More than 100 treasured artifacts from the Sanxingdui Museum near China's Chengdu city have been warmly welcomed by U.S. visitors since they were put on display at the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences (HMNS) five months ago.
The exhibition, titled "China's Lost Civilization: The Mystery of Sanxingdui," was jointly organized by the Cultural Relics Bureau of China's Sichuan Province and the HMNS. All the exhibits were selected from discoveries in Sanxingdui, which were hailed as one of the greatest archaeological finds.
The discovery of Sanxingdui convinced historians that the Yangtze River basin, along with the Yellow River basin, was also the birthplace of the Chinese civilization.
Excavations at Sanxingdui revealed the remains of a sophisticated culture that excelled in their bronze-making abilities. These cast bronzes were far larger and stranger in appearance than any other ancient artifacts found before.
Among the exhibits are three large bronze masks with strange supernatural features, much larger than anything known in the period. One human-animal composite mask contains wings for ears, no mouth and large tubular beams protruding from what could have been the eye sockets.
Other bronzes revealed traces of paint or were covered with gold.
The Sanxingdui culture, considered lost, left no written record or human remains and appeared to have existed about 350 years before it vanished.
Like archaeologists and guides, visitors have been shocked by the 127exhibits uncovered in the famous archaeological site in 1986.
Most visitors said that this is really one of the most amazing exhibits they have ever seen.
"There is no doubt that Sanxingdui is one of the greatest discoveries we have ever made, this is of course one of the most wonderful exhibitions we have had, and I like the artifacts very much," Gail Peterkin, a woman archaeologist working in the exhibition room as a volunteer, told Xinhua.
Hu Chang and Liu Xiuju, both female volunteer guides, told Xinhua that they like their jobs as they can learn a lot from the exhibition while serving the visitors by telling them the legend of the Sanxingdui civilization.
"We are glad that we can have this job as a volunteer guide. We are happy that China has such a long history with a colorful culture and more exhibitions like this should be held in the future," they said.
Justin Tan, a young Chinese American, told Xinhua that he was surprised to see such a great exhibition, which will help promote the mutual understanding between the peoples of China and the United States.
"As a Chinese American, I am proud of China's colorful culture. Needless to say, I like this exhibition and believe it can help our two peoples know better of each other. I hope we can have more exhibitions like this in years to come," he said.
The exhibition, which opened to the public on April 9, 2015, will end on Monday.
