BRONZE HUMAN STATUES FROM SANXINGDUI AND RITUAL GARMENTS OF ANCIENT SHU KINGDOM
Abstract
The article presents a review and analysis of bronze anthropomorphic statues specific for the Bronze Age Sanxingdui culture spread in the Sichuan province of the PRC. The author refers to full-size human figures at least 50 cm tall (but not their parts, e.g. heads) assembled from pre-cast details, as “statues”. Smaller items cast in one go are referred to as “figurines”. All statues were found in the sacrificial pit JK2 at the Sanxingdui site. The evolution of anthropomorphic statues can be divided into two or three stages. The final stage is represented by the bronze statue of a man standing on the pedestal. It was preceded by the stage of a wooden statue with bronze details. Its predecessor could be a primitive human figure made of a tree log. Peculiarities of construction and methods of production of bronze anthropomorphic statues of Sanxingdui were the same as of bronze masks of A and C types and bronze “spirit trees” No 2 and No 1, so they all belonged to the same time. The statue of a man with bird claws on his feet, in which snake-like creatures with bird heads are trapped, has been proposed to be interpreted using the ancient Indian Garuda myth. The statue in zoomorphic headdress may illustrate the Sanxingdui myth about the Lord of the Underworld. The presumption that the object held in the hands of a statue of a man standing on the pedestal may have been a jade cong is not considered to be valid enough.
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