The sacrificial pit K4 is one of the six newly discovered"sacrificial pits"at the Sanxingdui site.Located in the eastern sacrificial area,south Sanxingdui city,K4 underwent excavation from October 2020 to August 2021,covering an area of approximately 9.33 square meters with a roughly square shape.The four walls and the bottom of the pit are not very flat as a whole,there is a long strip-shaped earth platform near the bottom of the east end of the south wall,and digging traces left by tools can be seen on the lower half of the pit wall.Its deposit is stratigraphically divided into three layers:rammed earth,ash layer,and artefact layer.Earth was filled in from the southeast and southwest corners of K4 while undergoing a ramming process,forming a compact layer of earth at the top.This layer yielded 603 fragmented artefacts,predominantly pottery sherds.The ash layer,situated in the middle,was poured in from the southeast corner and consists of charcoal from the burning of bamboo-like plants.A total of 457 fragmented artefacts,including pottery sherds,gold and bronze fragments were unearthed from the ash layer.In addition,traces of hemp textiles and silk were found in this layer.The artefact layer at the bottom of K4 revealed 1,118 artefacts,encompassing ivory,elephant tusks,pottery,gold,bronze,jade,lithic,seashells,etc.While a few artefacts of the same material were placed together,an overarching distributional pattern in the artefact layer remains unclear.Some artefacts exhibited a varying degrees of pre-burial treatment,including damage and burning.K4 dates back to the seventh phase of the Sanxingdui site,equivalent to the fourth phase of Yinxu culture in the Central China,with an absolute date falling between 3148 and 2966 cal.BP.K4 can be determined as a feature where ritual artefacts were buried in a short period of time due to an unforeseen event.
Sanxingdui siteSacrificial areaPit K4Pits for burying ceremonial objects
万方数据
维普
