On February 3, on the Chengdu Plain, on the bank of the Duck River, the new Sanxingdui Museum was full of tourists. People stopped for a long time in front of cultural relics such as the Bronze Sacred Tree and the Bronze Daliren, and with the blessing of modern technologies such as AI and holographic projection, they felt the ancient Shu civilization.
Interior view of the new building. Source: CCTV News.
The new Sanxingdui Museum will be completed and opened on July 26, 2023, with a construction area of 5With 440,000 square meters, it is the largest single building of the heritage museum in Southwest China. At present, there are more than 1,500 pieces (sets) of pottery, bronze, jade, gold, ivory (including ivory carvings) and other cultural relics on display here, of which more than 600 cultural relics are exhibited for the first time.
During this year's Spring Festival, heavy objects such as bronze altars, bird-foot statues, statues of riding beasts, and turtle-back grids will meet visitors here.
Bronze statue of a bird-footed god. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Xi.
It shows the splendid ancient Shu civilization.
The Sanxingdui site covers a total area of 120,000 square kilometers and has been carried out many archaeological works since it was discovered in 1929. With the discovery of important relics such as 8 sacrificial pits, city walls, and large building foundation sites, the Sanxingdui cultural relics that have been "awakened" one after another show the splendid ancient Shu civilization like a galaxy.
In the "Heaven, Earth, Man and God" exhibition area, the "Tongtian God Tree", which is known as the treasure of the town hall, is displayed under the starry sky. Pass height 3The 96-meter bronze sacred tree is divided into 3 layers, each layer has 3 branches, and each branch is divided into one vertical and one hanging, and the sacred bird on the branch holds its head high and looks into the distance. On one side of the trunk, a copper dragon lies on the ground, the dragon's head flame rises, the dragon's body wraps around the trunk, the bird looks at the sky, the dragon lies on the ground, and the sacred tree forms a whole, expressing the image of the divine tree communicating heaven and earth.
Bronze Sacred Tree. Source: Sichuan release.
The sacred tree shaped the beliefs and customs of the ancients to worship the sun, it is a physical portrayal of the ancient 'Ten Days' myth, and also expresses the original imagination of the ancient Shu ancestors on the universe. Museum docent Liu Jiali said.
In 2021, the dragon pillar unearthed in the No. 8 pit of the Sanxingdui sacrificial area is called the "pig-nosed dragon-shaped device". Its length 12 meters, 38 centimeters high, in the shape of a long column, the dragon's head grinning big mouth neatly arranged "teeth", the body part carved with wing patterns, unicorn feather patterns, etc., the shape is peculiar and elegant. Liu Jiali said that when the ancestors of Sanxingdui created the image of the dragon, they absorbed and borrowed cultural elements from other parts of the Chinese land and innovated in combination with local culture, which also made the dragon of Sanxingdui interesting. "The discovery of Sanxingdui is an important witness to the origin and development of Chinese civilization in pluralism and integration, and an empirical proof of the openness, inclusiveness, innovation and creativity of Chinese culture. Liu Jiali told reporters that the new museum has been hot since its opening, and during this year's New Year's Day holiday, it received tourists 5760,000 person-times, a year-on-year increase of 225%.
Modern technology makes cultural relics "live".
The new Sanxingdui Museum uses AI technology, 3D printing and other modern technologies for the restoration and exhibition of cultural relics, which not only meets the needs of cultural relics protection, but also ensures the display effect and makes the cultural relics "live".
Digital technology has allowed fragments of fragments of cultural relics to be pieced together and reunited across 3,000 years. For example, the "Bronze Bird-Foot God Statue" is composed of a number of cultural relics such as the bronze top-honored statue unearthed from the No. 8 sacrificial pit, the bronze statue holding the dragon standing, and the bronze bird-foot statue unearthed from the No. 2 sacrificial pit. How is this possible?
Detail of a bronze bird-footed statue. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Xi.
It adopts the exhibition method of 'digital restoration demonstration', the restoration experts and AI algorithms on the cultural relics, through the digital virtual restoration technology, to achieve the artifacts across the pit splicing and repair restoration, and through 3D printing technology to produce the original scale of research restoration of the imitation, recreate the spirit of cultural relics. Carrie Lau explained to the audience. "The cultural relics with a height of more than 2 meters have undergone more than 3,000 years of tempering, and their bodies are fragile. Through AI technology and 3D printing, 1 1 cultural relics model is exhibited, which not only meets the needs of safe and stable display of cultural relics, but also allows you to see the strangeness and exquisiteness of cultural relics. ”
The "Cabin Archaeology" in the "Century Chasing Dreams" exhibition area, with the help of the latest naked-eye three-dimensional new technology, restores the archaeological cabin to the exhibition hall, and visitors can immerse themselves in the archaeological excavation scene of the Sanxingdui sacrificial pit. "The first time I saw the excavation of these ancient cultural relics, I felt the professionalism and hardship of archaeological work. Sheng Yingtao, a first-grade student of Yandao Street Primary School in Chengdu, who visited here, said.
It is understood that in order to meet the cultural needs of tourists, Sanxingdui Museum will provide extended opening services from the first day of the first month of the Year of the Dragon (February 10) to the seventh day of the first month (February 16). At that time, the "Sanxingdui New Year Ceremony" will also be held.
*From: Popular Science Times.