Sacrificial area of Sanxingdui Site in Guanghan, Sichuan

Excavations of six newly discovered "sacrificial pits" were conducted by the archaeological team at the sacrificial area of the Sanxingdui site in October 2020. By May 2022 these excavations have unearthed a great variety of nearly 13.000 catalogued artifacts. Amongst them, more than 3.000 are relativel well-preserved objects and elephant tusks. These six pitsalong with No.1 and 2 pits excavated earlier, date to Yinxu Phase IV or even through the early Western Zhou as the terminus ante quem. No.5 and 6 pits are de facto sacrificial pits, while the other six were presumably pits for burying ceremonial objects. This excavation is of significant value for the study of ceremonial activities and systems of the ancient state of Shu as well as diachronic changes in the nature ofthe Sanxingdui settlement.