Qin Dynasty, 221-210 BCE
Litong, Shaanxi Province
Courtesy Hamilton Photography, Seattle

Here you can see an army of soldiers unearthed just east of the modern city of Xian. Discovered first in 1974, the work continues on three pits containing over 7,000 model soldiers. The army was buried within a framework of wooden pillars just east of the large tumulus containing the tomb of the First Emperor. The lifesize soldiers are made of terracotta, each one an individual portrait reflecting the diversity of men drawn from all across the new empire. They would have originally been brightly painted. Body parts were mass produced from a variety of molds, with heads and limbs added separately before firing. Soldiers carried real weapons including swords, spears and halberds. The pits also included chariots and model horses. It was a massive undertaking, certainly the largest ceramic project ever undertaken anywhere.

The First Emperor’s army and mausoleum were part of a grand scheme to recreate the entire world of the court below ground. The pits containing the soldiers also included charioteers and stables. The emperor’s tomb itself (yet to be unearthed) is supposed to contain a working model of the entire palace compound, set with traps to ward off looters. The tomb also signaled a direction towards the use of ceramic models as stand-ins for sacrificial victims, a process that had begun earlier, but reached gigantic proportions here.