Salt of the Earth

The scale is unbelievable. That’s the common thread of thought after visiting the Terra Cotta Warriors Museum complex outside Xi’an (pronounced she-on) in northeast China, about an hour’s flight from Beijing. Xi’an was the ancient capital of China, and the Chinese rightly place it in the same pantheon of ancient major cities with Athens, Rome and Cairo. Centuries before Christ it was a thriving major city, and the first emperor to unite China -- the founder of the Qin (pronounced chin) Dynasty -- had his capital here and had the Terra Cotta Warriors built to be part of his tomb 2,200 years ago. His name (there will be a test later) was Qin Shiuang. He also ordered the first connection of several defensive walls into what would become the Great Wall of China.

Construction at this site and the nearby actual tomb took 38 years, ending in 210 BC, and at one time involved as many as 720,000 workers. The warriors are located east of the actual tomb and face East, protecting the entrance to the tomb. Archeological work continues on the tomb, and the public is not allowed in that.

The average height of the warriors is 1.8 meters (pretty much life-sized), and each one weighs 110 to 300 kilos. In general, the legs are solid clay and the rest of the body hollow, and it’s the same with the horses. They were made in pieces and joined together for firing. Ears, noses and hair were handmade and added on. The heads were fired separately from the bodies and placed in holes in the body. Besides different faces, features such as armor plates, belt hooks and costume details were precisely sculpted. The craftsmen were ordered to inscribe their names on the backs of robes, legs or armor, and so far the names of 80 different craftsmen have been discovered.

The figures were all painted in bright colors, but the paint oxidized when exposed to the air upon discovery and being unearthed.

When we reached the site after an hour’s bus ride from Xi’an, we saw modern, low museum buildings. Since it was the New Year’s holiday there were thousands of visitors, but because it is on such a large scale there was no crush of people. About 2 million people a year visit the museum complex. You go into the first building expecting it to be about the size of a football field with lines of warriors. It’s about a football field wide, but several football fields long. At first glance, you think it’s nothing but a dirt floor, and then you notice the rows of pits in the floor, each filled with row upon row of soldier statues, each one unique, although there are groups of archers, foot soldiers, horse soldiers, horses, etc.

A wide walkway goes all around the Pit Number 1 building, which contains almost all the warriors. Smaller buildings adjacent to the big one house Pits No. 2 and 3, with only 30 or 40 warriors each. In the smaller buildings, individual warriors and horses have been put in glass cases so you can view them close up. The closest view of the soldiers in the pits is probably about 15 yards. Luana had a special moment when she was trying to photograph some horses; she motioned to the police guard, asking him if he would take a picture from his close-in, rope-free vantage point, and he kindly complied. His photo is shown above.

To think that these warriors were just discovered in 1974 by some farmers digging a well, and that the government has been able to unearth all this and reconstruct the warriors, is utterly amazing. Of course the work goes on digging up the warriors and putting them back together and will probably go on for many decades. There are places where you can see the unreconstructed pieces in the ground. It’s estimated that 8,000 warriors will be unearthed by the time all the work is completed, with 6,000 of those in Pit 1.

Interestingly, one of the farmers who first uncovered the warriors has become quite a celebrity and is even regarded as a national hero. He was at the museum the day we were there signing books (no extra fee involved; I’m sure the museum folks pay him.) We had him sign our copy.

Anyway, the Chinese call the warriors the 8th wonder of the ancient world, and we would have to agree with that. Only pictures can begin to convey the scope of it all, and we offer some here, and will set up a slide show on this blog of all our Terra Cotta pictures when we get home, along with some other slide shows from other places.