Population relocated to Jinsha; Sanxingdui left no decipherable writing

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Key facts

• Jinsha site discovered in 2001 during pipe construction in Chengdu, 40 km from Sanxingdui
• Archaeologists believe the population shifted their capital to Jinsha and continued their civilization for centuries
• Flooding on Sanxingdui's plain may have driven relocation, though a catastrophic river-course-change theory has been challenged
• Most famous Jinsha artifact is a ~20 g gold disc thinner than cardstock depicting four birds flying around a central sun, echoing birds on Sanxingdui's 4-m bronze tree
• Jinsha artisans continued gold masks and jade blades in the Sanxingdui style but at smaller scale; they never rebuilt the giant statues, leaving the originals buried
• Sanxingdui has produced no decipherable written records; only a few random scratched symbols on metal and stone were found
• Writing may have existed on silk or bamboo that rotted, or the culture may have relied entirely on oral tradition
• This contrasts with Shang oracle bones (Fu Hao's 1976 tomb at Anyang held 1,900 objects and ~7,000 cowrie shells inscribed with details of her life), Egyptian temple inscriptions, Mesopotamian cuneiform, and Mayan glyphs
• The regional name "Shu" was applied by outsiders centuries later; no native names for the city, rulers, or gods survive

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