More than 500 pieces of relics     1     (discover) in recent months at the legendary Sanxingdui Ruins site in Southwest China’s Sichuan province, dazzling archaeologists with their historical value as well as the display of creativity.

The relics, discovered at the six new sacrificial pits of the ruins, include golden masks, jade and ivory artifacts and bronze wares     2     were delicately built and     3     (unique) shaped, said the Sichuan Provincial Cultural Heritage Administration.

The new finds bring the total number of items discovered at Sanxingdui to nearly 2,000     4     the excavation (挖掘) of No.3 to No.8 sacrificial pits began in October last year.

“The new discoveries demonstrate once again that     5     (imagine) and creativity of the ancient Chinese far surpassed     6     people today have expected,” said Tang Fei, chief of the Sichuan Provincial Cultural Relics and Archaeology Research Institute.

Tang added that the excavation of the new pits has entered a critical stage,     7     more items yet to be unearthed and expected to challenge the conventional     8     (wise) of archaeologists.

Originally discovered in the late 1920s, the Sanxingdui Ruins have been referred to as one of the world’s greatest archaeological finds of the 20th century.

Located in the city of Guanghan, around 60 km from the provincial capital Chengdu, the ruins covering     9     area of 12 square km are believed to be the remains of the Shu Kingdom,     10     (date) back some 4,500 to 3,000 years.