No characters

One of the greatest mysteries of Jinsha culture is that it left no written characters, despite the fact that most ancient cultures were already developing and using characters at that time.

Ancient Chinese used tortoise shells for divination purposes. They would burn the tortoise shells and then predict the future or tell people''s fortunes by studying the rifts and patterns on the backs of the shells -- called "oracle bones."

Most oracle bones in the vast plain of China carried inscriptions showing the date of the fortune-telling operation, the identities of the people who carried it out or gave some clues as to why divine forces were being consulted. But the oracle bones excavated in Jinsha are eerily silent -- they have no characters on them at all.

"It's very surprising because their culture was quite sophisticated and should have developed characters like other cultures across the world," Zhu said.

"Archaeologists guess they might have written characters on things that did not last, for example leaves or pieces of bark."

Relations with Sanxingdui

Jinsha shares many cultural similarities with Sanxingdui, or Three Star Mound, an important archaeological site about 50 km away.

For example, the Jinsha gold mask looks like the bronze masks uncovered in Sanxingdui. The bronze masks in Sanxingdui show facial features so different from local Chinese that some people have joked that they must have been built by extraterrestrial beings.

"Maybe the features on the masks were done so as to deliberately exaggerate their facial features," Zhu said.

Sanxingdui culture disappeared suddenly after about 500 years of existence and some have speculated it may have disappeared in a flood. The discovery of Jinsha suggests that Sanxingdui people may have moved to Jinsha and built another capital there, where their culture lasted for another 500 years before disappearing again.

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