220 new soldiers have been added to China’s 8,000-strong terracotta army. Another 220 of the Terracotta Warriors have been found. Archaeologists, who have been conducting archeology studies in the region since 2009 in an area of 500 square meters, also found the oldest golden camel statue ever made.
Terracotta Warriors, made up of thousands of earthen soldier statues made of terracotta and bronze, was discovered in China in 1974. Although it is believed that each of the statues included in the UNESCO World Heritage List is different from each other, as a result of the researches, it was determined that the soldiers were produced on 10 different soldier templates.
It is claimed that the statues found in Xi’an, Shanxi province of China, protect the first Chinese emperor, Xi Huang of China.
The oldest golden camel statue
Archaeologists working to locate the emperor’s sarcophagus announced that they found 220 new statues alongside the existing eight thousand soldiers. The region is also known to be full of artifacts made of pottery, bronze, jade, small amounts of gold, silver and iron. Working on an area of 500 square meters in the region since 2009, the team also reached the oldest golden camel statue ever made.
On the other hand, it is believed that the region contains important clues about the trade relations China established with the West via the Silk Road.
In March 1974, a farmer named Yang Zhifa drilled a well to irrigate pomegranate and quince orchards with his brothers in a village near Xi’an, the capital of China’s Shanxi province. Yang, whose shovel hits a clay statue, thinks it is a Buddha statue. Within a few months, authorities and archaeological teams are arriving at the site. What the farmer encountered was one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the 20th century. Buried under the field are thousands of skillfully made clay soldier statues in real human size. These statues, also known as Terracotta Warriors, belonged to 2,300 years ago, during the reign of Chi Huang, the first emperor to unify China.
Soldier statues caused great excitement in the world as well as in China. In September 2007, a selection of these soldiers was exhibited at the British Museum in London for six months. 850 thousand visitors saw the exhibition. Only Tutankhamun’s Treasures exhibition attracted so many audiences in 1972. Some of the terracotta soldiers were also exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, along with 160 artworks from 32 museums in China, with the theme ‘The Age of Empires: The Art of China and the Han Dynasties’.
Each of the soldiers lined up in the bricked trenches has their own character. However, these mustachioed faces are based on 10 different types. The statues were painted in red, blue, pink and yellow, but today their colors have faded. The real weapons they carry do not exist today either. China’s Xi Huang BC He is known as the emperor who unified China in 221. He standardized writing, money, weight and measurement units in all lands, and built canals and roads. He also initiated the construction of the Great Wall of China to protect the northern borders from raids. The tomb, which was protected by 8 thousand terracotta soldiers, still preserves all its mystery.
Archaeologists and museum experts oppose the opening of the tomb, believing that if it comes into contact with the air, everything will be irreparably damaged.
During the initial excavations to unearth the Terracotta Warriors, the varnish on the soldiers’ faces began to peel off after 15 seconds of exposure to the air. Although it is not known exactly who made the statues, DNA samples taken from the skeletons show that Western origins were also included in the workforce. This suggests that the Ancient Greeks may have come into contact with the Chinese and demonstrated their sculpting techniques. Because before the construction of Huang’s tomb in China, such artifacts in life size were not found.
