Hi guys, today I’ll continue my discussion on the possible creators of Sanxingdui, the
mysterious lost civilization located in China. A highly sophisticated Bronze Age culture,
Sanxingdui ignites controversy because of its unique large-scale artifacts especially
the bronze masks that do not look Chinese. To add to the mystery, the DNA results on
human remains are kept secret; even though it appears that DNA samples were collected
decades ago. In my last video, we walked through my thought
processes and reasoning on the search for the real creators of Sanxingdui civilization.
During my investigation, improbable candidates were eliminated, and eventually we filtered
down to the most reasonable answer: the steppe culture Andronovo based in the Altai Mountains
in Siberia. The Andronovo culture dates to as early as 2200 BC, while Sanxigndui existed
from 2100-1200 BC. The Andronovo culture was close to ancient China, possessed advanced
bronze making knowledge prior to the Chinese Bronze Age, had the tradition of gold foil
masks and a similar tree of life symbol, and their men also had ear piercings. This Andronovo
steppe culture in central Asia seems pretty promising. Could they be the creators of the
Sanxingdui civilization? Let’s keep digging. Besides the reasoning I just mentioned, are
there other shared aspects between the Altai-based steppe cultures and the Sangxingdui civilization?
Yes indeed there are.
It’s not easy to find artifacts of steppe cultures because of their constant mobility
over a vast plain. Bronze items could also be re-melted and recast. With what’s available,
the Andronovo culture is considered to have regional advances in metallurgy. It is almost
universally agreed among scholars that the Andronovo culture was Indo-Iranian. They mined
copper and tin ores in the Altai Mountains. Another steppe culture, Seima-Turbino used
the same region as their homeland from 23-1700 BC. They were also master metal workers. There
could be some connections between these two pastoral cultures. Seima-Turbino burial sites
are scattered throughout northern Eurasia, from Finland to Mongolia to Korea. Their signature
bronze items are these nice-looking spear heads, axes and other artifacts. These weaponries
and some imitative versions have been found in many places in China, including the Sanxingdui
region in Sichuan Basin. This indicates there were frequent trading and interactions between
the Far East and steppe cultures in central Asia during the Bronze Age.
Sanxingdui bronzes have a striking and unique style. They are wonderfully schematic and
abstract. Many ancient cultures favored a more realistic
style; and as a result their sculptures are more life-like. Here are ancient artifacts
of the Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. We can see how different they are
from the Sanxingdui relics. The difference between the realistic and schematic styles
is a bit like comparing a renaissance painting to a later Picasso work.
Interestingly, the Andronovo people and its successor the Scythians, also preferred the
schematic style. Although the artifacts of Sanxingdui and the steppe culture are not
exactly alike, these two cultures do share a similar aesthetic taste since they both
preferred the schematic approach. We can see many animal patterns in Sanxingdui design,
such as birds, rams and fishes. The Scythians were famous for their animal art. Here I’m
showing some fine examples of the brilliant Scythian production. These extraordinary gold
plaques and intricate ornaments are simply stunning. I want you to pay special attention
to these stag figures. They have exaggerated curved or swirling antlers. This artistic
implementation reminds me of the ornate nose thingy on the Sanxingdui animal mask; it appears
both cultures used overemphasized features in their designs.
Speaking of the animal masks, let’s view the horse masks that a Scythian culture, Pazyryk
created. These horse masks have long decorative antlers or wings! Have you ever seen anything
like this? It seems these extravagant masks were made for special occasions. I am curious
if the Sanxingdui craftsmen had similar ideas when they made the protruding eyes on the
animal masks for dramatic effects. The Sanxingdui bronze masks were recovered in pits along
with thousands of ivory tusks, gold, jade artifacts and other valuable items. Since
these treasures were burnt and carefully buried together in layers, scholars have suggested
they could be ritual offerings. Therefore the bronze relics might be part of ancient
elaborate ceremonies. So the Pazyryk culture had a custom to make
ornate horse masks with artificial antlers and wings. Sanxingdui people created big bronze
animal masks with protruding eyes and decorative nose. These two seem to share a similar artistic
expression. Please note that the Pazyryk culture was the one which also produced the incredible
tapestry showing a goddess holding a sacred item that looks like the tree of life and
the Sanxingdui bronze trees. On another Pazyruk tapestry dated 500 BC;
it shows a creature with a human head, stag antlers, leopard body and wings. Look at this
creature’s ear and antlers. Don’t they share a comparable style of the ones on Sanxingdui
animal masks? Perhaps Sanxingdui animal masks were created for some mythical creature statues
made of wood. The rectangular openings on masks could be used to hook them onto the
wooden statues. This could explain the ceremonial quality of these items. Recently there are
six more ritual burial pits got excavated at Sanxingdui; but no bronze masks were found.
