Mysterious golden mask dated to be more than 3,000 years old was unearthed together with more than 500 important cultural relics from ancient sacrifice pits.

The newest results on the archeological discoveries in the renowned Sanxingdui Ruins archeological site located in the city of Guanghan, in south-western Chinese province of Sichuan, have been announced on National Cultural Heritage Administration on 20th March.

The fragment of the mask discovered composes just the half of the artifact but it proved to belong to the largest golden mask of the Shang (1600 BC – 1046 BC) and Zhou (2070 BC – 600 BC) Dynasties period discovered in China so far.

More than 500 other cultural relics were found, such as giant bronze masks, gold masks, bronze sacred trees and even traces of silk.

The leader of the archaeological excavation Lei Yu said: “According to the half of the mask found so far, it is speculated that the complete weight of this golden mask should exceed 500 grams.”

Lei Yu said that if the complete mask is found, it would be the largest golden mask and the heaviest gold object from the period found in China.

The half of the golden mask was found in the fifth pit from the six pits excavated in the area. It is about 23 centimetres wide, 28 centimetres high and weights 280 grams. It has a square face, big hollow eyes, triangular nose bridge and wide ears.

This style is very similar to the style of the golden masks and the golden masks unearthed in Sanxingdui before.

“A large number of gold objects and gold leaf fragments have been found in the ancient Shu civilization sites, and they are all related to religious sacrifices.”

The golden artifacst were a symbol of power and were used in ceremonies of worship by the ancient Shu people. Lei Yu: “This golden mask was also used for sacrifices, but because it is much larger than a human face, it is unlikely that it was worn by a person.”

“It adds a great demonstration to the worship of gold in the ancient Shu civilization, and it also carries a lot of mysterious information waiting to be uncovered.”

The site covers an area of about 12 square kilometers and was discovered in the late 1920 but recently research was renewed with six new sacrifice pits were discovered from November 2019 to May 2020.