Posted on March 29, 2019
March 29, 1974: No big deal, just a farmer digging a water well. This was in China, in the Lintong District of the Shaanxi Province.
The land is known to have loads of underground springs - so that's why the farmer was digging a well there.
It was also pretty close to the tomb of the ancient Chinese emperor - the FIRST Chinese emperor! - Qin Shi Huang. But when I say "pretty close," I mean about a mile away (1.5 km). So I'm sure that the farmer didn't expected to find pieces of Qin's tomb there.
And yet, he did:
Of course, the farmer didn't find all of these soldiers. He found some chunks of terracotta (a reddish, porous ceramic), and there was some indication of a chunk being from the Qin necropolis. (A necropolis is a cemetery that has lots of elaborate tomb monuments and above-ground structures that make the area look like a "city for the dead.")
Chinese archeologists hurried to the area and carefully excavated a figure...
...and another one...
...and another and another and another...
By 2007 scientists estimated that the Terracotta Army those farmers had discovered included more than 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots being drawn by 520 horses, 150 more horses in the cavalry, plus non-military figures such as acrobats, musicians, officials, and strongmen.
A museum complex has been built around the excavations, with a roof to protect the sculptures from the elements. This is the largest pottery installation ever discovered.
Unfortunately, the bright lacquer colors used to paint the figures have almost entirely faded or flaked off. Archeologists point out that, not only are the figures life-size; and not only are their hats, armor, and uniforms varied according to the their rank; but also each figure has a different, individual face!
Most of the figures originally held real weapons, but the majority of the weapons were either looted or have rotted away. Still, lots of bronze weapons WERE discovered, including swords, daggers, spears, lances, battle-axes, scimitars, shields, crossbows, and crossbow triggers. The majority of the items of weaponry discovered were arrowheads - 100 per bundle - and counting all of those individual arrowheads plus all the larger items results in about 40,000 items of weaponry.
Wow! What a find!
By the way, if you want to read about Yang Zhifa, the farmer who made this discovery, check out this article.
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