2nd Millenium B.C
The lost civilisation of Sanxingdui
room China
The mysterious civilization of Sanxingdui, first discovered in the 1980s, is still very little understood as any written records are yet to be found. Sanxingdui and the surrounding region may have been a cradle for peoples speaking Tibeto-Burman languages (including languages ancestral to Burmese, Jingpo, Naga, Zomi,etc.) It was a 2nd millenium BC civilization that existed the same time as the Shang dynasty in China, New Kingdom of Egypt and ancient Babylon.
Sanxingdui is in what is today Sichuan (in western China) but the Sanxingdui civilization was entirely distinct from the Yellow River civilization over a thousand kilometres to the northeast that gave rise to classical China. It was almost certainly connected to the later Bronze Age cultures of Yunnan and Myanmar.
The ancestors of many of today's people in Myanmar may well have been linked to this still mysterious civilization. This bronze head is just one of hundreds of amazing bronze, jade and ivory finds from the Sanxingdui site. One of the few things known is that brewing and drinking beer was a central part of Sanxingdui culture.