"Armies are kept for a thousand days to be used on one."
Chinese proverb
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History is filled with stories of famous discoveries. Gravity. The Rosetta Stone.
One more for the list: the Terracotta Army, a collection of almost 7000 life-size soldiers buried in an immense tomb.
Who are these sculpted warriors hiding underground?
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Photograph of one pit in the immense underground tomb that contains the Terracotta Army.
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In 1974, while digging a well, a group of Chinese farmers accidentally stumbled upon an archeological treasure. A solider appeared beneath their shovels. Then another, and another…
The experts arrived to continue the excavation and eventually uncovered a network of individual pits. In pit number one, the most important of them all, they discovered an enormous trove of archers, horsemen and infantry. All the characters were standing neatly in 11 rows.
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The archeologists learned that the pits formed a funeral complex for Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China. Qin commissioned the inanimate clay army long before his death. He believed that they would accompany and protect him in the afterlife.
For thirty years, both during his reign and after, artisans and laborers worked tirelessly to construct the warriors. Although made from molds, each statue has a unique feature—a certain haircut, beard or nose, for example—that makes it special. To further distinguish the soldiers, artisans painted their uniforms with specific colors to reflect their military rank.
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The emperor, who was well known for standardizing many aspects of Chinese society including its currency and writing, did not cut any corners. His soldiers carried real weapons. In underground stables that sheltered horse statues, archeologists even found hay.
It seems that Emperor Qin and his army were well prepared for an afterlife of adventure.
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A portrait impression of the First Emperor from the 18th century album "Portraits of Emperors Throughout Dynasties".
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 Armies are kept for a thousand days to be used on one.
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Chinese proverb 
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Photograph of archeologists excavating tombs.
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These devotees are praying in what kind of religious building?
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TELL US WHAT YOU THINK
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Contact Co-Founders Coline and Jean at hello@artips.co.
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