Mystery men come to town

In 1986, Chinese bulldozer operators digging in Sanxingdui hit paydirt. They stumbled upon two sacrificial pits filled with more than 4,000 artefacts, including 3,200-year-old bronze masks, jade and gold items, elephant tusks and cowrie shells (type of seashell).

Sanxingdui is 40 km north-east of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province. Two decades on, archaeologists and researchers are still puzzling over the discovery. And now, some of these finds can be seen in an exhibition at the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) in Singapore until April 15.

Costing more than 600,000 Singapore dollars to put up, Mystery Men: Finds From China's Lost Age features 103 artefacts from the Sanxingdui (Mandarin for 'three star mound') excavation. They are on loan from Sichuan's Cultural Relics Bureau.

Singapore is the first country in South-east Asia to host such relics which had been shown at The British Museum, New York's Guggenheim Museum and Taipei's National-Palace Museum. Among them are masks and statues that feature alien-like elongated (stretched) eyes, fin-like ears and sometimes bulging, protruding eyeballs.

There are also figurines that look like goat-dragon hybrids and bird-human forms. Graceful bird sculptures are daubed(coated) with vermilion, which are left over traces, perhaps, of some long-lost ritual. Jade blades and intricately carved vessels are on display - their uses can only be guessed at - offering glimpses into the enigmatic culture from which they emerged.

The highlight of the show is a large bronze mask, measuring 1.32m in width and 0.72m in height, which is being exhibited outside China for the first time. Weighing more than 100kg, it took eight men to install the mask in a glass case.

ACM's Director Kenson Kwok points out that even those who have visited the Sanxingdui museum in Sichuan may not have seen the attractions in Mystery Men, as many top-grade artefacts are kept in conservation vaults. He says: "I'm sure that visitors will gain insights and have a better understanding of early Chinese civilisation."

He added that this was in line with the museum's objectives to help visitors understand the cultural roots of Singaporeans. In town for the exhibition's opening, Xu Rongxuan, chief executive of the Sichuan Cultural Relics Bureau, says the Sanxingdui discovery is significant because it indicated the existence of an early socio-political centre near the Yangtze River area.

This challenged the notion(opinion) that Chinese civilisation started in the Yellow River basin.

Noting that the Sanxingdui conservation site is 12 sq. km, he adds: "What's been uncovered has only been a small corner."

The Straits Times