Sunday in Xi'an - Terracotta Warriors

In 1974, a farmer was digging a well and found some pieces of pottery - that is how the Terracotta Warriors were discovered. That farmer is now on salary at the museum to sign books for tourists. For an extra 10Y (US$1.25) you can have your photo taken with him. Below is Mark's photo with him.











More history lessons:
The King of Qin was the first to unify the seven warring states in 221BC and he became the first emperor Qin Shi Huangdi of the Qin Dynasty. The Qin Dynasty ended in 206BC after his son was unable to retain the position. One theory suggests the name China was derived from the Qin Dynasty, pronounced "Chin".
The Qin Dynasty advanced the country by standardizing coinage, the writing characters and the road system by establishing a fixed size of wagon axles.
As soon as he was in position, the emperor began to build his mausoleum. He had been militarily strong during his rule and he wanted to retain that advantage after death so he built an army of Terracotta Warriors who would fight for him in the afterlife.

Three pits of soldiers were found. Below is Pit #1 which is filled with archers, chariots and cavalry soldiers in battle formation. As you can see from the photos, in the front of the pit most of the soldiers have been restored, in the middle they are still in pieces and the back hasn't been fully excavated yet. The museum is a large enclosure built directly over the pit in which tourists can walk along the outsides.


















Below is Pit #3. This pit is considerably smaller and deeper than Pit #1. Based upon the configuration and the soldiers found, this is pit is guessed to be the military headquarters.














Below is Pit #2. This pit was better preserved than the others and while excavating, warriors have been found which still retain some of the original paint. The technology does not fully exist to excavate these pieces and retain the colors so they are currently left buried in the ground until the technology is available.


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This archer was pulled in tact from one of the pits. It is an example of the amazing detail of these statues. This statue even has the tread of his shoe replicated - that is the level of detail. Each has different hair styles, belt loops, slight differences in facial features and armor. It is theorized that each statue may have been modeled after a specific soldier. Each statue is signed by the artist and 70 + different signatures have been found thus far.






Note: The mausoleum of the emperor has been found 1.5 km away from the pits. It has not yet been excavated as they are waiting for the technology to be developed to allow them to preserve the artifacts. (Would we be able to wait if we found such a historic site??)


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