Sanxingdui Excavation: Pottery Finds Explained

The world knows Sanxingdui for the gold, the bronze, and the breathtakingly alien. The towering bronze trees reaching for the heavens, the colossal masks with their protruding eyes and trumpet-shaped ears, the gleaming gold scepters—these are the artifacts that have rightfully captured global imagination, rewriting the narrative of early Chinese civilization. Yet, amidst this metallic and artistic splendor, there lies a quieter, more pervasive testament to the people of this ancient Shu kingdom: their pottery. Often overshadowed by its more glamorous counterparts, the vast assemblage of pottery unearthed at Sanxingdui provides an indispensable, ground-level view into the society that thrived over three millennia ago. It is in the clay, not just the bronze, that we find the heartbeat of Sanxingdui—the rhythm of its kitchens, the solemnity of its altars, and the hands of its everyday artisans.

The Context: A Civilization Rediscovered

Before delving into the clay itself, one must appreciate the stage. The Sanxingdui ruins, located near Guanghan in Sichuan Province, date back to the Xia and Shang dynasties (c. 1600–1046 BCE). The discovery of two major sacrificial pits in 1986 revealed a culture of astonishing artistic sophistication and spiritual complexity, seemingly distinct from yet contemporaneous with the Central Plains civilizations along the Yellow River. This was the kingdom of Shu, a society with the resources, technology, and cosmological vision to produce objects of monumental scale and mystical purpose.

The excavation sites are not merely tombs or garbage heaps; they are ritual pits—deliberate, structured deposits of precious and mundane items, often burned and broken, as offerings to the gods or ancestors. This context is crucial for understanding every find, including the pottery. These vessels were not casually discarded; they were ritually killed and consecrated.

Categories of Clay: From Cauldron to Cup

The pottery of Sanxingdui can be broadly classified into several functional categories, each telling a different part of the story. Archaeologists have painstakingly sorted through thousands of sherds and reconstructed vessels to identify these types.

Utilitarian and Domestic Ware

This forms the bulk of the ceramic finds. These are the workhorses of daily life. * Cooking Vessels (Li tripods, Yan steamers): These sturdy, often cord-marked pots were designed for direct exposure to fire. The presence of soot and scorch marks on their bases is a direct link to the hearths of Sanxingdui homes. The yan, a composite steamer, indicates a sophisticated cuisine that involved steaming grains—a culinary tradition that persists in the region. * Storage Jars (Guan, Lei): Large, wide-mouthed or narrow-necked jars with ample volume. Their size and weight suggest they were for stationary storage of water, grain, or fermented products. The thickness of the walls and the quality of the clay speak to the potter’s understanding of durability and preservation. * Servicing and Eating Vessels (Dou stemmed plates, Bei cups, Bo bowls): These are more varied in form and sometimes in finish. Dou, with their high, sometimes perforated stems, may have been used for presenting ritual food offerings as well as for daily meals. The smaller cups and bowls are intimate objects, held in the hands of the people every day.

Ritual and Ceremonial Pottery

Here, the line between utility and spirituality blurs. Many domestic forms were also used in rituals, but some show distinct characteristics. * Specialized Offering Vessels: Certain guan jars and zun vases are found in the sacrificial pits in association with bronze items, elephant tusks, and cowrie shells. They are often of finer fabric, better fired, and sometimes bear traces of cinnabar or other pigments. * Pottery with Symbolic Adornment: While not as elaborately decorated as some Neolithic Yangshao pottery, Sanxingdui ceramics occasionally feature appliqué, incised lines, or unusual morphological features. A handful of pieces might have simple cloud or thunder patterns, linking them to the symbolic repertoire seen on the bronzes.

Architectural and Industrial Elements

This category is often overlooked but vital. * Tile Fragments and Drain Pipes: Evidence of substantial architecture. The discovery of baked clay tiles suggests important buildings had durable, waterproof roofs, a sign of advanced construction. * Molds and Crucibles: Fragments of clay used in the bronze-casting process. These are perhaps the most significant "industrial" pottery. They are the silent partners to the bronzes—the negative space that gave form to the positive spectacle. The clay for these molds was specially selected and tempered to withstand the extreme heat of molten bronze.

