Terracotta
Warriors chance. In March 1974, when Chinese farmers in Xiyang, near the ancient imperial city of Xi’an, decided to dig a well, they come upon a layer of hard clay. They found arms and legs made of clay and bronze arrowheads. Upon further examination of the life-size finds by archaeologists, it was recognized that the findings dated to the Qin dynasty and were extremely valuable. After additional excavations, it turned out that there were thousands of life-size warriors and horses made of clay and that they belonged to the funerary monument of the emperor Qin Shi Huang Di. The grave mound itself is still intact. Chinese archaeologists will open it once the previously excavated material has been fully investigated.
Imo Homfeld, Marketing Manager, MandaLingua
If they had not felt the need to dig for water in a Chinese village in 1974, the secret of the terracotta army probably would never have been discovered and a historical sensation would have been kept from us.
Background Qin Shi Huang Di, the first emperor of China, was made king of the Qin State at the age of only 13 (246 B.C.). Twenty-five years later (in 221 B.C.) he conquered six neighboring countries and united China for the first time in history. Shortly after his accession he began with the construction of his tomb, which would be protected by an army of life-sized clay soldiers in order to defend him after his death: the terracotta army. More than 700,000 forced laborers were exploited during the thirty-six years needed to construct the tomb and to produce more than 7,000 soldiers made for the terracotta army. Among the achievements of the famous and important emperor Qin Shi Huang Di were the standardization of the Chinese characters, and the standardization of the currency and measurement system. He also prompted agricultural reforms and started building defensive fortifications along the country’s northern border, known as the first Great Wall. Discovery & Exvacation of the Terracotta Warriors More than 2000 years would pass, however, before the terracotta warriors were discovered purely by
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MANDALINGUA l Where Mandarin study begins
A Monumental Tomb The tomb complex is situated in Lingtong, near Xi’an in Shaanxi Province. The emperor had chosen this site for his tomb because it was close to rich deposits of gold and jade. The whole complex occupies an area of 56 square kilometers and has been on the the UNESCO World Heritage list since 1987. Historical records show that the emperor had transport convoys available with fifty-four wagons. Today, it is assumed that in the vicinity of the grave, a whole convoy of eighty-one wagons might be present underground. Thus, the excavation of the emperor’s funerary temple remains a major task for the archaeologists. According to early sources, one can hope for unexpected finds here: in 100 B.C., the chronicle of the historian Sima Qian described that the funerary hall is a temple complex with untold treasures, as well as an underground replica of the world with lakes and rivers of flowing mercury! The Terracotta Army The Terracotta Army dating to the Qin Dynasty consists of 7,278 life-size mounted and foot soldiers, as well as horses, chariots, and weapons. In addition, offerings in the form of deer antlers and animal bones were found, which were to promote a victory. Impressively, all the clay figures are life size, and each was designed and detailed with individual facial features. It remains unclear whether the figures were freely invented, or whether they were modeled after living soldiers of the period. Today’s scholars theorize that such an exact representation of the figures would only have been possible with real people at that time.