12. The Sanxingdui was an ancient culture in modern-day China, challenging the traditional narratives of Chinese settlement and expansion
The Sanxingdui was a Bronze Age culture dating from the 12th-11th centuries BCE and located in the modern-day Sichuan Province of China; in this capacity, the city challenges traditional narratives of the Chinese civilization as spreading from the central plain of the Yellow River and instead suggests “multiple centers of innovation jointly ancestral to the Chinese civilization”.
Initially discovered in 1929, when a farmer accidentally discovered a stash of jade antiquities, it was not until 1986 further discoveries were made by archaeologists: two sacrificial pits containing thousands of gold, bronze, jade, and pottery artifacts. The items recovered ranged from the practical, such as knives, belts, tables, and axes, to the ornate, including rings, masks, and decorative animals, and provided an original artistic style previously unidentified in mainland China.
The precise history or relationship of the civilization with its neighbors is unclear, with some archaeologists identifying a close connection with the nearby Kingdom of Shu, itself little more than a legend. It remains unknown what happened to the inhabitants of the ancient settlement, however the site to this day suffers persistently from flooding. The walls of the city of Sanxingdui were surrounded by canals, measuring 20-25 meters wide and 2-3 meters deep, and it has been speculated they served as much as a flood defense as for the purposes of irrigation or defense; it has been suggested an earthquake might have caused major environmental shifts in water supply, prompting the depopulation of the ancient city.