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Article: TREASURES FROICHUAN.(bronzes found in Sichuan Basin, China)
- Article from:
- The Magazine Antiques
- Article date:
- September 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Brant Publications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Surrounded by a barrier of high mountains and plateaus, the Sichuan Basin of southwestern China was long considered a cultural backwater that developed only after travel to and from China's central region became easier.
So it was all the more exciting and confounding when, in 1986, brickyard workers digging for clay in Sanxingdui, in western Sichuan, discovered several ancient jade objects. Archaeologists working nearby rushed to the scene and eventually exposed a rectangular pit thirteen feet long containing more than four hundred artifacts dating to the end of the thirteenth century B.C. They included elephant tusks, bronze heads and masks, large rings, tools, ...