A discovery by farmers
In March 1974, farmers digging a well in the countryside near Lintong, east of Xi’an in Shaanxi province, struck fragments of fired clay and bronze. Archaeologists soon recognised what lay beneath: a large underground chamber filled with life-size clay soldiers. The site lies a short distance from a huge earthen mound that is the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor, who unified China in 221 BCE and died in 210 BCE.
The warriors are best understood as guardians of that tomb. They were not buried with the emperor in a burial chamber, but placed in separate pits to the east of the mound, arranged as if ready to defend him in the afterlife. A museum now stands over the largest pit, and excavation and conservation have continued for decades.
The pits
Four pits were identified, though they differ in size and state.
- Pit 1 is the largest, a long rectangular space holding a main body of infantry in rows, interspersed with chariots. It is usually estimated to hold several thousand figures.
- Pit 2 held a mixed force: cavalry, chariots, infantry and archers arranged in blocks.
- Pit 3 is small and appears to represent a command post, with officers and a chariot.
- Pit 4 seems to have been left empty or unfinished.
Estimates of the total number of figures commonly run to about 8,000 warriors, together with horses and chariots, but the count is uncertain because most of the site has not been excavated, and many figures were broken when the pits collapsed or burned. Treat any single figure as a rough estimate.
How the warriors were made
The figures stand about 1.8 metres tall on average, with generals somewhat taller. They appear individual, with different faces, hairstyles and expressions, yet the underlying method was close to mass production.
Makers used local clay. Bodies were built up in sections: legs and torsos were formed by coiling or by pressing clay, with the legs often solid for stability and the torsos hollow. Heads, hands and ears were typically made with moulds and then finished by hand, which allowed variation. Parts were assembled, details such as moustaches, hair and armour plates were added in clay, and the finished figure was fired. This modular approach fits the wider Qin taste for standardisation, such as the Qin standardised measures, since standard components could be combined in many ways.
The figures were originally painted. A layer of lacquer was applied as a base and then coloured with mineral pigments in reds, greens, blues and purples. Exposure to air after excavation caused the paint to flake and fade very quickly, which is why most figures appear grey today and why conservators now treat new finds with great care. The faces, then, are not portraits of real soldiers. It is more cautious to say that they reflect types, with regional and personal variety.
Ranks, dress and weapons
The clay soldiers show a military hierarchy in sculpted form.
- Generals and officers wear more elaborate armour and distinctive headgear, and stand taller.
- Infantry wear tunics, with or without armour, and carry spears, halberds or swords.
- Archers and crossbowmen appear in two poses: kneeling and standing. The kneeling pose is easy to recognise and is thought to represent a rank that could shoot from a protected position.
- Charioteers hold the reins of horse teams.
- Cavalry stand beside their horses, with saddles shown but no stirrups.
Their armour comes in several types, sometimes made of small plates laced together, which is a good visual record of ancient body armour as worn in the third century BCE. Actual weapons were found with the figures, including bronze swords, spearheads, halberd blades and arrowheads, along with crossbow trigger mechanisms. Many bronze items were made to fine tolerances, and some appear well preserved. Claims that the blades were chrome-plated to resist rust circulate widely, and analysis has found chromium on some surfaces, but how and why it got there is debated.
What the army shows about Qin warfare
The formation reflects the practice of the Qin armies: units were organised around infantry blocks supported by archers, chariots and cavalry. The prominent use of the crossbow, with its mechanical trigger, is consistent with historical accounts that credit Qin with strong crossbow units. The pits show a disciplined, centrally organised force.
The figures cannot be treated as a photograph of an actual battle line. They are an idealised image of the emperor’s military power, meant for the afterlife, and some details may have been shaped by ritual or artistic convention. Even so, the careful rendering of equipment is valuable, since few ancient armies have left such a complete visual record. For comparison, the Greek hoplite phalanx is known mostly through pottery, sculpture and texts, rather than from thousands of full-scale figures.
Context and questions that remain
The effort behind the project was enormous. The historian Sima Qian, writing a century later, says that hundreds of thousands of people worked on the emperor’s tomb. The figure is probably exaggerated, but the clay army and the mausoleum clearly needed organised labour on a large scale.
The burial mound itself has not been opened. Chinese authorities have chosen not to excavate it, citing the need to preserve what is inside. Ancient texts describe rivers of mercury and a model of the heavens in the burial chamber, and soil tests have found raised mercury levels near the mound, which is suggestive but not proof of the written descriptions. This unexcavated imperial mausoleum is one reason the story is far from finished.
The Terracotta Army shows a state that could organise skilled labour, standard production and elaborate belief about death at the same time. It also reminds us how much of ancient art survives only because of burial, the work of generations of conservators, and a farmer’s chance discovery.