1、Tour Guide Wording for Jinsha Site Museum (English V.0)1Tour Guide Wordingfor Jinsha Site MuseumEdited by Chengdu Jinsha Site MuseumOctober 2006Tour Guide Wording for Jinsha Site Museum (English V.0)2Tour Guide Wording for Jinsha Site Museum(Tour guide starting from the Southern Entrance Gate)Good m
2、orning (afternoon) everyone, welcome your presence and visit to Jinsha Site Museum. My name is , a tour guide special for Jinsha Site Museum. It is a great honor for me to stay with you today in your visit to Jinsha Site Museum. You may be ignored that you have already stood upon the land where sple
3、ndid Jinsha cultural relic site with a profound history of more than 3000 years has been buried. Lets go through the tunnel of time for a journey of Jinsha discovery. (After access into the Museum Entrance Gate) Discovered on February 8, 2001, Jinsha Site is identified as the ancient Shu cultural re
4、lic attract which was prosperous in the Shang Dynasty (16th11th Century BC) and Zhou Dynasty (after the Shang Dynasty to 221 BC). Jinsha Site is situated in the northwest of Chengdu City, between the 2nd Ring Road and the 3rd Ring Road, 5 kilometers away from Chengdu City Center the Tianfu Square. J
5、insha Site was discovered by accident in a capital construction site which was on progress. This discovery was awarded as “2001 China Top Ten Archaeological Discoveries” in the same year when it was unearthed. Through years archaeological study and excavation, it is quite certain that the site distr
6、ibution is scattered over 5 square kilometers around. Within this historical cultural site, some important cultural heritages such as large-scale palace-style buildings, sites for worship activities, civilian housing area and Graves have been discovered. About over 6000 pieces of precious cultural r
7、elics including gold wares, bronze wares, jade wares, stone wares, lacquered wooden wares along with a large number of ceramic wares, ivories, wild boar buckteeth and deer horns have been unearthed. These unearthed discoveries help us a lot in understanding in general the living style, production, c
8、ustom for burying the death, religious worship of ancient Shu people in Jinsha Time; in addition, they are also helpful for us to draw an initial conclusion regarding the nature and age of the heritage site. Upon the evaluation of the scale of the Site and some high Tour Guide Wording for Jinsha Sit
9、e Museum (English V.0)3honorable traces and relics discovered in the Site, Jinsha Site can be conjectured once to be the Capital of ancient Shu State followed after San Xing Dui Civilization from late Shang Dynasty to the Western Zhou Dynasty. Jinsha Site is recognized as the most important archaeol
10、ogical discovery of China in early 21st Century as well as another significant archaeological discovery followed after San Xing Dui discovery in Sichuan Province. Discovery of Jinsha Site greatly extended the content of the ancient Shu culture, which is of great significance in research on the origi
11、n, development and decay and perish of the Shu culture; in particular, it provided us with reliable evidence to explain the miracle of sudden perish of San Xing Dui civilization. It is no doubt to advocate that Jinsha Site has reproduced the glory and prosperity of the ancient Shu State, recovered a
12、 missed history and revealed the 3000-year-long sleeping ancient civilization. Furthermore, this discovery has brought forward the history of Chengdu existence from 2300 years ago to about 3000 years ago. Like a thunder advocating the coming of spring, Jinsha Site started with a new page to look int
13、o the miracle of ancient Shu State. And also due to such discovery, Jinsha Village located in the northwest suburb of Chengdu City which was quite unknown by the public before year 2001 has become a magnetic field in West China attracting wide public concerns and peoples curiosity. (From the Entranc
14、e Gate to the Relics Site Hall) Jinsha Site had received wide concern from all works of the society when it was discovered. The State and CCP leaders have shown their special concerns and contributed their great efforts to the excavation, protection and construction of Jinsha Site. More than 20 top
15、leaders from the China Central Government including Jiang Zemin, Zeng Qinghong, Wu Guanzheng, Qiao Shi, Song Ping, Wei Jianxing, Wang Lequan, Wu Yi, Li Lanqing, Li Tieying, Jiang Chunyun and Chen Zhili and so on have paid their visit and inspection one after anther to Jinsha Site, leaving their inst
16、ructions to explore, protect and construct Jinsha Site well. Various governmental administration and departments of each level such as State Administration of Cultural Heritage, Sichuan Provincial CCP Tour Guide Wording for Jinsha Site Museum (English V.0)4Committee, Sichuan Provincial Peoples Gover
17、nment, Chengdu Municipal CCP Committee and Chengdu Municipal Peoples Government also have contributed their high regard and support to the protection and construction of Jinsha Site. Early in the end of 2002, Chengdu Municipal CCP Committee and Peoples Government specified the boundary for the site
