The Terracotta Army

The Terracotta Army is a vast set of clay statues that represent the military forces of Qin Shi Huang, China’s first emperor. These figures were buried as funerary art in his mausoleum around 210–209 BCE, intended to guard him in the afterlife. The sculptures date from the late 200s BCE and were uncovered in 1974 by farmers digging a well in Lintong County, near Xi’an, Shaanxi. Their heights depend on rank, with generals being the tallest. The collection includes warriors, chariots, and horses. According to 2007 estimates, the three main pits hold over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots pulled by 520 horses, and 150 cavalry horses, most still in their original positions. Other pits have since yielded non-military figures, such as officials, acrobats, strongmen, and musicians.

The historian Sima Qian, writing about a century after the mausoleum’s completion in his *Records of the Grand Historian*, described the tomb’s construction. Work began in 246 BCE, soon after the 13-year-old emperor inherited the throne as King of Qin, and Sima noted that the project eventually employed 700,000 conscripted laborers. Six centuries later, geographer Li Daoyuan wrote in *Shui Jing Zhu* that Mount Li was chosen for its favorable geology: its northern side was rich in gold, its southern side in beautiful jade, and the emperor, desiring such a reputation, selected it for his burial. Sima Qian recorded that the emperor was interred with palaces, towers, officials, valuable artifacts, and wondrous objects. He described 100 flowing rivers simulated with mercury, a ceiling decorated with celestial bodies, and below them the features of the unified lands of China. The original text does not use words like “models” or “imitations,” nor does it mention the terracotta army. While earlier scholars doubted these details, high mercury levels later detected in the tomb mound’s soil have supported Sima’s account. The emperor is also known for building life-sized human statues during his reign, such as the lost Twelve Metal Colossi, noted in historical records. Later accounts suggest the tomb complex was looted by Xiang Yu, a contender for the throne after the emperor’s death, though evidence indicates the tomb itself may remain untouched.

The discovery occurred on March 29, 1974, when farmer Yang Zhifa, his five brothers, and neighbor Wang Puzhi struck the figures while digging a well about 1.5 kilometers east of the emperor’s tomb mound at Mount Li, an area with underground springs. For centuries, occasional reports had surfaced of terracotta fragments and Qin necropolis debris like tiles and bricks. This find led Chinese archaeologists, including Zhao Kangmin, to investigate, uncovering the largest group of pottery figurines ever found. A museum complex now covers the site, with the largest pit enclosed under a roof.

The army is part of a much larger necropolis, measured by ground-penetrating radar and core sampling to cover about 98 square kilometers. Built as a microcosm of the emperor’s imperial compound, it surrounds the pyramidal earthen tomb mound at Mount Li’s foot, enclosed by two solid rammed-earth walls with gateways. The necropolis includes offices, halls, stables, other structures, and an imperial park around the mound. The warriors stand guard to the east. Over two millennia, up to 5 meters of reddish, sandy soil accumulated, but earlier disturbances were found. During excavations near the burial mound, graves from the 18th and 19th centuries were uncovered, where diggers had struck terracotta fragments, discarding them as worthless and using them to backfill.

The tomb itself appears to be a hermetically sealed space roughly 100 by 75 meters. It remains unopened, likely due to preservation concerns. After the army’s excavation, the painted surface on some figures began to flake and fade; the lacquer covering the paint can curl in fifteen seconds in Xi’an’s dry air and flake off in just four minutes.

Four main pits, about 7 meters deep, have been uncovered roughly 1,500 meters east of the burial mound. The soldiers are arranged as if to protect the tomb from the east, where the emperor’s conquered states lay, and were found 7 meters below the excavation level. Pit 1, the largest, is 230 meters long and 62 meters wide, containing the main army of over 3,000 figures across eleven parallel corridors.