A similar figure is found on part of a bronze altar half a meter high, made up of a dragon, human figures wearing crowns, masks, and birds. The human heads cast in bronze are also unique to this period in China. They are about 40 to 50 centimeters (16 to 20 in.) high, and many would have worn a headdress or crown. Others wear a flat cap cast first and then later cast on to the face. One of these heads contained jades, cowry shells, bronze daggers, and a gold ornament in the form of a tiger. Four of the bronze heads in the second pit wore gold masks secured to the face by a resin. Only the eyes and holes for the attachment of ear ornaments are not covered. Other gold masks were found in Pit 2, but they have not been matched with individual heads. A large human head, half a meter high, wore an elaborate headdress in the form of two yazhang blades; another wore a turban, and his ears were pierced three times, probably to retain ornaments.
The human heads are thought to have worn masks. In other bronzes, the masks themselves are complete and separate. Some are massive. One example is 60 centimeters (2 ft.) wide and weighs 13.5 kilograms (29.7 lbs.). This bronze was apparently cast in one pour, a testament to the skill of the specialists who worked at Sanxingdui. Holes left at strategic places suggest that it was once attached to a face sculpted in another medium, such as wood. In a second type of mask, which is bigger than the previous group, the masks combine human and animal faces and have grotesquely prominent eyes on protruding stalks. One of these is almost 1.4 meters wide, with pointed ears, tight lips with a slightly protruding tongue, and jutting chin. There is a rectangular hole on the forehead that was cut out after the mask had been cast. This might well have held in place a tall bronze projection with curved ends and an ornamental forepiece like that seen on a second giant animal mask. This projection is known as a kuilong, or dragon image without horns. The mask also has broad lips and pointed ears, but the eyeballs are rounded and projected in front of the face in tall, slanted eyes. Again, it has square holes under the ears probably to attach the mask to a body Purely animal masks were also cast. Their schematized but forbidding features are matched on the designs cast into the ritual vessels of the period, but these masks are large, measuring up to 30 centimeters wide. Some of the ritual bronze vessels from Sanx-ingdui show marked similarities to those from the late Shang capital at anyang. A large lei vessel, for example, a little more than a half-meter in height, matches the shape and decoration of analogous vessels at Anyang. On the other hand, details of the casting techniques employed at Sanxingdui reveal local preferences. In casting a lei the Shu casters used four-piece molds, against the three preferred at Anyang.
The massive bronzes were probably decorations for one or more large ritual structures. Their placement may be reconstructed on the basis of a bronze model of an altar, a little more than a half-meter in height, that has been reconstructed from fragmentary remains from Pit 2. It has a series of tiers separated by platforms, supported by a four-legged animal. The first tier incorporates bronze figures closely resembling the large face masks, each holding in outstretched hands a curved offering of some sort. These match the small model of a kneeling man holding a yazhang blade in the same posture. The uppermost tier of the altar includes rows of kneeling figures in half-relief, with their arms again in a position of holding a ceremonial offering of some sort.
Animal Figures
Animal castings were abundant at Sanxingdui. Apart from the birds, there is a unique complete snake resembling a python, about 1.1 meters long. The body is richly ornamented with geometric designs. Two lugs beside the head were probably intended to suspend or hold it against another object.
JADES FROM PITS
Jade was one of the most prestigious materials found in Shang period burials and had a long period of use preceding the first states. At Sanxingdui, many jades of the highest quality were recovered. The ge is a dagger with a broad blade and a hilt. Eighteen such daggers in jade were found in Pit 1, and 21 were taken from Pit 2. A yazhang is a long-handled blade or knife, characteristic of the period beginning with the Xia dynasty (2100-1766 B. C.E.) and ending with the early western zhou dynasty (1045-771 B. C.E.). They are widely distributed in China, including Hong Kong, and even extend into northern Vietnam. However, only about 200 specimens are known. The importance of the two pits at Sanxingdui can, therefore, be appreciated when it is considered that 57 yazhang were recovered. Some show local design preferences. There is, for example, a blade with a forked end and hooks close to the handle. It is very long and weighs almost a kilogram. Even this specimen, however, pales before a broken blade from Pit 1, which would have been more than a meter and a half long. The recovery of a small bronze figure of a kneeling man holding just such a forked blade in front of him emphasizes their probably ritual function.
