STORY: AI technology helps restore sacred bronze tree excavated from China's legendary Sanxingdui Ruins
SHOOTING TIME: Recent footage
DATELINE: July 26, 2024
LENGTH: 00:02:12
LOCATION: GUANGHAN, China
CATEGORY: TECHNOLOGY

SHOTLIST:
1. various of the exhibition at Sanxingdui Museum
2. various of the display of No. 2 sacred bonze tree on a large screen
3. various of digital reconstruction of the tree
4. SOUNDBITE (Chinese): YU JIAN, Deputy director of the Sanxingdui Museum

STORYLINE:

Using AI technology, Chinese archaeologists have breathed new life into a sacred bronze tree excavated from the legendary Sanxingdui Ruins, which spans over 3,000 years.

At the Sanxingdui Museum in southwest China's Sichuan Province, the No. 2 sacred bonze tree on Tuesday was unveiled to the public for the first time in a unique way.

On a large screen, visitors marveled at the splendor of the mysterious tree through digital reconstruction with the help of AI.

In front of visitors, more than 30 digital fragments of bronze pieces came together and were assembled into a complete digitalized sacred bronze tree standing 2.88 meters.

Starting from a trunk as its base, the tree gradually took shape with smaller branches extending outward. Flowers and fruit were seen at the top of the trunk, and a bronze bird stood atop the structure.

Archaeologists decided to restore the bronze tree through digital means as the first step, given traditional physical reinforcement methods would be highly challenging, time-consuming, and could potentially damage the artifact.

SOUNDBITE (Chinese): YU JIAN, Deputy director of the Sanxingdui Museum
"Visitors might be very intrigued about how it is restored. That is because numerous fractures can be matched together. We restored it (digitally) by pairing related fractures. As you can see here, each part (of the tree) came from different sacrificial pits. After research, we found that the No.2 sacred bronze tree can be reconstructed by connecting fragments from multiple pits, namely four pits of No.2, No.3, No.7 and No.8."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Guanghan, China.
(XHTV)