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Published: September 27th 2007
Terra Cotta Army
This excavation site reveals several thousand of the soldiers...amazing!Today (Saturday) was full! The First Emperor's Tomb...the Terra Cotta Warriors built to guard The First Emperor's Tomb, another excavated tomb with terra cotta figurines, and a visit to Raphael's grandparents 90 year old cave home--built into the side of a mountain.We have been looking forward to seeing the Terra Cotta soldiers for a long time. As an excavation and archeological find, it is amazing! As a reflection on the human heart--it is a more grim reality. As is often the case in our world, we learned of the many people who were hurt...mortally...in the process. Here's the quick history lesson. 2,200 years ago, a despotic ruler, Qin Shi Huangdi, unified China (prior to that it had actually been 7 countries). In his fear for his afterlife and the concerns of his tomb being raided in retaliation, he went to great lengths to create an army of soldiers to guard his tomb once he died. He used over 700,000 workers to build the soldiers and the tomb, and they believe at least 10,000 workers who were building the tomb underground were sealed in once the tomb was finished so that those who knew of the tombs location and of what it
was like would not live to tell of it. When the ruler unexpectedly died one year after the tombs completion, he was buried along with the majority of his 3,000 member harem. Reportedly, he only knew 10% of the women, the rest were told they would be with him for eternity (thus enhancing their sad death along with Qin Shi Huangdi). The first evidence of the terra cotta army was discovered in 1974 by a farmer who was digging a well. Thus far, 7,000 soldiers have been excavated. However, excavation has been halted as the discovery that the exposure to air has caused all of the painting on each soldier to fade. Based on what they have found so far, Raphael told us archeologists speculate there are 300,000 soldiers buried in a giant circle around the Emperor's Tomb. Prior to coming to China, I (Andrea) had been concerned about the farmer who made the discovery and lost his farmland due to the significance of the archeological find. Raphael told us they paid him 30 yuan (the equivalent of $4 today) and he was very happy. In the last several years, as the site has been developed significantly for tourism, the
Closer views
These soldiers have been taken out of the pit and are in a restoration area. farmer has found his capitalistic niche, benefitting quite nicely from the notoriety. (We passed up the autographed $20 books of the Terra Cotta Soldiers he was selling, and settled for a photo followed by a small monetary 'tip' of 5 yuan (about $.60).One more tomb with an underground museum revealed more terra cotta figurines created and buried to protect and provide for another emperor. He was more humanitarian--to our knowledge, no people were buried alive in his tomb. The day ended with a visit to the home of Raphael's 90 year old grandparents, who have lived out their 75 year marriage in their "cave
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