Sanxingdui is located in the west side of the city Guanghan. As a cultural relic of ancient Shu, Sanxingdui serves as a discovery opening a door for people to understand ancient history and culture better. The name Sanxingdui refers to the three earth mounds found at the site. It has a high reputation for being the largest and oldest Shu cultural relic in Sichuan. Legend has it that Heavenly Emperor casts down three handfuls of earth that fell near the Jian River and molded into the three earth mounds on Chengdu Plain. Today, affirmed by archaeologists, the three earth mounds are a part of the southern wall in an ancient city built of earth. After thousands of years of collapse and erosion, the city wall consists of two branches evolving into three mounds we see today.
The initial discovery of the Sanxingdui Relic was interesting. In the spring of 1929, a peasant was digging a ditch and found a piece of colored jade in these areas. This accidental discovery aroused great attention in the archeological field, which allowed for more than 400 jade items to be excavated later. Since 1933, efforts paid by the archeologists at systematic excavations and studies have lasted for half a century. The excavated relics provide evidence for archeologists to study the history from late Neolithic Age to the late Shang and early Zhou Dynasties. It is speculated that Sanxingdui archeological site, with a history of more than 3,000 years, might have been the capital of ancient Shu. In the following decades, generations of archaeologists paid unremitting and successive endeavor researching the Sanxingdui site and made significant achievements. Soul-stirring as the discovery of Sanxingdui Relic is, some cultural relics remain enigmatic.
The Sanxingdui Museum, opened in October 1997, was built to preserve and display the cultural relics. The museum, with an exhibition area of 4,000 square meters with advanced modern facilities is divided into four sections. It displays more than 1000 pieces of cultural relics unearthed in Sanxingdui and the two sacrificial pits of Shang Dynasty. Each of the four sections characterized by its own theme. The museum now serves as a good place for the public to boost their knowledge on the Sanxingdui archeological site.
