When a group of farmers were digging a well outside the cityof Xi’an, in China in the year 1974, little did they realise that they wereactually uncovering one of the world’s greatest archaeological discoveries.
Thefirst thing that the farmers unearthed was a life-size clay soldier all poisedfor battle. Surprised and confused they notified the Chinese authorities whodispatched government archeologists to the site. When the archeologistscontinued with the excavation they found not one, but thousands of claysoldiers buried inside the pit. They named them the terracotta warriors. Theword terra-cotta originated from Latin, where ‘terra’ means earth and ‘cotta’means baked. The soldiers were all made from terracotta, each with a distinctunique facial expression and were stationed according to the rank they held inthe army.
Today,the statues appear to be grey and the colour of the earth, but patches of painton them reveal that were once brightly coloured and vibrant. The soldiers standin underground trench- like corridors.Weapons, armour, clay horses and wooden chariots were unearthed next to the soldiers. Archeologists believe that whatthey had discovered was a part of an elaborate mausoleum which was created toaccompany the first emperor of China into his afterlife.
Thefirst Chinese emperor Ying Zheng was 13 years old when he took over in 246 BC.By 221 BC he had unified several warring kingdoms and called himself Quin ShinHuang Di — the first emperor of Quin. Though a very young emperor at the timeof ascension, Yin Zheng had done a remarkable job of establishing standardisedcoins, weights and measures. He successfully interlinked the states with canalsand roads and is credited with building the first version of the Great Wall.Legends around the life of the emperor state that despite his power and richesthere was one thing that the king was afraid of, and that was death. Accordingto the writings of a court historian, the emperor was constantly searching foran elixir of life, which he believed was mercury. He was known to have consumedmercury in large quantities that ironically caused a premature death at the ageof 50.
Testson the tomb mound have revealed unusually high concentrations of mercury,lending credence to at least some of the historical account. Historians believethat the construction of the mausoleum which was the brain child of the emperorwas ordered even when he ascended the throne as a young boy. Archaeologistsestimate the pits to contain at least 8,000 figures but an accurate number maynever be arrived at because of the magnitude of the pits. The emperor’s tombitself remains unexcavated but historical evidence suggests that it may holdeven greater treasures. A translated historical text from Chinese reads, “Thetomb was filled with models of palaces, pavilions and offices as well as finevessels, precious stones and rarities.” The emperor wanted his own bioregionsto be replicated underground and therefore the tomb contains artificial riversand streams made with mercury flowing to the sea through hills and mountains ofbronze. Precious stones such as pearls are said to represent the sun, moon andthe stars. Pits dug around the tomb have revealed dancers, musicians, andacrobats full of life caught in mid-performance, a sharp contrast to themilitary poses of the famous terracotta soldiers.
WithChinese archaeologists using remote sensing methods, an underground chamberwith four stair like walls have been discovered. This they believe wasspecially built to host the soul of the king. Imagine a king who recreated hiswhole kingdom to accompany him in his life after death!