18、protection and zone under control of new construction, and set about to develop the general plan for the site cultural heritage protection and its feasibility study in 2003. In 2004, Jinsha Site Museum project was approved for construction. In 2006, construction of Jinsha Site Museum was entirely co
19、mpleted. Situated at the site where Jinsha cultural relics were unearthed, Jinsha Site Museum covers a floor area of 456 mu (equal to 300,000 m2), total construction area of approximately 35,000 m2, which consists of Relics Hall, Exhibition Hall, Cultural Heritage Conservation Center, Park Zone and
20、other key sections with a total construction investment amounted up to RMB309 million (cost for land use excluded). The Park Zone facilitated for the Museum is eco-environmental oriented dedicated to the site heritage protection purpose through a large quantity of every-green plantation, such as pho
21、ebe nanmu, gingko and metasequoia etc. In order to prevent from any damage to the virgin earth, plantations of those trees are all rooted in the backfilled earth with a depth of 2m. The small path on our left site is called “Road of Jade”. Our ancient ancestors started their pioneering from this lan
22、d full of jungles and dangers where we are standing upon now to far-off high mountains to mine, select and transport jade stones piece by piece, leaving us a great number of fancy jade artworks to nowadays. Today, walking on this “Road of Jade”, I am hundred percent sure you are feeling and experien
23、cing the hardship suffered by our ancestors in mining jade stones thousands years ago. On our right side, there stands the “Ebony Forest”, a window of antiquity and time-fading. Before Dujiangyan Irrigation System construction by Li Bing, Chengdu Plain was frequently struck by floods, which often re
24、sulted in river course change. When a flood occurred in the upper stream, various trees were flushed and buried deeply in the ancient river course, which remained not rotted though 300012000 years has been Tour Guide Wording for Jinsha Site Museum (English V.0)5passed. Since such deeply buried trees
25、 appear deep black color from the surface to the inside, Sichuan people call them ebony wood. From a scientific point of view, these so-called ebony trees can be varied in tree species. Due to its unique features such as compact density, organic matter decomposition completion, no deformation and no
26、 worm birth, ebony wood is precious and expensive with a folksay like this “Ten thousand Liang (Chinese ancient measurement unit equal to 50g) of gold deposit at house is not worth one cubic meter of ebony wood in the field”. A large number of ebony wood has been discovered in Jinsha Site as well as
27、 area neighboring Chengdu Plain. This live “fossil” fully proves that the ancient Chengdu Plain had sound eco-environment. (Permanent LOGO of Sun and Immortal Bird)The sculpture standing before us originates from the “Sun and Immortal Bird” gold ornamental article unearthed in Jinsha Site. The outsi
28、de diameter of the original piece is 12.5 cm. With its meaningful look and feel, precise structural composition, beautifully flowing patterns together with rich rhythm, it condensed ancient peoples profound philosophical and religious thinking, endless imagination, extraordinary artistic creativity
29、and exquisite craftworks, representing the submit of gold artistic articles of China Shang and Zhou Dynasties. Morals such as chasing for brightness, teamwork for progress and consonance with tolerance found in the Sun and Immortal Bird pattern also exaggerate the strong feeling of responsibility an
30、d mission of Chinese government and people to protect cultural heritage of the motherland. On August 16, 2005, the Sun and Immortal Bird pattern was selected as the LOG for Chinese cultural heritage. On October 17, 2005, Sun and Immortal Bird Shu Embroidery returned from its space journey carried by
31、 Shenzhou No. 6 Airship. On December 18, 2005, this permanent commemorative sculpture work was officially settled down in Jinsha Site Museum. The Sun and Immortal Bird sculpture standing before us is amplified by nearly 30 times of the original, serving you as a good photographing place for your ete
32、rnal memory. (Outside the Relics Hall)Tour Guide Wording for Jinsha Site Museum (English V.0)6This building before us is the Relics Hall of Jinsha Site Museum. This proximate round shaped slopping full steel structural building has an total area of 7,588 m2, a height of 19m and a span of 63m. At the
33、 present, the archaeological excavation right here is still under its progress. Here, in addition to our feel to the grand sacrificial scene happened in ancient Shu State 3000 years ago, we also can take close look on the archaeological excavation process to experience how archaeological work is pro
