On This Day In History: Terracotta Army Buried With Emperor Qin Shi Huang Discovered – On Mar 29, 1974

AncientPages.com - On March 29, 1974, local farmers in Lintong District, Xi'an, Shaanxi province, China, discovered the Terracotta Army buried with Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China, in the third century BC.

Pit one, which is 230 metres (750 ft) long and 62 metres (203 ft) wide,[30] contains the main army of more than 6,000 figures.[31] Pit one has 11 corridors, most of which are more than 3 metres (9.8 ft) wide and paved with small bricks with a wooden ceiling supported by large beams and posts. This design was also used for the tombs of nobles and would have resembled palace hallways when built. The wooden ceilings were covered with reed mats and layers of clay for waterproofing, and then mounded with more soil raising them about 2 to 3 metres (6 ft 7 in to 9 ft 10 in) above the surrounding ground level when completed.  Image credit: Jmhullot - CC BY 3.0

While digging for a well nearby the royal tomb of the Qin Emperor's tomb mound at Mount Li (Lishan), the farmers found a chamber containing a series of lifelike terracotta figures.

Archaeologists sent to the area began excavations, revealing the largest pottery figurine group ever found in China.

The collection, also known as the "Terracotta Warriors and Horses," depicted the armies of Qin She Huang and was created to guard the Emperor's mausoleum against theft and exploration and accompany the Emperor in his afterlife.

The figures of warriors and horses are arranged in battle formations. There are columns of soldiers at the front, followed by war chariots at the back.

Terracotta Army, nr. Xi'an. Image credit: kevinmcgill - CC BY-SA 2.0

They are replicas of what the imperial guard should look like in those days of power and splendor.

Today, the museum covers an area of 16,300 square meters, divided into three sections: No. 1 Pit, No. 2 Pit, and No. 3 Pit respectively. They were tagged in the order of their discoveries.

No. 1 Pit is the largest, first opened to the public on China's National Day -October 1t, 1979. Over 7,000 pottery soldiers, horses, chariots, and even weapons have been unearthed from these pits. Most of them have been restored to their former magnificence.

Upon ascending the throne at 13 (in 246 BC), Qin Shi Huang, later the first Emperor of all of China, began to work for his mausoleum. It took 11 years to build the structure, which was the size of a small city.

Ancient records say that about 700,000 people were busy creating Qin Shi Huang's burial site with an army of 8,000 soldiers, several hundred horsemen, and other terracotta figures of officials, musicians, and acrobats.

It is speculated that many sacrificial objects and other treasures had also been buried in the Emperor's tomb.

AncientPages.com

Updated on March 29, 2024

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