Abstract

This article presents a review of bronze snakes, snake-like creatures and dragons from the sacrificial pit JK2 of the Sanxingdui Bronze Age culture spread in the Sichuan Province of China in the last centuries of the second millennium B.C. Judging by the technique of their assembling, the snakes belong to the second stage in the evolution of bronze-casting technology in Sanxingdui. The sculpture of a human with bird’s claws on his feet, holding two snake-like creatures, also belongs to the second stage. The “tree of spirits” No. 1 with the dragon represents the third stage in the evolution, and trees No. 2 and 3, which are connected with dragons of B and A types, to the second and first stages of the technological evolution respectively. Openwork base of the “altar” with dragons belongs to the second stage, and a round figurine of the dragon with spotted body - to the third stage.

Keywords

China, Bronze Age, Sanxingdui, sacrificial pits, snakes, dragons, relative chronology

Varenov A.V.

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2145-8611

Novosibirsk State University

Girchenko E.A.

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5304-2595

Novosibirsk State University
Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography SB RAS

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