Terracotta Warriors

 

Army of the First Emperor of Qin in pits next to his burial mound, Lintong, China, Qin dynasty, c. 210 B.C.E., painted terracotta (photo: scottgunn, CC BY-NC 2.0)

    The first emperor of China was known as Qin Shi Huangdi the creator of the first Chinese empire who reigned from about 221-210 BCE. He was at a very young age of thirteen when he began to have such outstanding responsibilities as a ruler. He was first declared king of the state Qin and once he began to defeat other rulers of different Chinese states he was able to declare himself as the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty. As he took the throne he found it extremely important to create an extravagant tomb for himself because he had such a strong opinion of the afterlife. "He began the construction of his vast tomb as soon as he took the throne, and it took 38 years to finish, even with a reported 700,000 convicts laboring for the last 13 years of construction." (S. Mittman, 2019) After the tomb was finally completed it was covered in greenery as if to blend in or appear natural so if it were to be seen from the outside it looks mostly just like a hill. 

    Inside the tomb there are several different sights that are known as Pit 1,2,3 that all contain various different terracotta warriors. For the time being there have been about 7,000 warriors discovered within the three of these pits and also 100 wooden chariots with horses included. (S. Mittman, 2019) One fascinating factor of these warriors is that all of them have their own unique features none of them are identical. All of these warriors were formed in order to protect the emperor in the afterlife and there were several other objects uncovered like gems, jewelry, and ornaments within this tomb that were all there for him. This tomb represents how powerful he was as an emperor and how much he cared about showing his power as to go so far to create an army for himself for the afterlife so he could remain superior. 

https://smarthistory.org/terracotta-army-emperor-qin-shi-huangdi/

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/south-east-se-asia/china-art/a/terracotta-warriors-from-the-mausoleum-of-the-first-qin-emperor-of-china