Archaeologists hunting at the famous Sanxingdui ruins in southwest China have written about unearthing more than 10,000 relics from two new pits in recent years - SCMP reported.
The latest discoveries were found buried under hundreds of elephant tusks, according to details published in the journal Sichuan Cultural Relics.
These stunning finds range from gold, jade and shell masks, to head statues and bronze vases.
One of the excavation sites is the largest of eight burial pits in what is known as the "Sanxingdui ritual area".
As many as 7,400 ceremonial objects were found here, remnants of a little-known culture that flourished more than 3,000 years ago.
The Sanxingdui ruins, or "three-star mound," were first discovered in the 1920s. This ancient city is believed to have been the center of the mysterious Shu kingdom 4,500 years ago.
No records have been found to explain the origins of these ancient Shu people or the meaning of the relics they left behind.
In 1986, Sanxingdui attracted widespread attention after the discovery of bronze, gold, and jade in previously unknown styles in the pits, indicating a high level of economic prosperity and technological skills.
The Sanxingdui site in Guanghan, Sichuan Province, was excavated by researchers from the Sichuan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and Peking University from 2020 to 2022.
A second pit located on the riverbank excavated about 2,700 artifacts in 2021.
The finds included "precious cultural relics" made of bronze, including a kneeling statue holding a ritual vase on its head, a large mask, an altar, a sacred tree and a square vase with a round mouth.
Of at least four gold masks discovered, one was 20cm wide and attached to a bronze head. About 420 objects crafted from gold leaf were unearthed.
Nearly 5,000 bronze objects were among the relics recovered from the largest pit, including ritual vessels, containers, sacred tree branches, head sculptures, masks, human and animal statues, altars and eye-shaped ornaments.
In the large pit, archaeologists also found nearly 400 pieces of ivory, the longest of which was 1.4 meters long. Nearly half of these were longer than 50cm.
Most of the tusks found were placed in the pit intact - only a few had been cut into shorter pieces. Some pieces had dark brown burn marks.
Another 100 pieces of ivory in the pit were also found intact, with only some burned. Scientists point out that the burials show a general pattern of keeping larger bronze and ivory objects higher up, while smaller artifacts were placed lower down.
Ancient communities placed pieces of ivory on top of bronze artifacts, with the intention of completely concealing the bronze underneath. Although they were not arranged in strict order, in general, the ivory was arranged neatly so that none of it protruded.
