outwardly coiling with knife-shaped feathers and the upturned tail coiling inward. There are also square holes on the upper and lower part in front of the ear,which are probably used for fixing. The one-legged ornamen-tal dragon on the largest mask is no longer existing.

This kind of bronze animal mask testifies the high standard of the sculpturers of the ancient Shu State in their artistic conception.With bold exaggeration they skilfully and harmoniously combined man and animal to have created abstractly this unrealistic man-animal integrated divine idol. At first glance,it looks stately, dignified and awe-inspiring like beasts. But looking at it carefully, its profile rendered by smooth and exquisite lines, its sharp knife-formed broad eyebrows, its slightly round vertical almond-like eyes, slightly-exposed tongue-tip and swollen-up nose, all give people a sense of warmth and kindness. And the slightly retrenched facial muscles give the facial look an expression of quiet and bitterness to reveal certain solemnity and grimness in the calmness. These special and complicated expressions seem to render the people a sense of the existence of the divinities so that they respect them, worship them and are subjected to their power, while at the same time they take them as protective deities who drive away the evil and protect the good. These masks which have so harmoniously integrated man with animal, grimness with kindness have reflected the unique social consciousness and religious concept of the ancient Shu people which are different from the Culture of Central China.At the same time they also have shown that the ancient Shu states possessed very high bronze carving workmanship by no means inferior to that of the Central Chinese Culture.

Facial masks of divinities are an important component of sorcery culture.These masks are worn on the head or body in religious sacrificial activities to carry out simulated performances for the purpose of expelling evils or disease, which was called "exorcising ceremony" in ancient China.

The Chinese sorcery culture has a long history.In as early as the period of the Neolithic Yangshao Culture, there appeared manual-made pottery human masks for sorcery purposes. In the Shang and Zhou Dynasties exorcising ceremonies became an important rite to offer sacrifices to gods or devils and to expel pestilence. In the time of Han-Tang Dynasties this ancient religious rite was mixed with contents of entertainment to become a kind of dance with entertaining characters.And starting from the Song Dynasty the exorcising dance, influenced by folk talking and singing art and drama, became a form of dramatic performance. Up to date this ancient culture is still very popular in some regions inhabited by national minorities or some remote mountainous areas.

In two sacrificial pits of the Sanxingdui ruins have been unearthed about 20 human facial masks.The excavation of so many human masks is the first discovery in the archaeology of the Shang-Zhou Dynasties in China. The combination of all the bronze erect figures,head images and kneeling human figures plus the head masks constitutes a world of masked images of divinities of the ancient Shu State.

The numerous bronze masks are very different in size, yet, none is fit for human wearing. Their usage is still a mystery.