Individuality Unearthed
followed and the Qin Dyansty finally fell to the Han in 206 B.C. Only the fall of the empire itself stopped the work on Qin's funerary complex, 40 years after it began. Now, Qin's only hope for immortality was his tomb.
The Tomb and the Terra Cotta Army
It is estimated that over 700,000 laborers worked on the underground mausoleum, which remained virtually hidden beneath the ground of Xian for the next 22 centuries. In 1974, a severe drought hit China and the peasants of Xian were in great need of water. A farmer drilling a well beneath the woods of Qin Ling found something besides water. He brought up the head of a terra cotta soldier, part of an 8,000 soldier-strong army defending the tomb of Qin Shihuangdi.
Chinese archaeologists have been excavating this tomb since its discovery; and they have unearthed warriors, horses, chariots, weapons and more. The burial complex is approximately 7½ kilometers square and on the average it lies only 4½ meters below the surface. The most amazing thing, however, is not the size of the tomb or the number of terra cotta warriors. It's that each and every one of them is different from the next--different facial features, different age, different hair, different clothing, different posture. They are all individuals.
The warriors have been unearthed in three separate pits, which are numbered to correspond with the order in which they were discovered. Their arrangement within the pits corresponds with the battle formation the army may have taken during the Qin Dynasty.
In Pit No. 1 are the infantry and charioteers. Archers for the front lines are in this pit and defending warriors surround the troops on all sides. Resources have only permitted the Eastern half of this pit to be excavated so far. However, Pit No. 1 has already yielded over 1,000 warriors, over 30 horses and portions of 8 chariots. Archaeologists estimate that a complete excavation of this pit will yield more than 6,000 warriors.
Pit No. 2 lies approximately 20 meters north of Pit No. 1 and it is L-shaped. It contains the main body of Qin's army, the cavalry. Many of the cavalrymen in this pit are walking, leading their horses. Many of them wear no armor, which may have been to allow freer movement for the men these warriors were modeled after. This pit is thought to hold more than 1,300 cavalrymen, archers and warriors, over 450 horses and
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