CHINA ARQUEOLOGIA golden-age-chinese-archayeolog

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different types might have been arranged or intended
to interact symbolically remains unknown.
Nothing comparable is attested at present from any
other Bronze Age culture within the boundaries of
present-day China.
Do these figures represent kings or ancestors of
the people of the Sanxingdui culture? At Anyang,
deceased kings and remote ancestors were the
focus of intense cultic activity. Are these images of
gods, spirits, or totems of the Sanxingdui people?
Many scholars assume that the complex pantheon
of deities and spirits documented in Late Zhou and
Qin-Han texts (such as Shan hai jing [Classic of
mountains and seas] or Chu ci [Songs of Chu]) must
have had ancient roots among the many different
peoples of the earlier Bronze Age, especially in the
south. Are the images susceptible of some other
explanation? The faces and masks are consistent,
drawn (it would seem) from a single type. Compared
with the many permutations of the so-called taotie
known from Shang tradition, this is a relatively
stable imagery. The people of the Sanxingdui culture
certainly knew of the Shang image (see cat. 74),
yet they devised a distinctly different set of symbolic
representations for their purposes, which on
present evidence did not include rites involving
bronze vessels and offerings of the kind
documented in the north. RT
1 Excavated in 1986; published: Zhao 1994, nos. 21-22.
2 Excavated in 1986; published: Sichuan 1989, 2; Zhao 1994,
nos. 23-24; Rawson 1996, no. 23.
214 I BRONZE ACE CHINA