Terra Cotta Army

The Terra Cotta Army (兵马俑) is the greatest Archeological discovery of the 20th century. It is located near Xi'an, the ancient Chinese capital, also the capital of Qin Dynasty.[1]

The characters stand for:

• 兵-Soldier
• 马-Horse
• 俑-Wooden Figure

Terra Cotta Warrior head by Rachel Lara Davis.

How the discovery was made

In 1970's China one of the greatest discoveries of all time came about. In 1976, in the province of Shaanxi (China) farmers were digging in the ground for water wells. Unfortunately not finding much success with water, farmers stumbled on somethings little more solid then water.

In fact the farmers found small bits of terra cotta buried in the ground, the farmers continued to dig and to their astonishment the small bits of terra cotta turned out to be human size ancient Chinese soldiers. The initial discovery of one soldier turned out to be hundreds then thousands. Eventually the farmers passed this discovery over in the hands of professional Archeologists.

Some of the statues were discovered in the grounds by Midwest.

Who were the Terra Cotta Warriors

During the Qin Dynasty in China from 259 BC to 210 BC the First Emperor of China named Qin Shi Huangdi ruled the greater part of China. Qin Shi Huangdi became emperor at a young age, and as soon as he was in power he commanded the construction of his tomb. Unfortunately the construction of his tomb was one of the biggest most demanding constructions of all time and require an outrageous amount of man power to construct.

Unfortunately many lives were taken in the construction of his tomb. He believed that when we died he was crossing over to the after life, and therefore needed to be prepared with all the required needs to continue his journey. Aside from all his lavished goods he needed an army to protect him, and because he couldn't actually take the lives of his soldiers to the grave because if he indeed did to that, he would have no one finish constructing his tomb.

Instead what the emperor did was he created an army of clay, every soldier was constructed in exactness, complete with clothes, armor, hair, real life weapons and even facial expression, and to add to that every soldier had a different face.

What was discovered

What archeologist considered to perhaps be an average discovery, turned out to be a very large scale discovery. More and more soldiers were being dug out, it didn't seem to end. What is interesting is that not only soldiers were being uncovered, in fact horses and chariots were also found.

In addition these soldiers were not just found in a random order, on the contrary they were found in a precise order. The soldiers were found according to military rank and file. In addition to the soldiers many weapons were found along side each soldier and the weapons were kept in excellent condition rust free due to the chromium oxide technique that they used with their metals.

Terra Cotta Warriors spear and a sword by Imelda.

Here is list of some of that weapons that were found:

swords, spears, battle-axe, scimitars, shields, crossbows, arrowheads.

The Terra Cotta Army Pits

As archaeologists continued excavating the soldiers they understood that the soldiers were located in pits. The current number of pits that are excavated at this time are four main pits. The pits are 7 meters deep and 62 meters wide. Each pit contained different items.

Pit number 1

There are more then 6000 thousand soldiers that lie there, many are and were found broken to pieces. Many soldiers await repair. Unfortunately the man power and the time to put back together a Terra Cotta Warrior is very time consuming, it is like putting together a massive puzzle.

Pit 1 is located 1.5 Km away from the emperors burial ground. It is on the East side of the tomb which is a location that would block an attack. According to scholars and archaeologists if there is an army on the East side of the tomb, it is most likely that there is also a tomb on the West side and possibly all around the tomb. However this is just a theory and many argue that because that amount of construction was too much work to complete, the emperor was not likely able to complete that much construction in addition to his palace.

Pit number 2

In pit number two, this is where a big bulk of infantry soldiers were found. The soldiers were found in a singled file position. Also Cavalry and war chariots were found. When the soldiers were dug out of the ground they were colored, however as the soldiers were exposed to the air, the painted started deteriorating. Archaeologist initially were unable to preserve the original paint from the soldiers. Keeping and understanding the colors of the soldiers was important because this gave archaeologist a better understanding of what was used for paint and most importantly what the soldier actually looked like.

Pit number 3

In pit number three there was nothing found. Because of this, scholars and archaeologist have the impression that the emperor was unable to complete his army.

How they were made

The construction of the Terra Cotta Warriors is an interesting methods that can date back to the current modern China. Because there were so many soldiers required for the protection of the emperor but not enough actual human lives to facilitate his actual army and the workers that were needed to build his palace, he couldn't use actual live to take to the grave with him. So he had to create large human soldier replicas made out of clay. In order to create a large amount of soldiers, a production line method was required to get the job done in time. The soldiers were made separately in parts, the arms, legs, mid body and head then through an assembly line they were put together. The interesting part of the making of the soldiers is that each soldier had a different face. It is said that after the heads were made, the face details were later finished.

Why the need of an army for protection

According to ancient Chinese historian Sima Qian the Terra Cotta Army is guarding the Qin Shihuangdi's tomb. The Army is positioned on the east side of the tomb, and according to records that is one of the entrances to the emperors tomb. The emperors tomb was not so much a tomb, it was more like an extravagant palace with the necessities that one would need to live and survive. It is said there are unknown luxurious treasures buried, also there are rivers at lakes composed of Mercury. To protect all these treasures and the emperor himself, the tomb has all sorts of booby traps set up to prevent deter robbers. To this day the actual contents of the tomb-palace are unknown, archaeologists have taken samples and discovers sample deposits of Mercury. The discovery of Mercury gives backup support to what Si Ma Qian wrote about, therefore many believe more in the records of the emperors tomb.

Qin Shihuangdi's Mausoleum by JennBerg.

References

[1] ... Ebrey, Patrica Buckley. The Cambridge Illustrated History of China. New York, Cambridge University Press, 2010 2d ed

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