They got their name from the village of the same name, located not far from the place of their discovery. They were found on the territory of China in the area of the Yellow River. The first information about the finds appeared back in the 20s of the last century, when one of the local residents was digging a well and discovered a cache with many ancient jade artifacts.
After the discovery of the find, he immediately reported it to professional archaeologists and full-scale excavations began here.
However, apart from clay and sand, archaeologists then failed to find anything. The second time about this place was remembered already in the 80s, after which the excavations resumed with renewed vigor. And the archaeologists were helped by chance - they stumbled upon two huge pits, where there were more than a thousand of these artifacts.
What they were not made of:
1) Clay.
2) Gold.
3) Bronze.
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4) Jade.
There are both images of ordinary animals and much more interesting specimens, for example, images of the heads of strange humanoid creatures.
Most of the Sanxingdui artifacts were made of bronze, and the workmanship is of a very high level. After analyzing the composition of the metal, archaeologists found additives of tin and lead in it.
And this speaks of the developed metallurgical industry of that time. As for the huge humanoid heads, in most cases they were made without an upper part and turned out to be hollow inside.
On some of them, the researchers found something like a mask made of gold. Interestingly, these strange creatures depicted on artifacts have very long noses, large ears and huge almond-shaped eyes.
What is it - the Chinese portrayed aliens "from nature", or did they decide to play with such a concept as symbolism? Have you heard anything about symbolism?
This concept is very often used by representatives of official science when they find artifacts that do not fit into their usual picture of the world - they say, it is not aliens that are depicted here, but something else, and the fault lies in the tendency of ancient masters to "symbolism".
All found artifacts are unique - nothing like this has been found anywhere else in the world. Archaeologists have suggested that they could have been created by one civilization, unknown to modern science.
How it appeared in China is a mystery. It can be compared to the famous civilization of the Olmecs in Mexico - they differ from ordinary Indians, it is not clear where they came from, left behind many things and disappeared in the same mysterious way.
Not far from the found artifacts, archaeologists also found the ruins of an ancient city wall that encloses an area comparable to any city. The approximate area of the city is about 12 square kilometers. Researchers believe that he existed here from 3 to 5 thousand years ago.
But why was this city abandoned, and information about it was not preserved in any ancient written source? There is still no answer to this question.
Some researchers believe that a terrible natural disaster, for example, a powerful earthquake that destroyed the city and its inhabitants, could be to blame.
However, one can object to this - similar earthquakes occur in our time, but the losses from them, although great, are not fatal.
Perhaps the inhabitants of this city were destroyed during some large-scale military conflict, but the researchers were never able to find traces of the battle and the remains of ancient weapons here.
Therefore, the Sanxingdui statues still keep their secrets.