With nine birds on it and its top missing, this tree reminds people of the legendary holy tree described in the book Shan Hai Jing (Scriptures of Mountains and Rivers). In ancient times, so the legend goes, there were ten suns instead of one. They lived in one holy tree and rotated their duties. Everyday the one on duty would move to the top of the tree and the rest nine stayed on lower branches. This story led some to believe that one of those separately unearthed birds should have been originally on the top of the tree.

The bronze sun wheel, with five lines symbolizing rays of sunlight, is considered to be an ornament of shields in primitive dancing. It remains unknown why the circle was divided evenly into five sections rather than four, six, eight, or twelve, when symmetry was much sought-after and much easier to achieve in ancient Chinese crafts.

·Bronze mask with protruding eyes: bird worship

Many bronze birds and bird-shaped objects were unearthed at Sanxingdui, indicating a culture of bird worship. The bronze mask, with protruding eyes, an aquiline nose, and two big wing-shaped ears, is widely viewed as evidence showing the importance of birds in the Sanxingdui culture.

·The Gold Scepter

The Gold Scepter, 2.3 cm in diameter and 142 cm long, is the longest gold scepter found in the world so far. Its gold nets half a kilogram. At the bottom of the gold scepter are two human head patterns, while four groups of identical patterns are carved symmetrically onto its top, each consisting of images of fish, birds and arrows.

What did this gold scepter symbolize? Some hold that it was the symbol of the omnipotent imperial power of the ruler of Sanxingdui; and others believe the scepter was tantamount to the holy tree, and was a reflection of ancient Sichuan people's practice of tree worship.

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