BC. These sites are scattered across northern Eurasia,
particularly Siberia and Central Asia, from Finland to Mongolia and Korea. This is called
the Seima-Turbino phenomenon. Altai Mountains are considered the homeland of this culture
which is almost in the center of the overall steppe route and close to China. These burial
findings have suggested a common point of cultural origin and rapid migration. These
people were nomadic warriors and metal-workers, traveling on horseback or chariots. Their
bronzes were technologically advanced for the time, including lost wax casting, and
showed high degrees of artistic input in their designs. It has been conjectured that changes
in climate in this region around 2000 BC triggered a rapid and massive migration westward into
northeast Europe and eastward into China. This Seima-Turbino culture existed from 23-1700
BC. They possessed advanced metallurgy knowledge about 200 years before Sanxingdui bronze,
therefore 400 years before Erlitou which is considered the earliest bronze town in China.
Archeologists have found bronze spearheads from the Russian Ural Mountains all the way
to northeastern China that are imitations of the Seima-Turbino ones. In the region where
Sanxingdui is located, researchers also found similar bronze spearheads. The nomadic cultures
on the Eurasian steppe have made significant contributions to the development of metallurgy
in China. The steppe route not only facilitated the trade of goods and technology, but also
led to the migration of people. Some consider the biggest single driver of events in European
and Asian history was the migration of peoples across the open grasslands. On the steppe
route, there are paths to get into Ancient China through the Dzungarian Gate or Tianshan
Mountains which have lakes and rivers; an ideal migration pathway. Tarim basin is close
to these paths and it used to have a green oasis with clear rivers. Here, archeologists
found red-haired human remains which naturally turned to mummies because of the arid conditions
in the desert basin. DNA analysis revealed that in the Tarim Basin, between 4000 and
2300 years ago, there lived a group of people with a diverse ancestry from Europe, Mesopotamia
and Asia. These people might have come through the steppes and were from different ethnic
groups. Chinese people are not a homogenous group. There have been many rounds of inter-racial
integrations and commingling in ancient China. Numerous ethnic groups have lived there so
much so that translators became governmental positions. For instance, Sogdian people (ancient
Iranian) have been documented repeatedly in Chinese history. They were depicted as shrewd
merchants and usually owned great wealth and beautiful houses. Several Chinese dynasties
and their emperors had nomadic ancestries from the steppe cultures. Different races
migrated in and out of regions quite frequently in ancient times. There is increasing evidence
indicating the whole of Eurasia and its ancient civilizations were culturally and technologically
interconnected and intertwined. Great civilizations occur as a result of cultural contact and
exchange. Ok, let s go back to the mysterious Sanxingdui. The DNA results are currently
kept secret. This can indicate the results are unexpected, thus we can assume the Sanxingdui
people might not be East Asian. If this is the case, it should not be a surprise since
ancient China was a melting pot of different ethnic groups. The shock might be to those
who subscribe to a homogeneous narrative of ancient China and refuse to consider any evidence
to the contrary. Consider the following facts: 1. the Chinese Bronze Age started 2,000 years
after the Sumerians in Middle East, 2. the Eurasia steppe route connected the Middle
East, central Asia and east Asia during the early bronze age, 3. steppe cultures had advanced
metallurgy technology before the Chinese bronze age and migrated cross-regionally, 4. these
ancient nomads frequently interacted and migrated along the steppe route, whereby trading and
exchanging knowledge was practiced for several millennia, 5. some of these people went south
and settled in areas like the Tarim Basin, 6. Sanxingdui is not too distant from the
Tarim basin, 7. Sanxingdui bronze technology predates other bronze cultures in China by
200 years. All of this taken together, paints a picture of a group of people, probably from
the Middle East or Central Asia, who possessed advanced bronze metallurgy technology, and
migrated either through the steppe route or the Tianshan mountains valleys. They sought
fertile plains and eventually settled in the Sichuan basin over 4,000 years ago. These
amazing people built the Sanxingdui civilization. With their highly skillful bronze-making methods
and imported copper, they created these magnificent bronze artifacts with their unique artful
style. They were probably the most advanced in metallurgy in ancient China. Their style
and technology influenced other contemporaneous cultures. There is a lot more to be discussed
about Sanxingdui. I ll probably do another video focusing on the masks and symbols. 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. W[SO urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags
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State Hi guys, today I want to discuss the great mystery of a lost civilization in China,
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