Terracotta Army Research Paper

Terracotta Army

Imagine you are a peasant in China, and you are trying to dig a well. While you are drilling you hear something like grinding stone on metal. You dig up what made the strange sound, and you find a piece of a life sized clay warrior. That discovery made what archeologists call the "eighth wonder of the world" (Krings104). This archeological wonder is the Terracotta Army of Xi'an. which is a half hour drive from the city of Xi'an (Lubow). Discovered by peasants, and dug by archeologists in 1974 there have been 8000 figures found (Krings 104-05). It took the archeologists 35 years to find 600 underground pits, and vaults (Lubow). It is said that 700,000 people worked on the army, and vaults (Krings 104).

Qin Shi Huang's father

The army of Qin was attacking until 221 BCE when the last province fell (Szczepanski). Then Qin became the original Chinese Empire as Di conquered all of the principalities around his kingdom, and created what is now Eastern China (Krings 104). Ying Zheng was the name he was born with, but changed it when he conquered his part of China in 221 BCE to Qin Shi Huangdi Which translates to First Emperor of Qin (Lubow). Qin Shi Huangdi was the first emperor of China at age thirteen and ruled from 221 BCE to 210 BCE (Krings

Archeologists have dug up eight thousand horses and soldiers, and there might be twenty-four thousand more(Krings 104). The life sized clay army, bronze horses, and chariots have been there for more than two thousand years (Lubow). Each figure has features identifying their rank, and no two warriors are the same. The clay soldiers were placed in battle formation, and the first two rows include of two-hundred four archers to protect Di (Krings 105). All of the discovered pits cover a thirty-two square mile area. The three main pits are easy to get to while others are not. One thousand nine hundred of the warriors have been dug up (Lubow). One of the chambers was found empty, and may not have been finished (Krings 105). Di had plans for rivers of mercury, crossbow traps, and replicas of his palaces (Szczepanski). Di's tomb had a replica of the night sky and flowing mercury to resemble rivers and lakes (Krings 105). Also Di had replicas of his political system made in his tomb