Findings shed light on Sanxingdui layout

"Better knowledge of the urban layout of Sanxingdui helped us to place previous findings into a bigger picture," said Chen Xingcan, a veteran archaeologist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. "The recent discovery is no less important than those remarkable pits."

The Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology is also cooperating with 16 institutions nationwide to carry out restoration and follow-up research on unearthed artifacts from the six "sacrificial pits". About 4,060 artifacts have been cleaned and restored, Ran said.

"On the artifacts, we found various cultural elements, ranging from Central China Plains, Northwest China, the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and so on," he said.

Wang Lixin, a professor at Northwest University in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, noted that a bronze earring recently found at Sanxingdui showed typical features of Eurasian grasslands at that time, for example, some elements of Andronovo Culture from Siberia and Central Asia.

"Such a wide exchange of cultures and interactions reflects the diverse and inclusive nature of the evolution of Chinese civilization," Ran said.

Wang Ru contributed to this story.