Other jades include axes, rings, and the cong, a ritual object of considerable longevity, and all these forms are widespread. Two types of jades, however, are unparalleled: There are a jade pendant, and a long chisel, of which 43 were found in a bronze vessel. Another unique object recovered from the first pit is the gold sheath for a staff of some sort, decorated with fish and human faces wearing earrings and a crown.
RESULTS OF EXCAVATIONS
The site of Sanxingdui has reoriented the appreciation of early civilization in China. Hitherto, virtually all attention had been paid to the central plains and the Shang state, with its huge royal graves, oracle bones, palaces, and rich culture of ritual bronzes, but there was another early state in Sichuan, the state of Shu. while adhering to the same ritual traditions and following the same symbolic designs, such as the TAOTIE (animal’s head) mask so familiar at Anyang, the rulers of Sanxingdui encouraged a remarkable local school of bronze casting that delighted in the gigantic. There are few, if any, parallels in the ancient world for the size of the freestanding statue of a man, the trees, or the huge masks with animal features and eyes on stalks. The trees reveal remarkable and innovative skill, and even the jades show a taste for the spectacular and novel. One bronze of a woman holding above her head the model of a bronze zun container indicates how ritual offerings were probably made. Further excavations at this great city and its environs can only produce more remarkable discoveries.
Sanxingdui was almost certainly the seat of a powerful Shu kingdom, for ceramics similar to those recovered there have also been found over large parts of Sichuan province, including Yaan to the south and Yangzishan in Chengdu city The latter site has revealed a large earthen platform, probably designed to perform rituals. It stood at least 10 meters (33 ft.) high, and its base was a little more than 100 meters square (120 sq. yds.). A further important site has been examined at Chengdu. It was a long wooden structure; one significant find there was a clay spindle incised with a written character.
Sapallitepa Sapallitepa is a prehistoric settlement located on the delta of the ulanbulaksai River, a tributary of the Amu Dar’ya, in northern bactria (now Afghanistan). It was excavated in the early 1970s, and although estimating its area has proved difficult, it is thought to have covered at least four hectares (10 acres). It was occupied during the Bronze Age between 2200 and 2000 B. C.E. and aids an understanding of growing social complexity in this strategic region. A large palace complex covers about a hectare of the site and includes separate occupation areas, revealing the presence of specialists in the manufacture of bone, horn, and bronze artifacts. Late in the occupation period, the palace area was used as a cemetery, and 138 inhumation graves have been uncovered. Female graves in this cemetery not only contained more wealth measured in terms of ceramic and bronze artifacts, but they also were the only burials to contain certain high-prestige items, such as seals. The male graves are outnumbered by a ratio of 2:3 by the female and contained far fewer bronzes.
Sarasvati River The Sarasvati River was formerly a sacred river originating in the Himalayas and entering the sea at the Rann of Katchchh. It is now extinct, although its course, roughly parallel to and east of the Indus River, can still be traced. It was mentioned as a living river in the RIG-VEDA. Archaeological surveys along its course have yielded many sites, including those occupied during the period of the INDUS valley civilization (c. 2500-c. 1770 B. C.E.). Of these, kalibangan is probably the best known. In about 1750 b. c.e. the water that had fed the Sarasvati appears to have been diverted east into the Ganges (Ganga) system, leading to a major abandonment of settlements along its course.
Sarnath Sarnath, near Varanasi (Benares), in India, is the location of the Buddha’s first sermon and thus holds a special place in the history of this religion. Now ruined, the earliest monasteries at Sarnath are thought to have been constructed during the Buddha’s own lifetime but attracted much further building under the Mauryan king ASOKA. The Great Stupa, thought to date to the fifth century C. E., survives despite the removal of the outer dome. The substructure contains wall niches and relief carvings. Between 1834 and 1836, sir Alexander cunningham opened the monument, a monumental task that required scaffolding and the employment of quarrymen from the chunar sandstone quarries. The stupa had large stone blocks secured in place by iron cramps, and removing them over a depth of 33 meters from the top revealed a layer of bricks. The basal soil was reached after continuing down for a further 8.5 meters, and then galleries were run out at the level of the bricks, but no foundation deposit was encountered. Apart from stupas and monasteries, Asoka had the most famous and elegant of his columns erected there; one has as its capital four lions facing the cardinal points of the compass. Many religious buildings were constructed over the centuries, including the Dhamekha stupa, and the Dharmacakrajinavihara has the distinction of being among the latest monasteries built there before the slaughter of the monks at the hands of Muhammed Ghori in 1194 C. E. Sarnath was also a major center of Buddhist art, based on the locally available Chunar sandstone. This art style had its origins in the fifth century C. E., and its justifiably most famous work represents a seated Buddha.
