Warriors of Ancient Ba Tribe

Along the riverbank in Three Gorges Area, pile after pile of strange-shaped pottery was excavated. The discovery was astonishing. There is disagreement about the shapes and quantities of the pottery utensils. They cannot keep balance because their bottoms are round or pointed. It is presumed that they were used in salt production.

According to historical accounts, the Ba people farmed for a long time. They planted rice, oats, raised silkworms, and livestock, and distilled spirits. They even built several capitals on the tributaries of the Yangtze River. In ancients’ times, salt was a precious commodity. Was it salt that made the Ba warriors so brave and preoccupied with war?

The Three Gorges Project is a vast water control project. The dam will obstruct the flow of the Yangtze river. Each of the three gorges in the dam area is over one hundred kilometers long. It is from them that the project takes its name. Once the reservoir is filled, the water level will rise to 175 meters. Towns and villages along the river will be submerged beneath the water.

In the last few years, the local residents who had lived here for generations were removed to other parts of the country, or simply removed to places above the water level. Meanwhile, dozens of archaelogists arrived and have been working here for a long time.

The area became the largest archaeological site in the world to explore the legends of the warriors. The mysteries of the Ba people would remain hidden forever, unless they were revealed before the dam was closed. The secrets would sink beneath the water.

Although many bronze weapons of the Ba tribe were discovered in the Three Gorges area, the workshops where the weapons were made have never been found. How, then, did the ancient Ba people make these advanced bronze weapons?

In 2002, in Erzhou Museum, Hubei Province, experts specialized in reproducing bronzeware showed spectators the whole process of making Ba swords. It was like being taken back to ancient times. Each male member of the Ba tribe was skilled at sword making. It was very important for a warrior.

Making a sword was not simply a process of production. It was also ritualistic. The ritual involved the worship of ancestors and deities. Many supernatural and strange images were created by the sword-makers who were filled with awe. The images of the Ba's ancestors were inscribed on an important part of the sword.

Nowadays, sword-makers have more tools. The two molds are joined to form a complete clay matrix. The matrix was baked in a kiln at a temperature of 1,050-1,100 degrees celsius. Molten alloy of copper, tin, lead and other metals smelted in a crucible was poured into the pottery matrices.

Dong Yawei: