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For the first half of the first millennium Bc, the most notable find of elite artifacts in the Chengdu Plain is a pair of hoards of bronzes found at Zhuwajie in Pengxian (now Pengzhou City) in 1959 and 1980. The present paper is a comprehensive study examining and discussing the circumstances and the date of the burials, the styles and the dates of the bronzes, and their casting technology and likely place of manufacture. It also situates the Zhuwajie bronzes in the context of the bronze cultures in the Chengdu Plain as well as the general historical background of the Western Zhou period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sanxingdui site is a Neolithic and early Bronze Age site in the Chengdu Plain in Sichuan Province, southwest China. Over the years, as archaeological fieldwork at the site has progressed, the understanding of the site and its culture has changed gradually. This article discusses the stratigraphy, pottery typology, periodization, and absolute dating of Sanxingdui, aiming to evaluate major periodization schemes and different definitions of the Sanxingdui Culture, which the site typifies. It is argued that the Sanxingdui Culture encompasses Phase II through Phase IV of the four-phase periodization scheme for the Sanxingdui site and that the earliest remains at the Shi'erqiao site in nearby Chengdu, contemporary with the Phase IV remains at Sanxingdui, should be included in the spatial and temporal dimensions of the Sanxingdui Culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]