See also maurya empire.
Sassanian empire The Sassanian empire of Persia was founded by Ardashir I in about 216 C. E., when he defeated the last Parthian king, Artabanus V One of Ardashir’s ancestors, Sasan, gave his name to this new dynasty. Ardashir’s early eastern conquests included the strategic merv (now Mary) oasis in Margiana. His son, Shapur, continued the expansion of the Sassanian empire, most notably by defeating and capturing the Roman emperor Valerian at the Battle of Edessa in 260 c. E. He also consolidated and expanded the eastern provinces, claiming success over the western kushans by taking
Purusapura, modern Peshawar in Pakistan, as well as BACTRIA, and extracting tribute. He had fortresses constructed on the eastern frontiers and greatly expanded Mary (Merv). This vital oasis center was formerly under semi-independent rulers, who were replaced by Sassanian appointees. Already by the third century C. E., Mary boasted a Christian monastery as well as Buddhist foundations. It was also a trading and manufacturing center for armaments, and a quarter of the city was given over to the production of ceramics. The stability provided under Sassanian rule stimulated trade across the silk road at least until the demise of the empire in the mid-seventh century C. E.
The archaeological evidence of trade is abundant. Chinese silks have been recovered from Palmyra, and Sassanian glass reached China and even farther east in Korea and Japan. The Sassanians also showed considerable interest in maritime trade that incorporated India, Sri Lanka, and beyond. The principal source of evidence for this trade network is the Topographia Christiana (Christian Topography) of Cosmas Indicopleustes of Alexandria in Egypt, which dates to about 550 C. E. This text emphasizes Sri Lanka as a key player in Sassanian eastern trade. Cosmas describes how Chinese and Southeast Asian goods reached Sri Lanka, including silk, CLOVES, and sandalwood, and were then taken west by Sassanian merchants. Further items of Indian origin, obtained by the same means, were elephants, copper, and pepper. Such was the Western demand for silk via this route that the Byzantine historian Procopius (born between 490 and 507 C. E.) indicated that it was impossible to buy in Indian ports because the market was dominated by Persians. It is even possible that the Sassanians traveled beyond Sri Lanka. The Nestorian Annals note that one of the bishops attending a synod in 410 C. E. was entitled, Metropolitan of the Islands, Seas and Interior, of Dabang, Chin, and Macin. Dabang was probably Java; the other two locations were in China. By the end of the Sassanian empire between 637 and 651 C. E., dominance of the Eastern maritime trade was complete.
Satanikota Satanikota is a walled satavahana city site, located on the Tungabhadra River in central India. It is particularly notable for the work put into its surrounding moat, which was chiseled from rock to a depth of up to three meters. The principal phase of occupation falls between 50 b. c.e. and 250 C. E., when the walls and moat were constructed; the former was equipped with gateways and probably a drawbridge. There were once many brick structures in the defended area, but brick robbing has destroyed most of the evidence. However, an impressive assemblage of material cultural remains were found, in particular a wide range of beads in glass and semiprecious stones, including carenelian, opal, jasper, and agate.
Satavahana The Satavahana dynasty dominated the Deccan in India from the late first century b. c.e. to the third century c. e. and resisted invading elements from the northwest. The people are known as the Andhras, Dravidians who spoke Telugu. Their state had two great rivers, the Krishna and the Godavari, and commanded a long tract of coast looking east across the Bay of Bengal. By this location, the kingdom was able to dominate the growing trade between the East and the Roman Empire, and the PERIPLUS OF THE ERYTHRAEAN SEA mentions two sites that participated, Pratisthana and Tagara. Finds of COINAGE and inscriptions also indicate the importance under the Satavahanas of SANNATHI, which grew to cover an area of 40 hectares (100 acres) in the defensive walls. Other important urban centers were Kondapur, Banavasi, and Madhavpur. The success of the Satavahanas has been ascribed to their dominance of a growing trade with the West, in which command of these passes linking the western coast of India with the cities of the interior was a paramount consideration.
NANAGHAT, commands a vital pass linking the capital Paithan with the sea, and there the Satavahana consorts of King Satakarni set up images of themselves and inscriptions describing their sacrificial donations. These date 60-70 b. c.e., but according to reports from Agath-archides of Alexandria, the Indian trade had been dominated by Arabs already half a century earlier.
