A peek behind the masks

Sun Hua, a professor from the School of Archaeology and Museology at Peking University, considers the possibility that deeper study of the pits, their construction style and foundations will offer an insight into the interior of a prehistoric shrine.

"Religious rituals often represent the highest-level ceremonies," Sun says. "We've seen constructional remains of contemporaneous shrines in the rest of world, but they are empty now.

"If we can recover a whole set of ceremonial artifacts used in sacrifices that date back more than 3,000 years (among the unearthed cultural relics in Sanxingdui pits), that'll be an exceptional reference from which to comprehend the religion of the Shu people and their view of the universe," he continues.

New discoveries may connect mythology passed down for generations to more facets of a prosperous civilization through details of the lives of the Shu people.

For example, silk was found in the soil of pit No 4. It resonates with the legend of Cancong, the founding ruler of the ancient Shu state who is said to have been an expert in raising silkworms.

"The lifetime of a silkworm is really short," says Zhou Yang, a researcher with the China Silk Museum in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. "In the view of ancient Chinese people, it became a unique symbol of life and death.

"Consequently, the earliest silk was not used to make fine clothes, but as a medium through which to connect people with heaven," she says. "So, the finding of silk in a sacrificial place is significant."

She also expects the find, through comparative studies of silk samples unearthed in other regions, to enhance knowledge of a "Silk Road" that is much older than the more widely known ancient trade route.