The Language of Technique and Aesthetic

Sanxingdui pottery is primarily characterized by a pragmatic aesthetic. Unlike the painted elegance of Majiayao pottery or the intricate iconography of the Shang bronze zun vessels, Sanxingdui’s clay artifacts speak a language of robust functionality.

• Paste and Fabric: The clay is generally a local, sandy paste, often containing visible grit temper. This was a practical choice, improving thermal shock resistance for cooking vessels and reducing shrinkage during drying and firing.
• Forming Techniques: Coiling was the primary method. Large jars were built up from coils of clay, smoothed and shaped by hand. The symmetry and consistency of many vessels, however, suggest the use of slow turntables or simple wheels for finishing, indicating a level of specialization in pottery production.
• Surface Treatment and Decoration: Decoration is restrained. Cord marking is the most common surface treatment, created by impressing or rolling a cord-wrapped paddle onto the wet clay. It provides a better grip and increases the surface area for heat transfer in cooking pots. Other finishes include smoothing, burnishing (for a slight sheen), and occasional appliqué bands or nipple-like protrusions. Glazes are entirely absent; this is a tradition of earthenware, not stoneware or porcelain.
• Firing Technology: Firing was likely done in simple pit kilns or clamp kilns, with temperatures estimated between 600°C and 900°C. The color of the pottery—ranging from reddish-brown to gray—is a result of the firing atmosphere (oxidizing or reducing) and the iron content in the clay. The variation suggests controlled but not perfectly consistent firing conditions.

The Narrative in the Fragments: What Pottery Reveals About Shu Society

So, what can these broken pieces of fired earth tell us that the bronzes cannot?

1. The Foundations of a Stratified Society. The very act of mass ritual deposition implies surplus. The quantity of pottery, especially large storage jars, indicates successful agriculture and the ability to store surplus grain. This economic surplus is the foundation that supported the elite class—the priests and rulers who commissioned the bronzes. The pottery shows the economic base, while the bronzes display the ideological superstructure.

2. Ritual Integration of the Mundane. The inclusion of everyday cooking pots and storage jars in the sacrificial pits is profoundly significant. It suggests that the rituals involved the dedication of not only extraordinary treasures (bronze, gold, jade) but also the essential tools of community life. This ritual "killing" of domestic vessels may have symbolized the offering of the community’s sustenance and daily labor to the supernatural realm, creating a sacred continuum between the hearth and the altar.

3. Technological Prowess and Local Adaptation. The pottery reveals a culture that was technologically adept but pragmatically independent. While they possessed the stunning, possibly influenced or inspired by external contacts, bronze-casting technology, their ceramic tradition remained distinctly local. It did not slavishly imitate the fine white pottery or elaborate bronze-style motifs of the Shang. This speaks to a confident cultural identity, adapting advanced metallurgy for their own unique spiritual expressions while maintaining their own practical craft traditions.

4. The Silent Majority: Invisible Hands. The bronzes glorify the patrons and the deities. The pottery whispers about the makers. The countless coil-built jars represent hours of labor by skilled, likely specialized, artisans who may have formed a distinct class. The fingerprints sometimes found pressed into the clay are the most direct, human connection we have to the people of Sanxingdui—not the kings or priests, but the potters.

The Enduring Mystery: Gaps in the Ceramic Record

Even the pottery holds onto secrets. The almost complete absence of painted decoration or elaborate sculptural forms in clay is puzzling for a culture so artistically flamboyant in bronze. Was all artistic energy channeled into the metallurgical workshops? Were there perishable materials (lacquer, wood, textiles) that served decorative purposes in daily life? Furthermore, while kiln sites have been identified, the full organization of pottery production—whether centralized or village-based—remains an area for further research.

The story of Sanxingdui is a symphony played on many instruments. The bronzes are the crashing cymbals and deep horns, impossible to ignore. The gold is the brilliant, clear note of a trumpet. But the pottery is the steady, pervasive rhythm of the drum—the foundational beat that structured daily existence and ritual practice. To understand the civilization that could conceive of a 4-meter bronze tree, we must also study the hands that formed the humble, cord-marked pot that held its offering. In the end, the true wonder of Sanxingdui lies not just in its otherworldly artifacts, but in the profound humanity revealed in the totality of its remains, from the most spectacular mask to the simplest clay sherd.