The Bronze Faces of Sanxingdui
Workers digging clay in Sichuan uncovered bronze masks with bulging eyes from a culture no ancient Chinese text describes.
What was reported
In 1986, brickworks labourers at Sanxingdui, near Guanghan in Sichuan, uncovered two pits full of extraordinary objects: bronze heads and masks with huge, protruding eyes and wide ears, a bronze figure more than 2.5 metres tall, a bronze tree about 4 metres high, gold, jade and elephant tusks.
They date from around 1200 to 1000 BC and are unlike anything known from the Shang dynasty to the north. In 2021 archaeologists began excavating six more pits nearby and found a gold mask and more bronzes.
Explanations offered
The objects belong to an advanced Bronze Age kingdom in Sichuan, probably the ancient state of Shu, which developed its own art and beliefs. Why the objects were broken, burned and buried is unknown, and the culture left no written records. Claims of an alien origin have no support among archaeologists.
- When
- Discovered in 1986
- Where
- Guanghan, Sichuan, China
- Witnesses
- Brickworks labourers and archaeologists
- Status
- Origins debated
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.