© Photo by Shen Bohan / Xinhua via Getty Images
Fragment of a gold mask unearthed at Sanxingdui, an archaeological site in southwest China .
As Stephen Chen reports for the
South China Morning Post, the researchers, who began digging at the site in 2019, found more than 500 objects, most of which were crafted out of gold, bronze, jade and ivory.
Experts are unsure who made the artifacts, but they speculate that the cache's creators belonged to the
Shu state, a highly skilled civilization conquered by the neighboring state of Qin in 316 B.C. Because the
people of Shu left behind few written records, notes Oscar Holland for
CNN, historians' knowledge of their culture is limited.
A major highlight of the find is a 0.6-pound fragment of a gold mask that may have been worn by a priest during religious ceremonies, reports the
Global Times' Chen Shasha. About 84 percent pure gold, the piece likely weighed close to one pound in its entirety, making it one of the heaviest gold masks from that time period discovered in China to date. The Sanxingdui team found the mask, along with an array of other ornate items, in six rectangular sacrificial pits.
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