1069. China - # 2 - Terracotta Warriors, and elegant furniture!

Some of this information I got from the Internet -- It explains it better than I can! I'll put some of it in italics, to show what I got from the internet.

The Terracotta Warriors are one of the must-visit attractions for all travelers to China. The dramatic exhibition reveals the secrets behind the 2,000-year-old army of clay statues that guarded the tomb of China’s first emperor until a chance discovery in 1974.

A farmer was digging a well, and found some pottery shards, in 1974. I'm not sure just how he reported his find, but our guide Peter told us that after they found the beginnings of the warriors, the farmer was given another piece of ground to farm, and what was about $20.00! In China, the government owns all the land, and people rent land, or an apartment in a high rise building, etc.

These were statues for sale in the museum, but not the real ones found.

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First I will show photos I took, and then some information from the internet. We drove about 45 minutes in a bus from Xi'an, to get to the site. We first went to a museum, where we were shown an example of making a small replica of a warrior, and told about them. First are pictures of what we saw in the museum.
We first visited the museum, where they explained a lot about the figures.

The sculptures above are of different people who came there and ordered a bust of themselves. If we wanted to pay the price, we could have a bust made of ourselves there -- of course it would take time, and have to be shipped.

The actual warriors were found about 20 feet below the surface. They had been in a large place, covered with wooden beams and earth. The wooden beams had disintegrated over the years, and the warriors, etc. below were basically crushed, and broken. The job since then has been to reassemble them, and try to find pieces to complete each statue. As I understand, these warriors were slaves to the emperor. They were of several different ethnic groups, and their faces and forms were different. The tallest was around 7 feet tall, and the shortest around 4 and a half feet tall, made to resemble the exact warrior it was representing.

Below start the pictures I took in the large building, larger than a football field! It was on one end of the area in this building where the farmer first found shards.

Below from the internet:

The Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor including the Terracotta Warriors Museum has been listed as the World Heritage by UNESCO in 1987. Every year, more than 1 million tourists from all over the world visit the Terracotta Museum.

How They Were Discovered

The Terracotta Army figures’ excavation is regarded as one of the greatest discoveries of the 20th century. It had lain underground for more than 2000 years before farmers digging a well in 1974 uncovered what is now considered one of the greatest archaeological sites in the world.

The first part of the Terracotta Army site to be discovered was named Vault One. In 1976, two other vaults were uncovered about 20 meters away, and were named Vault Two and Vault Three.

The tomb is a treasury for the Chinese people and for the whole world. In December 1987, UNESCO selected the Tomb of the First Emperor (including the Terracotta Army Vaults) as a World Cultural Heritage Site.

The Terracotta Army was constructed to accompany the tomb of China’s First Emperor as an afterlife guard.

The thousands of detailed life-size models represent the army that united China at the end of the Warring States Period (476–221 BC). They were molded in parts, fired, then assembled and painted.

It is considered one of the greatest archaeological sites in the world, and one of the greatest discoveries of the 20th century.

The statues above are partially complete. They stay in the "hospital" for the warriors until all parts for each one are found. They are able to determine to which warrior any piece found belongs. They say it will take 50 to 100 years to complete the project. About 1700 have been uncovered, and they estimate 8,000 are there. A picture I took below shows a place where there is so much work to be done -- many pieces to put together!

The Terracotta Army is a collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. It is a form of funerary art buried with the emperor in 210–209 BCE and whose purpose was to protect the emperor in his afterlife.

One of the most infamous emperors of Chinese antiquity was the very first: Qin Shi Huang. Also known as Ying Zheng, he ruled the Chinese state of Qin from 247-210 BC.

Upon ascending the throne at the age of 13 years old around 246 BC, Qin Shi Huang ordered the construction of the magnificent project. The whole process lasted nearly 40 years.

Upon completion, the terracotta figures were placed in the pits in precise military formation according to rank and duty. In an entry below it tells they were all facing east.

Behind a glass wall were these workers who were analyzing newly found pieces of the pottery under microscopes, to determine which statue it belongs with. It seems like it would be quite a tedious job! This is where they are displayed, but this isn't the exact place each was found.

These were in another building, and showed more of the military officers.
The figures include warriors, chariots and horses. Estimates from 2007 were that the three pits containing the Terracotta Army held more than 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses, the majority of which remained buried in the pits nearby Qin Shi Huang's mausoleum.

Chinese terra cotta warriors had real, and very carefully made, weapons. The 7,000 soldiers buried with Qin Shi Huang in 210 B.C. were made of clay. When made, they were painted many colors.

These were life sized bronze statues of horses, men, and chariots. It is amazing that bronze statues from that long ago were found in such good condition!I hope the information below isn't too hard to read!

Now below is more information from the internet that I found very fascinating!

I hope these again are not too hard to read. I wanted to show the pictures with them so I copied the whole entry.

Outside the complex were more life-sized statues, and also statues of beautiful Chinese women in native costumes.

Also, there were many shops outside, with souvenirs available to buy!

Later that day we went to a very nice restaurant, with these decorations on the buffet tables:

If I remember right, in the same building they had a very lot of gorgeous furniture, with lacquer finishes, and decorated with beautiful Chinese pictures, and other beautiful things, all very expensive! -- in a huge showroom: