How many terracotta warriors were there

Another pit contained 15 terracotta musicians and 13 bronze water birds to entertain the Emperor in the afterlife. There was also a pit full of stone armour and several pits full of horse skeletons.

You can see some of these amazing objects in the exhibition. Government labourers and local craftsmen created the warriors in workshops. The warriors have the stamps or names of their makers, including administrators, craftsmen and foremen. Each warrior was built from the ground upwards using different body parts made from thick coils of clay and the head was made and fired separately.

Sculptural details such as hair, facial features and costume were added by hand before the figure was dried and eventually fired in a huge kiln. Originally the warriors were not the terracotta colour that we see today but would have been painted in bright colours.

After firing, each terracotta warrior was covered with lacquer before various bright pigments were applied with colours indicating different ranks.

In addition to showcasing recent finds, the exhibitions feature the largest collection of terra cotta figures ever to leave China. The statuary includes nine soldiers arranged in battle formation armored officers, infantrymen, and standing and kneeling archers , as well as a terra cotta horse.

Another highlight is a pair of intricately detailed, ten-foot-long bronze chariots, each drawn by four bronze horses. Too fragile to be transported, the chariots are represented by replicas. The artifacts offer a glimpse of the treasures that attract visitors from around the world to the Xi'an museum site, where 1, of an estimated 7, warriors have been disinterred so far.

The stupendous find at first seemed to reinforce conventional thinking—that the first emperor had been a relentless warmonger who cared only for military might. As archaeologists have learned during the past decade, however, that assessment was incomplete.

Qin Shi Huangdi may have conquered China with his army, but he held it together with a civil administration system that endured for centuries. Among other accomplishments, the emperor standardized weights and measures and introduced a uniform writing script. Recent digs have revealed that in addition to the clay soldiers, Qin Shi Huangdi's underground realm, presumably a facsimile of the court that surrounded him during his lifetime, is also populated by delightfully realistic waterfowl, crafted from bronze and serenaded by terra cotta musicians.

The emperor's clay retinue includes terra cotta officials and even troupes of acrobats, slightly smaller than the soldiers but created with the same methods. Now they realize he took a whole political system with him. Qin Shi Huangdi decreed a mass-production approach; artisans turned out figures almost like cars on an assembly line. Clay, unlike bronze, lends itself to quick and cheap fabrication.

Workers built bodies, then customized them with heads, hats, shoes, mustaches, ears and so on, made in small molds. Some of the figures appear so strikingly individual they seem modeled on real people, though that is unlikely. Instead, they may have been aggregate portraits: the ceramicists, says Kinoshita, "could have been told that you need to represent all the different types of people who come from different regions of China.

The first emperor's capital, Xianyang, was a large metropolis, where he reportedly erected more than palaces, of which only a single foundation is known to survive.

Each time Qin Shi Huangdi conquered a rival state, he is said to have transported its ruling families to Xianyang, housing the vanquished in replicas of palaces they had left behind.

At the same time, the emperor directed construction of his tomb complex; some , workers reportedly labored on these vast projects. Upon the death of his father, Yiren, in B. The kingdom, celebrated for its horsemen, sat on the margin of civilization, regarded by its easterly rivals as a semi-savage wasteland.

About 8, warriors, chariots, horses, and more than , weapons have been unearthed from the three pits so far. To the front of the formation are three rows of crossbowmen able to launch a long-range attack.

The main force formed by infantry and chariots follows after. On the two sides of this formation is the troop of cavalry designed to outflank the enemies. There are four pits in total, and from three of them terracotta figures have been unearthed. Pit 1 : It is the largest one with a length of yards meters and a width of 68 yards 62 meters , equaling the size of two football fields.

The military formation in it is made of chariots and infantry. There are over 6, individual figures and 50 chariots in total. Pit 2 : It covers half size of the area of the Pit 1. This pit has the most army units with chariots, infantry, cavalry, and crossbowmen.

Pit 3 : It is the headquarters of the formations in the above two pits, with 68 figures, four horses, one chariot, and 34 weapons unearthed at present. Who found the Terracotta Army? One can hardly believe the fact that such important royal burial pits were accidently discovered by a group of famers, not archeologists. After the excavation, this grand underground military troop came to light again.

Today, you can still see the founders in the museum, telling the story of the discovery and book signing. See more about Who found the Terracotta Warriors?

Facts from the excavation show that the Terracotta Warriors are generally 1. The average height of all the warriors is 1. Does this mean people in the olden times were much taller? Some people don't think so. The terracotta soldiers were made much taller for two reasons.

In the part of the tomb that has been excavated, thousands of sculptures of horses and warriors in full armor stand in battle formation. The warriors are life-size, with most about two-meters six-feet tall. The sculptures weigh up to kilograms pounds each. Each warrior has unique characteristics—facial features, hairstyle, clothing, and pose. In recent years, museums outside China have hosted exhibitions featuring a small number of the terra-cotta warriors.

The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit.

The Rights Holder for media is the person or group credited. Caryl-Sue, National Geographic Society. Mary Crooks, National Geographic Society.

For information on user permissions, please read our Terms of Service. If you have questions about how to cite anything on our website in your project or classroom presentation, please contact your teacher. They will best know the preferred format. When you reach out to them, you will need the page title, URL, and the date you accessed the resource. If a media asset is downloadable, a download button appears in the corner of the media viewer.