The Hong Kong Palace Museum (HKPM) on Monday announced it will showcase 120 precious cultural relics from the world-renowned Sanxingdui Ruins in a four-month exhibition slated to begin in late September
The exhibition will focus on new archaeological discoveries in southwest China's Sichuan Province represented by Sanxingdui. Cultural relics such as bronzeware, jade, goldware, pottery artifacts dating back 2,600 to 3,300 years will be displayed. Most of the exhibits will be showcased outside Sichuan for the first time.
During the exhibition, the museum will hold a series of academic seminars and public education activities with the theme of the ancient Shu civilization, deepening the academic exchange between Hong Kong and Sichuan Province in the fields of Shu archaeology and cultural research, and showcasing the century-long archaeological achievements of the country.
This special exhibition is one highlight of the HKPM's activities this year, and it will enable domestic and international visitors to understand the life and cultural exchanges among different regions and ethnic groups in ancient China, said Louis Ng, director of the HKPM.
Tang Fei, president of the Sichuan Provincial Cultural Relics and Archeology Research Institute, expressed the hope that through this exhibition, Hong Kong residents can better understand the historical, artistic, and cultural values of the Bronze Age civilization in China.
Originally discovered in the late 1920s, the Sanxingdui Ruins have been dubbed as one of the world's greatest archaeological findings of the 20th century.
Located in the city of Guanghan, around 60 km from Sichuan's provincial capital Chengdu, the ruins covering an area of 12 square km are believed to be the remnants of the Shu Kingdom, dating back some 4,500 to 3,000 years.
The HKPM signed exhibition cooperation agreements with several museums and archaeology research institutes from Sichuan on Monday.
Chengdu Jinsha Site Museum will also provide precious cultural relics that have never been displayed outside Sichuan before, including a jade axe dating back more than 3,000 years.
