TERRACOTTA WARRIORS

the Terracotta Army or the''terracotta warriors and horses''is a collection of clay sculptures depicting the armies of Qin shi haung,the first emperor of China.this is a funeral art buried with the emperor in 210-209 bce and whose purpose was to protect the emperor in his afterlife.

🇨🇳DISCOVERY🇨🇳
the Terracotta Army was discovered on 29 March 1974 to the east of xi'an in shaanxi province by farmers digging a water well approximately 1.6 kilometres east off the Qin emperor's tomb mound at mount li.for centuries,occasional reports mentioned pieces of terracotta figures and fragments of the Qin necropolis-footing tiles bricks and chunk of masonry.the discovery prompted Chinese archaeologists to investigate,revealing the largest pottery figurine group ever found in China.

-proof-
The construction of the tomb was disc ribbed by historian sima Qian (145-90bce).as he describes emperor Qin ascending to the throne (the aged 13) .the work started involving 700,000 workers.sima Qian wrote that the first emperor was buried with palaces,towers,officials,valuable artefacts and wondrous objects.

-the tomb-
The tomb appears to be hermetically-sealed space the size of a football pitch.the tomb remains unopened,possibly due to concerns about preservation of its artifacts.for example the paint on the Terracotta Army started to fade and flake .

-excavation site-
Four main pits approximately 7 metres (23 ft) deep have been excavated.[22][23] These are located approximately 1.5 kilometres east of the burial mound. The soldiers within were laid out as if to protect the tomb from the east, where all the Qin Emperor's conquered states lay.

-PITS-

• Pit one -is 230 metres long and 62 meters wide.containing main army of 6,ooo figures. Has eleven corridors which most are 3 metres long.
• The Other pits-Pit two has cavalry and infantry units as well as war chariots and is thought to represent a military guard. Pit three is the command post, with high-ranking officers and a war dchariot. Pit four is empty, perhaps left unfinished by its builders.
• Otherr pits are outside the mound which form the necropolis .

-CONSTRUCTION-
The terracotta army figures were manufactured in workshops by government laborers and local craftsmen using local materials. Heads, arms, legs, and torsos were created separately and then assembled.Eight face moulds were most likely used, with clay added after assembly to provide individual facial features.It is believed that the warriors' legs were made in much the same way that terracotta drainage pipes were manufactured at the time.

The terracotta figures are life-sized. They vary in height, uniform, and hairstyle in accordance with rank. Originally, the figures were also painted with bright pigments, variously coloured pink, red, green, blue, black, brown, white and lilac.The coloured lacquer finish and individual facial features would have given the figures a realistic feel, however much of the colour coating had flaked off or become greatly faded.

Untitled Slide

Most of the figures originally held real weapons such as spears, swords, or crossbows, and the use of actual weapons would have increased the figures' realism. Most of the original weapons however were looted shortly after the creation of the army, or have rotted away. Nevertheless many weapons such as swords, spears, battle-axes, scimitars, shields, crossbows, and arrowheads were found in the pits.

Some of these weapons, such as the swords are sharp and were coated with a 10–15 micrometre layer of chromium dioxide and kept the swords rust-free for 2,000 years.The swords contain an alloy of copper, tin, and other elements including nickel, magnesium, and cobalt.Some carry inscriptions that date manufacture between 245 and 228 BCE, indicating they were used as weapons before their burials.

An important element of the army is the chariot, of which four types were found. In battle the fighting chariots form pairs at the head of a unit of infantry. The principal weapon of the charioteers was the ge or dagger-axe, an L-shaped bronze blade mounted on a long shaft used for sweeping and hooking at the enemy. Infantrymen also carried ge on shorter shafts, ji or halberds and spears and lances. For close fighting and defence, both charioteers and infantrymen carried double-edged straight swords. The archers carried crossbows, with sophisticated trigger mechanisms, capable of firing arrows farther than 800 metres (2,600 ft)

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