The Terracotta Army

Due to China's turbulent history, many great relics and sites have either been lost or destroyed. However, some of the greatest archaeological finds in the world continue to turn up in China. Most of these finds aren't as great as the Terracotta Army, but they are usually discovered in a similar fashion. As many people know, the Terracotta Army is a huge collection of soldiers, horses, carts, and weapons that was found completely underground in large pits, not even 40 years ago. Since then, archaeologists continue to excavate this vast area and find more and more relics. How did they find it? Look below,

Yep, what is probably the greatest archaeological find ever was discovered by some villagers digging a well. This sign is at the base of the largest pit at the excavation site. Here's Darbie and Jimbo to give you an introduction of the Main Pit of the Warriors.

I've heard a lot of tourists leave the exhibit pretty unhappy, and I guess if you're expecting to get to excavate one or touch one for yourself, I understand. However, it's hard not to appreciate the sheer magnitude of this discovery. The excavation site isn't actually in Xi'an, but about an hour down a long, bumpy road by bus. It was made even more pleasant by a man across the aisle that had to burp (eggy burps) every half-mile or so, yet our little Darbie persevered.

The army protects the tomb of China's very first emperor, Qin Shi Huang. He was quite busy during his lifetime, as he is the first emperor to unify China, as well as standardize its speech, weights, and measures. Of course, to do all these things (especially in 200 BCE) you kind of have to be pretty ruthless, and he was. He ruled, and many people died, by his sword. He made the capitol Chang'an (now Xi'an), and the city enjoyed a very rich city life because of it's political significance, and perhaps more importantly, because it was later the terminus of the Silk Road. Why did he want this huge army buried with him? That's a good question, no one really knows for sure. Although, there are two guesses, one side believes he was afraid of the afterlife (because of what he did during his lifetime), or that he fully believed that death would not end his reign as emperor, therefore he would need an army.

The excavation site has 3 large pits, though one was closed for renovation or excavation while we were there. We decided to save the greatest pit for last. Each pit was discovered held up by thick beams that supported roofs over the pits. Unfortunately, some of the roofs collapsed under the weight of the earth above, and this was the result.

Still pretty cool though, right? My personal favorite is when just enough happened to knock the soldiers head off, and leave a haunting Bed Knobs and Broomsticks-type soldier.

Originally, most of these soldiers were carrying weapons. For the most part, the weapons were made of wood that decayed over the thousands of years they were buried. If you look at the right hand of the soldier in the picture above, you can see where he once held a weapon of some type. Fortunately, a museum is also on-site that displays a few of the weapons unearthed. But back to Pit 2, the first pit we saw that had these.Well, what was the cavalry supposed to ride in the afterlife, centaurs? Plenty of horses have been excavated, and closer to the actual tomb of Qin himself, bronze horses and chariots were found. They are in the museum as well, and a picture of them can be seen below. (Sorry they are encased in glass covered in fingerprints). Check out how the chariot could block arrows.

The museum also explains how certain designs on each soldier display the soldier's rank and skill. The higher up the soldier, the fewer there are. It's sometime hard to see the different ranks from the pits, so the museum had some examples.
I believe the picture above is an archer, while the one below is straight, kung-fu fighting. You can clearly see the difference in their armor and hair styles, which all help indicate rank.
Ok, enough museum stuff. On to the biggest pit, aptly called Pit #1. As I wrote above, it's the first pit that was discovered, and it contains the sign marking the well. As you can see, it's huge and could easily contain a football field, if not two. Unfortunately, visitors have to walk around the perimeter of the excavation, but the next video will hopefully get in tight enough to help you appreciate the enormity and insanity of army. It also marks the first time you'll hear Kendall start the narration of a video by saying, "All right, so here...".


Here are some more shots from Pit #1, containing approximately 6,000 soldiers.
The observant blog reader will notice that a lot of the warriors in the pictures above not only have different faces, postures, and clothes, but that some also appear lighter. That's because, every one of these warriors was painted! You can really see this in the picture directly above. More horses, this time you can see how their mouths are open to accept the bit and bridle, all of which were once buried. Next to the horses is a charioteer, his hands out guiding the reigns.

Sorry about the quality of the shot, but above you'll see some reconstructed warriors. They take remains from the soldiers in the demolished pits and put them back together like jigsaw puzzles. Sounds like fun for a rainy day.

Talk about a great idea, a Terracotta warrior puzzle.

Miles Travelled:

Qingdao - Xi'an: 975 miles

DB&KM