Sanxingdui (literally "three stars mound") is the name of an archaeological site and its deduced culture in China, now believed to be the site of an ancient Chinese city.

The previously unknown Bronze Age culture was rediscovered in 1987 when archaeologists excavated remarkable artifacts, radiocarbon dated as being from the 12th-11th centuries BCE.

Leaving behind nothing in the historical record, not even in myth, the unknown culture that produced these artifacts is now known as the Sanxingdui Culture.

A museum housing the artifacts is located near the city of Guanghan.The Sanxingdui Culture (2050-1250 BCE), which corresponds to periods II-III of the site, is a mysterious civilization in southern China.

This culture is synonymous with the early kingdom of Shu during the period of the Shang Dynasty.

Although they developed a different method of bronze-making from the Shang, their culture was never recorded by Chinese historians.

Sanxingdui culture is thought to be divided into several phases.

The first phase, which corresponds to period I of the site, belongs to the Baodun, and in the final phase (period IV), the culture merges with the Ba and Chu cultures.

The recent discovery at Jinsha is assumed to be a relocation of the Shu Kingdom and a continuation of the Sanxingdui culture.

Literary research shows this was capital of King Yufu ,founder of the Shu Kingdom, a strong central theocracy with trade links to bronze from Yin and Ivory from Southeast Asia.

Such evidence of independent cultures in different regions of China defies the traditional theory that the Yellow River was the sole "cradle of Chinese civilization."