Next to the glass pit of the No. 8 sacrificial pit, Chen Han, who was not wearing protective clothing, was leaning his waist and looking at the nearby archaeological workers who were conducting field exploration around the sacrificial area.

Compared with Chen Han and the others, who cleaned up the cultural relics in the pit, these archaeologists who searched for the specific location of the Sanxingdui site and the ancient ruins were undoubtedly more difficult and faced more complex problems.

Chen Han shook his head with a sigh and praised these archaeologists in his heart.

This kind of work may not necessarily produce any big results in five or ten years, but someone must do it.

Everyone who is willing to devote themselves to this work is a hero behind the obscurity!

Just as Chen Han sighed, Zhuang Yunpeng in the distance was holding a stack of A4 papers and hurriedly ran over.

"Senior Brother Chen, the report from the research institute has come out."

"The institute has carried out carbon-14 dating on nearly 200 samples, and the dating data are concentrated in 1131 to 1012 BC, except for the fifth and sixth pits, the burial ages of No. 3, No. 4, No. 7 and No. 8 are the same, which is the late Shang Dynasty, about 3200 to 3000 years ago."

"This sacrificial pit is all in the late Shang Dynasty."

"However, under the sacrificial area, there are also earlier residential areas!"

Chen Han took the report from his hand with some surprise, and immediately read it carefully.

This is a report on the phased research results after the resumption of excavation in Sanxingdui in the past two years.

From 2020 to 2022, a total excavation area of 1,834 square meters will be carried out in the Sanxingdui sacrificial area.

It is basically confirmed that the sacrificial area is roughly in the rectangular distribution range of the northwest-southeast direction, parallel to the Sanxingdui city wall adjacent to the north side, with an area of nearly 13,000 square meters.

The study believes that the Shang Dynasty relics distributed in the sacrificial area are all related to sacrificial activities, including the No. 1 and No. 2 pits excavated in 1986 and the six newly discovered pits this time, and there are rectangular ditches, small circular or rectangular sacrificial pits around these eight pits, as well as ash ditches on the south side and buildings in the northwest.

The building in the northwest is rectangular in plan, with an area of only more than 80 square meters, and the construction process is complex, because similar buildings are distributed in close proximity, so it is likely that the building is part of a large building complex.

In these ash ditches, building foundations and small sacrificial pits, precious cultural relics such as gold, collar bronze jars, kneeling stone tigers, kneeling stone figures, stone congs, stone bi, jade chisels, turquoise and ivory have been unearthed.

Most importantly, though, is the follow-up study of sacrificial pits No. 3, 4, and 5.

The cultural relics in these sacrificial pits have been extracted.

However, the completion of the extraction of cultural relics does not mean that the research on these sacrificial pits is over.

The archaeologists are still digging under these sacrificial pits!

And this digging has found a lot of archaeological surprises!

It can be determined that under the surface of the existing sacrificial area, there are also sacrificial pits where whole ivory or relatively intact jade artifacts are buried!

In other words, under the sacrificial pit, there are also sacrificial pits!

This indicates that the sacrificial area has been in use for a long time, and the sacrificial remains represented by the six new pits excavated so far are the relics of the late stage of the sacrificial area, which are the top sacrificial pits.

According to conservative estimates, Sanxingdui people have used this sacrificial area for 700 years!

For 700 years, sacrifices have been carried out in this sacrificial area, and every time a pit is dug and filled, a new pit will be dug and filled again, and it will be layered on top of each other!

The researchers, in the area outside the sacrificial area and in the early accumulation of the sacrificial area, found dwelling remains, mixed with more ash, burnt earth particles, and broken pottery.

After dating, it can be determined that the residential remains superimposed by the sacrificial area are about 3800-3700 years ago at the latest.

The residential remains outside the sacrificial area and superimposed on the sacrificial area are about 3,000 years old at the earliest.

In other words, about 3,800 years ago, this sacrificial area was transformed from a residential area into a dedicated area for sacrifices.

On the periphery of the sacrificial area, where the sacrificial area is stacked, the residential remains that can be found are the earliest 3,000 years ago, indicating that the area outside the sacrificial area became a residential area as early as 3,000 years ago.

Taken together, these dating figures make a clear history of the evolution of this area 3,000 years ago.

As early as 3,800 years ago, this sacrificial area was still the place where Sanxingdui people lived.

Since then, this area has been used by the Sanxingdui civilization for special sacrifices.

By 3,000 years ago, this sacrificial area was no longer used by the Sanxingdui people for sacrifice, and it became a residential area again!

This shows that the time period of Sanxingdui cultural extinction should be about 3,000 years ago!

After the destruction of Sanxingdui, this sacrificial area was no longer used for sacrifices, and was once again used as a place to live by the descendants of the ancient Shu people!

Why is it certain that it is because the Sanxingdui civilization perished, so the sacrificial area has become a living area?

Because, if the Sanxingdui civilization had not perished, even if they did not plan to continue to use this sacrificial area, they would not have lived directly on this sacrificial area.

You must know that the remains of the 3,000-year-old residential area found are partly superimposed on the sacrificial area!

In other words, the house was built directly on top of the sacrificial area!

"Sacrifice" is a very solemn and sacred occasion for this kind of civilization with a strong theocratic atmosphere!

Let me ask, will the ancestors of Sanxingdui live on the sacrifices they sacrifice to their ancestors and gods?

What kind of audacity is this?

It's like jumping on the grave!

It is only possible that the ethnic groups and civilizations that originally carried out large-scale sacrifices in this area have perished for some reason, or at least the nobles and clergy of the main body have died and been replaced by a new regime.

And there is a high probability that it is still a non-Sanxingdui civilization regime, an alien race!

Only then is it possible not to pay any attention to the sacrificial area of the Sanxingdui civilization.

For example, even if the Zhou people destroyed the merchants, they did not let the merchants be exterminated, not only sealed Wu Geng to manage the old land of the Shang Dynasty, but also let Wu Geng continue to worship the ancestors of the merchants.

Even if Wu Geng's rebellion was later killed, the Zhou people also left a "Song State" to the merchants, and continued to inherit the sacrifices of the merchants.

Because the Zhou and Shang belonged to a unified cultural circle, the Ding Revolution of the Zhou Dynasty Shang was actually an internal rebellion.

And the demise of the Sanxingdui civilization is obviously not an internal change of power, but the demise of external forces.

This also just confirms why these bronzes of the Sanxingdui civilization are so unique, but they only exist in the Sanxingdui period, and there has been no similar style of bronzes since then.

Because this civilization has been completely wiped out, although it may be that the Sanxingdui people are not completely dead, but at least the civilization is gone.

Therefore, these Sanxingdui cultures, which have been inherited for thousands of years, no longer exist.

The originally brilliant Sanxingdui culture suddenly disappeared in history.

Because their culture is completely extinct.

Later, the Shu Kingdom, which was established in Shu, may have inherited a lot of Sanxingdui people's bloodline, but it did not inherit much Sanxingdui civilization's culture!

This made the "long-eyed" portraits, bronze masks, gold masks and other things only exist in this period and have not been handed down to later generations.

Unlike the various bronze styles of the merchants, there was inheritance and continuation in the Zhou Dynasty.

"In other words, if you find a residential area, if you dig deeper into the residential area, I don't know if you can find words!" Chen Han smashed his mouth and said with some expectation.

Whether there is writing or not is really important to a civilization!