Sanxingdui, the great city that commanded the Sichuan Plain in China from 1200 BC (CWA 110). Within were layered first, ash and then elephant tusks, bronzes, and finally jades and gold. One pit held nearly 400 tusks, one of which came from what must have been a superb elephant with tusks 1.85m long. What came through with particular clarity was the importance of ritual and performance that underlay the conspicuous consumption and destruction of these treasures.