HISTORY OF THE SATAVAHANAS
The date of the first Satavahana king, Simuka Satavahana, is not known with certainty Some claim that he ruled during the third century b. c.e., just after the Greek envoy MEGASTHENES described the Andhras as a powerful people. However, evidence from coins suggests a slightly later end to his reign but certainly by 120 b. c.e. He was followed by two other powerful leaders, Kanha and Satakarni, the latter ruling until about 60 b. c.e. At its zenith, under a succession of charismatic leaders, the Satavahana empire covered much of central and southern India. An image of Simuka was formerly in the Nanaghat cave, along with representations of later Satavahana rulers. This bright beginning was followed by fragmentation and defeat at the hands of the Kshaharata satraps under Nahapana, who ruled the area for almost 50 years. Gautamiputra Satakarni (c. 103-127 c. e.) is usually regarded as the greatest Satavahana king, and his military prowess resulted in the incorporation of territory from Rajasthan to Andhra and from Gujarat east to Kalinga. He was described as the restorer of Satavahana glory, the king who defeated Nahapana. He was followed by Pulumavi in 110 c. e. and then by Vasishtiputra Siri Satakarni in 138 c. e. The latter consolidated his position through a strategic marriage with the daughter of the powerful WESTERN satrap leader Rudradaman. When his reign ended in 145 c. e., his successor, Shivaskanda, was twice defeated in battles by Rudradaman, and the main line of kings ended in 181 c. e. with the death of Yajnasri Satakarni.
The later history of the dynasty is best traced through the coin issues. The coins of Yajnasri Satakarni bear images of ships, which might represent naval and trading success. The last king, Pulumavi IV, ruled until about 225 c. e., and during this period many major Buddhist monuments were constructed at Nagajunakonda and Amaravati. After his reign, the power of the empire declined, as it fragmented into smaller regional entities, and the Satavahanas pass from view by the early fourth century
Satingpra Satingpra is a city site on the east coast of isthmian Thailand, one of the early sites that grew rich on the basis of the southern maritime silk road. It is a moated site covering an area of 1,600 by 900 meters (5,280 by 2,970 ft.), and excavations by Janice Stargardt have revealed that settlement began between about 300 b. c.e. and 200 c. e. From the sixth century, the site assumed an urban form, linked with the development of hydraulic engineering works that encompassed canals and storage tanks. These were probably employed to increase rice production on the alluvial soils north of the center. A sixth-century temple was dedicated to Vishnu, and the ceramics are clearly very similar to those from OC EO, the trading port of the state of funan.
Scapulomancy Scapulomancy is the process of divination by applying heat to scapulae or shoulder blades to produce cracks used to predict future events. The earliest record of this procedure is from the Shandong longshan CULTURE site of Chengziyai (2500-1900 b. c.e.), in China, where 16 specimens have been recovered. Kings of the SHANG STATE and WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY in China from about 1200 b. c.e. retained court diviners. Cattle scapulae had holes excised, and heat was applied. The king then interpreted the meaning of the resultant cracks, and his prophecies were inscribed on the bone in archaic chinese characters. These covered such subjects as war, the harvest, the weather, when to make sacrifices to the ancestors, and whether royal consorts would enjoy a safe childbirth. The records were then stored in state archives. Many have been recovered through archaeological excavations and provide the basis for understanding later Shang dynastic history
See also li ji; liu taiyun; oracle bones; plastro-mancy; song yirang.
Sdok Kak Thom Sdok Kak Thom is a small temple located just inside Thailand. Its original name was Bhad-raniketana. It has an outer laterite wall that encloses a moat and an inner set of walls. Three temple sanctuaries lie within. The site is particularly well known because of a lengthy inscription that was set in place by Sadasiva, a member of an aristocratic priestfy family, who traced his ancestors back to the time of jayavarman ii (c. 770-834 C. E.) of ANGKOR in Cambodia. Although its prime purpose was to record the erection of a lingam and gifts from the king, it also describes the history of the Shiv-akaivalya family Interwoven with this dynastic record are vital clues to the establishment of the state of Angkor by jayavarman ii. it describes, for example, how jayavarman returned from Java to rule in the holy city of indrapura. The king then moved with his followers to the vicinity of modern Angkor. The inscription records the establishment by Jayavarman more than 250 years before the text was inscribed of a cult honoring the KAMRATENG JAGAT TA RAJA. This title, which translates into Sanskrit as DEVARAJA, means “the god who is king.” Shivakaivalya and his descendants were given the exclusive right to undertake the rituals associated with this god.
World History
