More than 500 cultural relics have been unearthed at the Sanxingdui Ruins site in Guanghan, Sichuan province. Among the discoveries in the excavations, which started on Saturday (21 March), and will continue till Tuesday (23 March), are fragments of a golden mask, bird-shaped gold decoration pieces, giant bronze masks, ivory, and a bronze sculpture of a tree.

These discoveries could help clear some doubts about Sanxingdui, and the ancient Shu civilization. Some say the decoration pieces and ivory shows the Shu civilization had links with Southeast Asia, even South Asia. However, it may not be so, as archaeologists have also found a large number of bronze wine cups and what look like Chinese carved patterns on the ivory, which show the ancient Shu civilization was part of the ancient Chinese civilization. Of course, the golden masks unearthed this time and before could offer clues to cultural links with ancient Eurasia, but that should not override the evidence of the ancient Shu culture's basic origin.

Two jade objects dating back to the Xia Dynasty (c. 21st century-16th century BC)

and Shang Dynasty (c. 16th century-11th century BC)

are on display in the Jinsha Site Museum in Chengdu, Sichuan province.

After all, offering bronze artifacts was an integral part of ancient Chinese culture, not any other ancient civilization, including Egyptian and Indian. In this aspect, the ancient Shu culture is very similar to the ancient Chinese culture, in which alcohol was considered a sacrificial offering enabling people to establish spiritual connection with the gods. The large numbers of bronze wine cups, shaped like ancient Chinese wine cups, is indicative of the ancient Shu culture following this tradition.