Terracotta Army: Ancient Wonders Rediscovered

Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi stood for his coronation to the throne when he was only 13 years old in 246 BC, though he was named Ying Zheng at the time.[2] Within 25 years as emperor he was able to bring together warring nations within China and introduce “the standardization of currency, writing, measurements…”[3]and “…connected cities and states with advanced systems of roads and canals”[4] as well as acted as a major contributor to the building of the original Great Wall. After these prodigious accomplishments, he declared himself the First Emperor of China and birthed his new name, Qin Shi Huangdi.[5]However, he did not stop there. During the adolescence of his reign, he commissioned the start of the project that would become his tomb and over the course of its construction more than 700,000 artists and craftsmen would contribute to its development.[6] Emperor Qin had a fascination with death that approached near obsession with immortality. The compound was to act as his otherworldly palace supplied with earthly riches, designed to incorporate nearby environmental structures such as rivers, and its very own army and royal court.[7] Sadly, in 210 BC he died of a disease contracted on an expedition to locate “magical herbs” rumored to stave off death before he would see the completion of his tomb.[8]The years to follow would see the Empire embroiled in a bloody battle for the throne as evidenced by official writings of the Han-dynasty’s historian, Sima Qian, some 100 years after the Emperor’s death, and the burial grounds located within the uncovered complex.[9]The Qin Dynasty would only survive the First Emperor by four years.[10]During this unrest, many of the terracotta warriors were damaged by raiding forces through looting of their weaponry and the mass burning of fires which damaged the integrity of the wood beams holding up the structure surrounding the terracotta soldier pits. Many of the clay statues were smashed when the structure finally buckled.[11]The Qin Dynasty’s collapse had, for centuries, been attributed to an egregious overspending of Emperor Qin’s Ebang Palace, however, recent excavations of the palace site in 2003 proved that the collapsed was indeed due to the civil war following Emperor Qin’s death as the palace was never actually built beyond its foundations.[12]

It was originally thought that the terracotta soldiers were a stand-alone discovery, their thousands of brethren arranged meticulously in columns, shoulder to shoulder, lining the trenches in which they were found accompanied by their beasts of burden and bronze chariots. However, it was discovered that these soldiers were a small piece to a much larger mausoleum located less than a mile from the terracotta army. This compound was laid out as an underground palace, some 38 square miles, equipped with stables and horses, government offices, palace dwellings, prisons, worker and convict burial grounds, and the Emperor’s own tomb.[13] The compound is believed to be a replica of the palace grounds in which he lived in the capital city of Xianyang with the Emperor’s tomb built within an earthen mound as the center focal point. While Emperor Qin’s tomb itself has remained untouched and, instead, less invasive excavation techniques utilizing modern remote-sensing technologies are being employed to further research, archeologists understand that there is much left to learn about the compound.[14]

The Terracotta Army is still under excavation as additional pits have been slowly rediscovered over the last 35 years accumulating into an astounding 600 pits discovered so far.[20]While some pits within the yet to be fully uncovered complex are easy to access, many are not. The Museum of the Terracotta Army was built around the first rediscovered pits only five years after their initial debut into the modern world.[21]These pits include rows of soldiers, some pieced together after falling and breaking over the course of their 2,000 year slumber as well as terracotta horses.[22] Tourists are able to walk along the balcony which surrounds one of the larger pits in an open air display for roughly $70+ depending on the tour purchased.[23]

The remarkable rediscovery of the lost mausoleum of Emperor Qin has inspired the wonderment and curiosity of people across the globe for the last four decades and contributed to the rewriting of China’s historic narrative about the Qin Dynasty. The incredibly well-preserved terracotta platoons who guard this compound act as a glimpse into an ancient world wrought with incredible craftsmanship, artistry, and death. With over 700,000 contributors to this manmade structure, some of whom were interred within its burial grounds, it is a piece of ancient history that deserves its time in the spotlight as an Ancient Wonder of the World as it has spent long enough buried out of sight.

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