The particularity of Sanxingdui culture: a perspective from its absence

Abstract

Early Central Plains culture in China attached importance to ritual sacrifice and military conquest while Sanxingdui culture lacked bronze ritual objects and weapons. Writing system functioned as a tool for divine communication in the early Central Plains culture. However, Sanxingdui culture had no evidence of a writing system. Objects related to deities were used to mediate interactions between humans and deities in the culture. Moreover, the sophisticated burial system of the early Central Plains culture was different from the tradition of the Sanxingdui culture not valuing tombs, a pattern likely resulting from the allocation of massive social resources to religious worship. These three absences showed that Sanxingdui culture represented a theocratic civilization with religious affairs at its core. Its particularity was shaped by the natural‑geographical setting, indigenous cultural traditions, and cross‑civilizational interaction. In the future, the application of AI tools and other archaeological science methods can further advance our understanding of the theocratic state nature of Sanxingdui culture.