Sunken Silver – An Exhibition of Archaeological Discoveries from the Jiangkou Battlefield

Date : June 26, 2018 - September 26, 2018

Venue : Gallery S9

Hosted by : National Museum of China, Sichuan Administration of Cultural Heritage

Co-organized by: Sichuan Provincial Cultural Relics and Archeology Research Institute, State Administration of Cultural Heritage Underwater Cultural Heritage Protection Center, Cultural Relics Protection and Administration Office of Pengshan District, Meishan City

Admission fee: 30RMB

The site of Jiangkou Battlefield, Pengshan County, Sichuan Province, is one of China’s top 10 new archaeological discoveries in 2017. The exhibition will showcase over 500 cultural relics and is the first open show of the archaeological discoveries from the Jiangkou sunken silver site. The exhibition will not only provide the visitors with an opportunity of enjoying valuable cultural relics, but also highlight the initial use of new methods and technologies in the excavation, as well as the importance of public participation in the exhibition, so as to make everyone delve into the development of public archeology and how to protect the archaeological site after it was excavated.

The exhibition consists of three parts, namely the “Preface Hall”, “Excavation of Sunken Silver” and “New Archaeological Methods and Technologies”. The “Preface Hall” makes a general introduction to the site, and how the cultural relics were discovered before the archaeological excavation. Consisting of “The Rise and Fall of the Daxi State” and “The Society of the Ming Dynasty”, the “Excavation of Sunken Silver” fully displays the important excavated cultural relics, which are mainly historical relics related to Zhang Xianzhong’s Daxi Regime and the Jiangkou Battle, as well as gold and silver investitures of local seigniors of the Ming Dynasty, metal coins, and jewelries and daily-use household appliance in the middle and late periods of the Ming Dynasty. The “Excavation of Sunken Silver” introduces the archaeological method of inland water cofferdam by means of text, picture, video, and immersion projection, various new techniques used for archaeological excavation, as well as the important role of public archaeology in this archaeological excavation.