The Sanxingdui Museum (Sānxīngduī Bówùguǎn, 三星堆博物馆) is near the city of Guanghan, just 40 km (25 mi) north of Chengdu. The museum sits on an archaeological site now recognized as among the most important in the world.

A farmer who dug a large piece of jade from the earth in 1929 first discovered the site, and subsequent excavations have revealed a wealth of relics from the Neolithic, Shang and Zhou periods; evidence that the site has been in use for more than five millenia.

The site made headlines in 1986 when two large Shang-period sacrificial pits were unearthed that contained more than 1,000 gold, bronze, and jade objects from a previously-unknown Bronze Age culture. A scholar at the British Museum considered the bronze ritual masks in particular to be more impressive than the Terracotta Warriors, and the find upended the oft-repeated theory that the sole cradle of Chinese civilization was in the Yellow River basin.

The dig site covers about 12 sq km (5 sq mi). The name "Sanxingdui" translates to "Three Star Mounds" and refers to three earth piles that legend has it were cast down to earth by the Heavenly Emperor to mark breaches in the the southern wall of an ancient city.

The museum, divided into four sections, opened in 1997 and houses the over 4,000-year-old artifacts. Visitors can walk back in time to learn about this ancient culture (known as Shu) and its early splendor and mysteries through the work of today's archaeologists, seeking to unearth their history. 

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