34、ceeding so scientifically and precisely, also, you will be the lucky one to witness how precious cultural relics is unearthed. (Inside the Relics Hall) Here is the excavation site for ancient large-scale sacrificial event in Jinsha Site. February 8, 2001 is the date marking the re-appearance of Jins
35、ha Kingdom which has been buried underneath the ground for thousands of years. Based on the existing discovery, here is a sacrificial place by the river solely used by ancient Shu Kingdom. It is arranged along both sides of the ancient river course with a total area of about 15,000 m2. It is likely
36、that in the very beginning the ancient Shu people were undergoing their sacrificial activities on the river bank, and when the activity was over, burying their sacrificial offerings underneath the river shoal, and then covering them with earth. And again after completion of next sacrificial event, t
37、hey were burying the sacrificial offerings, which were being piled layer by layer through 500-year prolong repetition from late Shang Dynasty to early the Spring and Autumn Period. Excavation work in the sacrifice area started in early 2001. So far, cultural relics including gold ware, bronze ware,
38、jade ware, lacquer wood ware and pottery ware and so on unearthed right here have bee amounted to over 6000 pieces; besides, a large number of precious ivory wares and thousands of wild boar bucktooth and deer horn wares have been unearthed as well. Since the cultural relics deposit in the sacrifici
39、al area is rather complicated, plus the unearthed cultural relics are so rare and precious, majority of them are required for site protection, therefore, the archaeological excavation here is quite slow in progress, and area and depth allowable for excavation are limited. Our exploration excavation
40、depth up to now only reached to the earth layer Tour Guide Wording for Jinsha Site Museum (English V.0)7corresponding late Western Zhou Period, still 3m away from the immature. I would like to spend several minutes to introduce you some archaeological knowledge related to the excavation here. As you
41、 see, our archaeological experts and workers are carrying out the archaeological research and excavation. These small square grids are called “check spare” widely used in archaeological research and excavation. Talking with plain words understood by everybody, check square is a foursquare earth pit
42、excavated vertically down in a flat land. However, this foursquare earth pit is not excavated without purpose. Which place is excavated first and which place is the next depends on the determination of soil layers time sequence. Sometimes, earth pit excavation is done according to actual situation o
43、r excavation purpose, which can be various forms such as 10m10m check square or 2m10m check trench. The earth beam between check squares is called partition beam. There are many lines made by hand shovel on the section plane of partition beam, and these lines are made just for earth layer separation
44、 purpose. Such line made for specifying earth layers is an important step to keep well archaeological record. When two neighboring check squares are completed in excavation for all earth layers, the partition beam between will be excavated for archaeological purpose. The partition beam main function
45、 is to observe the change of earth layers. When all partition beams between four neighboring check squares are completed in archaeological excavation, a square earth mound will be remained in the middle, which has a scientific name called “critical column”. This remained earth mound main function is
46、 to coordinate the earth layer relation for four neighboring check squares, which is super important in archaeological research resulting its namecritical column. Also, it is the last one to be excavated in an archeological site. (Check square role lies in three aspects: (1) earth layer control: wit
47、hin a certain range of area, earth layer distribution in different place differs from each other, if a excavation is large in area, it is hard to control the earth layer distribution, therefore, comparatively speaking, it is easier to control the earth layer distribution within a small sized check s
48、quare; (2) coordinates establishment: each relic phenomena or unearthed cultural relic can be certain in terms of Tour Guide Wording for Jinsha Site Museum (English V.0)8position within the check square accompanied with coordinates; (3) record convenience. In an archeological excavation, check squar
49、e is a basic unit for recording and data processing). Earth layer is the basis for an archaeological excavation. Different earth quality and color produce varied earth deposit, which are also different each other in time sequence. That is, the earlier deposit is located underneath the late ones. Deposit in different time sequence has varied each other in earth quality and color, resulting different unearthed cultural relics. The natural deposit earth layer prior to human activity within a historical site is called “immature soil”. A new earth layer will be formed on a large area
