Chengdu - Sanxingdui Museum

Sanxingdui Museum

Handles carved into bird heads

3000 year old pot

Jade Claws, likely used for decoration or ceremony

Sept. 20, 2014

    The morning began promptly at 7:30, so that I could get showered and have time to get food. At 9 am the USAC group met up at the east gate to go to Sanxingdui museum, which is about an hour outside of Chengdu. The ride out of chengdu was rough, our bus essentially bounced us up and down. It was bad enough I had to go sit up front with Wentao to try to keep my breakfast in my stomach. I had never been more happy to see countryside in my life, our arrival couldn’t have come fast enough. The area, Sanxing, is famous for artifacts that date back 3000 years to a civilization that was established around the same time as the Yellow River civilization. What’s really interesting about this area is most excavation occurred in the 1980s, long past the Cultural Revolution, thus all the artifacts remain untouched by this particular period of history.

    The museum was situated in a park, and the different exhibit halls had themes salting from the oldest earthen wear, to basic jewelry. There is also evidence that this culture had contact with the other cultures in China, due to similarities and the occasional discovery of shells and other northern style items. The most impressive part was the intricately carved Jade swords. They weren’t used for fighting but for animal sacrifice and rituals. There is also a significant amount of bronze pottery from this area that reflects contact with the Shang dynasty. The pictures I took do better in describing what I saw, but over all it was a fascinating museum. Things in it were thousands of years old, well crafted, and carefully detailed.

    After the museum wandering, we essentially ate lunch and ran around the museum grounds for a while. At one point Jose and Brennan got up on a statue of a Rooster together, why we may never know. It was fun we took some USAC themed pictures and were just kinda of goofballs. Wentao, our program director, is hilarious. She very witty and incredibly sassy. I think she has fun leading us around her country. The ride back home was nearly two hours and involved mostly attempting to create a sleeping chain, where everyone was leaning on someone. I am pretty sure that at one point everyone was asleep. We arrived back on the campus and went on an adventure to find a bakery. Everyone was craving something a little bit sweet and western. It was a good hike over the bakery that Raphi knew. I managed to get sweet Taro bread, and also a little cream puff. We ate and chatted for a while inside the cafe, before walking back. The weather her is beginning to cool down, but the humidity is about the same which makes traveling around easier.

USAC!!