Terracotta Warriors

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In the recent blog site crash, it looks like the section on the terracotta warriors disappeared. The first emperor's tomb proved to be everything I had expected it to be--amazing and spectacular. The warriors were created more than two thousand years ago by 700,000 conscript artisans and workers, many of whom were buried alive at the emperor's death to keep them from telling where the tomb was located. What we saw in the museum is only a fraction of the army; many, many more figures remain buried. The Chinese have not decided how to excavate the emperor's tomb because the ground contains very high levels of mercury. The actual tomb site was supposed to look like a small city and was surrounded by a river of mercury.
I spent most of my time at the terracotta warrior museum just marveling at the soldiers and horses. Each soldier has a unique face, which speaks to the diversity in China even in ancient times. The scope and precision of the project is mind blowing. Although the pits where the warriors stand are hot and crowded, I could not get enough of just looking.
A smaller version of a terracotta army is at the Han Yangling Museum dedicated to Emperor Jungdi. The figures are more doll-sized, but with the army, there are farm animalsk kitchen wares, household objects, wagons, etc. all made of clay. The museum itself is an interesting concept, as it is partially located over the actual digsite, so we put on blue plastic shoes and walked on plexiglass floors. We could see active archaeological sites and artifacts in place. The figures originally had wooden arms and silk clothing, so some of the exhibits recreate the original design of the army.
M

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Photos

Han Yangling Museum
A different kind of terracotta soldier

Getting ready to walk on the exhibits
The actual dig site has plexiglass coverings, so we walked above the excavations.

Recreated images of the army
The figures had wooden arms and silk clothing.