One of the newer pits dates almost 1,000 years later than the two pits that contained bronze
masks and bronze trees which were excavated in 1986. Since ritual ceremonies were always
performed periodically, it’s possible that the newer pits were created for much later
ceremonies. Ok, the human/deity and animal masks were
probably used for ceremonies and rituals. Back then ancient Chinese who lived in central
plains didn’t practice this type of deity worshiping. On top of that, some Sanxingdui
artifacts also do not present ancient Chinese customs, such as this animal pattern adorned,
gold foil covered cane. I think this was probably a scepter, which was a symbol of high rank
and social status in ancient steppe/ Indo-Iranian cultures. From these comparison photos, we
can see a similar design concept. The patterned gold foil wrapping idea was shared between
Sanxingdui and steppe cultures. Pazyryk is a part of the Scythian culture,
and the Scythians succeeded the Andronovos, which were Indo-Iranians. The Andronovo culture
was a collection of similar Bronze Age steppe cultures from 2200–900 BC. The Andronovo
culture and similar steppe cultures consisted of two communities: one group was largely
mobile and the other group settled in villages. Contrary to the common perception, agriculture
actually played an important role in the steppe culture economy. Whether or not being on the
road was probably a personal choice. Not far from the eastern steppe homeland of
the Altai Mountains, we find Tarim basin, which is a dry and barren desert now, but
it used to have multiple oases. Here archeologists found red-haired and other light haired human
remains. These people lived in this area 4100- 2000 years ago. DNA analysis revealed the
parental Y-DNA is R1a1a which indicates an Indo-European origin, while the maternal ancestry
is mixed with majority from southern Siberia and central Asia. This is consistent with
the DNA results of the Andronovo burials. Speaking of DNA test, the genetic studies
of burials at Sanxingdui and its successor city Jinsha are kept secret. There are two
more nearby cemeteries dated to Neolithic to early Bronze Age. One of them was said
to be preserved very well and DNA testing is on the way. That was 5 years ago and so
far no follow-ups. This further adds to the suspicion that someone is hiding information.
Therefore the DNA results must be controversial and may challenge common belief. What if the
Sanxingdui people also had Y-DNA of R1a, which means the parental ancestry was Indo-European
instead of East Asian? Sanxingdui bronzes predate Chinese Bronze Age. If this advanced
culture was not created by ancient Chinese but some outsiders, this indeed would be controversial.
Let’s go back to the Tarim burials which Chinese researchers have studied in detail.
They stated that this region entered into Bronze Age before the Chinese central plain.
Based on the burial customs and DNA results, some scholars proposed that the Tarim people
from 2-4000 years ago were part of the Androvono culture. This can be further verified by archeological
findings. The Andronovo’s successor the Scythians lived by Tianshan Mountains and
Tarim Basin over 2,000 years ago and left clusters of burials with their distinctive
Scythian artifacts. The steppe people were masters of bronze metallurgy, agriculture
and animal husbandry. They made bronze ornaments, weaponry and tools. They wore wool capes,
conical felt hats and had braids. Btw several bronze masks in Sanxingdui also have braids.
The ancient Tarim people ate cheese and rode in 4-wheeled chariots. These are characteristics
of a steppe culture. Hexi corridor is a strip of land connecting
the Tarim Basin and the Chinese central plain. This corridor has the Tibetan Plateau on the
south and the Gobi desert on the north. It served as the most important route from Northern
China through the Tarim Basin to Central Asia for trades and military endeavors.
