Bronze statue of “Garuda” from Sanxingdui: old finds and new discoveries

Bronze skirt-wearing human figure with bird claws instead of feet, holding two snake-like creatures, was discovered in 1986 in sacrificial pit JK2 at the Sanxingdui site. The statue belongs to the Bronze Age culture which was spread in Sichuan Province of the PRC. Structural features of this statue indicate that it was made in the same period as bronze masks of A and C types, and "spirit trees" No. 2 and 1. The statue may be interpreted with ancient Indian myths about Garuda, which is also supported by the discovery of big bronze wheels with five spokes each in Sanxingdui. These wheels are comparable in size to the statue with bird claws. The statue can easily, with some room, pass through the gap between the spokes of any of the wheels, which corresponds to mythologemes about Garuda from the Mahabharata. The results of new excavations at Sanxingdui in 2020-2022 are briefly mentioned. Ground plans and relative chronology of six newly discovered sacrificial pits are discussed along with opinions of Chinese scholars about them. The stratigraphy of new sacrificial pit JK8 which probably contained the broken upper part of the statue with bird claws, is analyzed in detail as well as arguments about joining the fragments of statues found in 1986 and 2022 in sacrificial pits JK2 and JK8, and consequences of this procedure.