Background:
Sanxingdui (pronounced San-tzing-dwee) is thought to have been the capital of the ancient Shu culture in today’s Sichuan Province 3,000 years ago. The city covered roughly 1,544 sq. miles, 25 miles north of Chengdu.
It has been reported that a farmer digging an irrigating ditch, first discovered artifacts in 1929. He allegedly kept the site location secret, selling and giving away the artifacts.
Preliminary Report by Dr. Graham:
Graham, D.C. (1933-34) "Preliminary report of the Hanchow excavation." Journal of the West China Border Research Society 6: 124.
From Rev. Dr. Graham’s Memoirs:
First Excavation of the Place Now Known as Sanxingdui
While we were on our last furlough, an important discovery had been made at T’ai P’ing Ts’ang, near Hanchow, Szechwan. Some ancient jades had been unearthed while a farmer was digging an irrigating ditch. The presumption was that there were more artifacts that could be found if an excavation were made.
I got in touch with Mr. Donnithorne, the missionary in Hanchow, and through him began to make contacts with the magistrate of Hanchow. On March 1 I went to Hanchow to interview the magistrate and to secure permission to make the excavation. To my surprise he had sent men that day to dig in the site, hoping to find valuable objects. They had no knowledge of the scientific methods of excavation, so we persuaded him to allow me to come and do the excavating. He called off his diggers.
Mother [DCG's wife] was seriously ill, although she had begun to improve. When I told her about the site, and that the magistrate was much tempted to go ahead and dig the site up, thus spoiling it for science, she told me to go ahead and do the excavating. I therefore returned to Hanchow March 5, equipped to excavate the site. I took Lin Min Chun, the museum assistant, with me.
We mapped off the site in 5 foot squares, and ran a trench five feet wide parallel to the irrigating ditch. When this was finished, we ran the stream through the trench, dried out the ditch, and excavated in the bottom of the ditch, where the jades were originally found. Then we again ran the water through the ditch, and continued to excavate the rest of the site.
There were bands of robbers near Hanchow, and during our excavating they came into the country near us and captured a rich man and took him away as a “fat pig” to hold for a ransom. We had military guard all the time, and often after dark we would suddenly be moved from one home to another or to the nearby temple so that if the robbers came they would not find us.
The materials excavated were given to our museum [known today as Sichuan University Museum in Chengdu] by the magistrate, and I wrote a preliminary report. This is the oldest material excavated in West China. The latest date would be 1,000 BC. It made a big impression all over China and elsewhere, and we received several very complimentary letters from archaeologists.
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