Hexi corridor was dotted with oasis cultures with bronze technology such as Siba and Qijia.
Qijia culture was carbon dated to 2200-1600 BC. The bronze spear heads, metal knives and
axes recovered in this region apparently point to early interactions between Siberian and
Central Asian cultures, in particular with the Seima-Turbino culture. Some Chinese researchers
believe Qijia and Siba obtained bronze metallurgy from the steppe people. Judging by the artifacts,
it’s possible that both the Qijia and Siba people were also part of the Androvono culture.
Moreover, multiple ancient Chinese records confirm that Hexi corridor and westwards were
where the pastoral steppe people lived until around 200 BC.
From this map we can see Sanxingdui is close to Qijia and both cultures existed contemporaneously
for 500 years. These two regions probably interacted with each other because they shared
similar artifacts, such as the Seima-Turbino kind of bronze spear heads, these intricate
plaques with turquoise inlays, jade artifacts, and pottery items. Btw the clay vessels with
three legs are believed to come from nomadic pastoral cultures which lived west of ancient
China. Sanxingdui is located on the west edge of
Sichuan basin. This basin is surrounded by mountains on all sides. Pastoral people built
multiple settlements and flourished in this area for several millennia. Some of their
artifacts show influences of the Qijia culture. This means there were cross-regional trading
routes between the Hexi corridor and Sichuan basin as early as Neolithic time. Therefore,
people could migrate into Sichuan basin through the mountain valleys as they passed through
the Hexi corridor. As I mentioned earlier, even though the Andronovo
culture is categorized as a steppe culture, there were actually two communities, one practiced
a nomadic life style and the other stayed sedentary and practiced farming. People who
lived in and around Tarim basin not only shared the same genetic admixture with Andronovo
communities but also shared the same culture. Archeologists referred to them as master metal
workers, farmers and cattle raisers. Tarim people could have passed along their metallurgy
knowledge to Qijia settlements on the Hexi corridor. At the same time, Qijia region was
connected to Sichuan basin since Neolithic times. Sanxingdui locates in the Sichuan basin
and co-existed with Qijia for hundreds of years. They shared common artifacts which
clearly came from or were influenced by the steppe cultures.
As a result, it’s conceivable that over 4,000 years ago, a group of central Asians
or Altai nomads entered Tarim basin, passed Hexi corridor and arrived at Sichuan basin.
This entire process could have taken a long period of time and continued over many generations.
They rode horses and drove chariots. They possessed advanced bronze metallurgy and farming
knowledge; and they probably adopted new skills on their adventurous journey. They interacted,
traded and probably married local people along the way. They loved schematic art styles and
created extraordinary bronze artifacts. They carried their unique culture and customs with
them. Since they were farmers and pastoral shepherds, their migration could very well
be based on searching for ideal lands. They settled down in Sichuan basin, a warm and
fertile plain, with surrounding mountain barriers which acted as a natural defense. These people
probably had a mixed ancestry from Europe, central Asia and northern Asia. They might
be a part of the Andronovo or related cultures. It’s also possible that the Sanxingdui culture
was a composition of the steppe culture and local ones. They kept some of their traditions,
such as the tree of life symbol and deity worshiping.
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by dynamic East–West migrations, frequent exchanges
of goods, animals, tools, as well as innovations and technologies among different populations.
Accompanying these interactions, extensive changes in daily life and social structures
occurred in the early civilizations across the Eurasian continent. In particular, China
experienced a rapid increase in human population and settlements from the late Neolithic to
the Bronze Age all of which set the stage for the ‘revolutionary’ development of
the Chinese civilization and the formation of early states in China.
The people who built the Sanxingdui civilization contributed to this historical process and
profoundly influenced multiple ancient cultures. Their art and extraordinary courage is still
inspiring us today. If you have any insights, please leave me
a comment. If you like my video, please give me a thumb’s up and subscribe. I have a
wide range of topics that I want to share with you. This is Curious Being, I am Tina.
Thanks for watching and see you next time.