Cultural relics of 'Gazing at Sanxingdui' exhibition unveiled

The cultural relics of the upcoming exhibition　"Gazing at Sanxingdui: New Archaeological Discoveries in Sichuan" have arrived from the Sanxingdui Museum in Guanghan and Jinsha Site Museum in Chengdu, the Hong Kong Palace Museum announced on Monday. 　

Curators from southwest China's Sichuan Province and the Hong Kong Palace Museum worked closely to perform condition checks and the installation of the newly arrived objects in Gallery 8 of the museum. 　

The first four precious cultural relics to be unveiled include the stand of a bronze tree, a grade-one national treasure unearthed in 1986. The three other pieces, being exhibited outside Sichuan for the first time, are a bronze hybrid tiger-dragon figure, a gold mask, and the grand mythical creature, all unearthed between 2020 and 2022.

The hybrid tiger-dragon figure stands at 75.5 cm tall, making it one of the tallest animal-shaped figures excavated at Sanxingdui so far. The gold mask is the largest of the ten gold masks unearthed from Sanxingdui, weighing around 350 grams. The grand mythical creature is the largest bronze mythical creature so far found at the Sanxingdui Ruins site. 　

The exhibition, which will be on display from September 27, 2023 to January 8, 2024, was jointly organized by the Hong Kong Palace Museum, the Sanxingdui Museum, and the Jinsha Site Museum.

It will highlight the latest archaeological discoveries at the Sanxingdui Ruins site, and feature 120 remarkable bronze, jade, gold, and ceramic objects dating from 2,600 to 4,500 years ago.