I had never heard of the terracotta warriors before entering The First Emperor: China’s Entombed Warriors exhibition at Sydney’s Art Gallery of NSW. They were discovered accidentally by villagers in China in 1974, and belong to Qin Shihuang who became king of the state of Qin in 221 BCE. When he came to the thrown at the age of just 13 years old he began preparations for his death, constructing a vast burial city.
While the mausoleum of Qin Shihuang has been described in ancient texts, the terracotta warriors remained unknown, and their discovery took archeologists – and the world – by surprise. The terracotta army pits are thought to cover 270,000 square feet, containing 8,000 life-size soldiers, 140 chariots, 560 chariot horses, and 116 cavalry horses. In Pit 1 (out of 3; a fourth pit was found empty, suggesting the army was unfinished at the time of the emperor’s death) over 40,000 weapons have been uncovered so far.
It has been 35 years since the accidental discovery, and only 1,900 warriors have been excavated to date. It probably won’t even be finished in my lifetime, and it was amazing to see the ten main figure types (eight warriors, a cavalry horse, and chariot horse) of the terracotta army on display. And what’s even more extraordinary is that no two figures are identical.
