Secrets of the Dead: China's Terracotta Warriors

One of the great archeological mysteries of all time! How was it so long ago that Chinese clay sculptors were able to create a life-size, clay army of 8,000 soldiers? Particularly fascinating is that each one was different.





The wiki entry on it here:
en.wikipedia.org...

According to historian Sima Qian (145-90 BC), work on this mausoleum began in 246 BC soon after Emperor Qin ascended the throne (then aged 13), and the full construction later involved 700,000 workers.[6] Geographer Li Daoyuan, six centuries after the death of the First Emperor, recorded in Shui Jing Zhu that Mount Li was a favoured location due to its auspicious geology: "... famed for its jade mines, its northen side was rich in gold, and its southern side rich in beautiful jade; the First Emperor, envious of its fine reputation, therefore chose to be buried there".[4][7] Sima Qian, in his most famous work, Shiji, completed a century after the mausoleum completion, wrote that the First Emperor was buried with palaces, towers, officials, valuable artefacts and wonderful objects. According to this account, there were 100 rivers simulated with flowing mercury, and above them the ceiling was decorated with heavenly bodies below which were the features of the land. Some translations of this passage refer to "models" or "imitations," those words however weren't used in the original text.[6][8]
The mound where the tomb is located.

Recent scientific work at the site has found high levels of mercury in the soil of the tomb mound,[9] giving some credence to Sima Qian's account of the emperor's tomb. The tomb of Shi Huangdi appears to be a hermetically sealed space that is as big as a football pitch and located underneath the pyramidal tomb mound.

It's one thing to stamp identical pieces from molds. Modern manufacturing does this pretty much at will. But creating individual identities with each figure presents a unique set of problems. It is theorized that it was done with a huge team of over 1,000 clay sculptor masters, each with his own team of apprentices.


Notice the incredible detail on the soles of the shoes!

A highly interesting video documentary, the movie can be found on Netflix here:
movies.netflix.com...

Putting 8,000 clay soldiers in historical context, this installment of "Secrets of the Dead" explores the origins of the famed terracotta warriors that were created -- in the span of only two years -- to guard the First Emperor of China's tomb.

A trailer for it can be seen here:


Another interesting thing this video explores is how in ancient times, if your master was about to die, you prepared for death as well, to serve him in the afterlife! And then when the master died, you were either killed or voluntarily ingested arsenic, or some form of deadly poison- essentially committing suicide!

While I found some related threads here dealing with the Chinese Purple color (a fascinating subject in itself, and also explored in this video), I did not find a dedicated thread to discussing the Terracotta Warriors.

Man am I glad that things have changed...Or else I would be long ago dead when as a teen my McDonalds store manager died of a heart attack!



Enjoy, if you can!

I've always found this subject interesting, I'll have to find hat vid on netflix. It's incredible how everyone of those figures is unique. I believe there's even a cavelry too! Great thread!

well Iused to have a book here's a link to it Human Sacrifice/Nigel Davies in he talks about a great tomb of an early Chinese emperor all the workers who built the tomb, the designers of the tomb , soldiers and concubines,
were buried alive in this tomb. The nearby villagers could hear them screaming for weeks. the villagers even attempted to rescue them but were thwarted by the booby traps that were part of it's design. A grassroots outcry against this cruel arrogant waste of life was so effective that no succeeding ruler dared to sacrifice on that scale again(I believe the concubines still got sacrificed but that was about it. Hence an terracotta army.

reply to post by MrsBlonde


That looks like an interesting book. And funny, but I had never seen Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto" until just the other night which turned out to have a lot of human sacrifice in it. Savagery is still present, it's just they have much better and more impersonal tools for killing these days. And the lies to go with it.

The Terracotta Warriors were buried, and never meant to be seen by humans again as part of the entombment ritual and burial custom. At least they progressed from killing the real ones.

Yes but are they there to guard the emperor-------or keep him there.
second line

Originally posted by anglodemonicmatrix
Yes but are they there to guard the emperor-------or keep him there.
second line

wow! I never thought of it that way!!
I was watching Hist Channel about these Chinese tombs they were saying in later times the emperors and nobles were buried along this certain mountain to guard the nation .