The bronze ware covered with tortoise-back-shaped patterns from Pit No. 7 at the Sanxingdui site. [Photo/VCG]

One day in 2020, at a sacrificial pit of the Sanxingdui site in Guanghan, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Li Haichao, the youngest professor with the School of History & Culture, Sichuan University, was carefully removing the soil layer to unearth an ancient archaeological site.

Since 2020, six "sacrificial pits" have been found in the Sanxingdui site. More than 500 pieces of important cultural relics, such as gold masks, giant bronze masks, bronze sacred trees and ivory, were unearthed.

On August 24, a large statue of a sacred beast, weighing 150 kg, was unearthed from Pit No. 8. The beast has a horn on its head, and there is a slender man in a long robe standing on the horn.

Questions come along with the findings. Did written words exist in the ancient Sanxingdui civilization? Why are the exquisite treasures buried underground? Which civilization are the exotic-looking bronze statues from? Li Haichao thought "every finding may be a key to the puzzles."

Professor Li, born in the 1980s, said, "Archeology is a dialogue with the ancients through the findings."