To protect in afterlife – Qin Terracota Army

After 2200 years an armored archer still guards the horizon for enemies of first Chinese emperor, Qin. The life-size statue belongs to a garrison of few thousands pieces: archers, cavalry troops, charioteers and horses. They are a part – of still not excavated- army from the emperors.

Surrounded by a collapsed roof of ancient timbers 8000 clay soldiers stands there to protect it’s emperor in the afterlife. The roof collapse may have been caused by a fire set by rebels shortly after the emperor death. Remains of a palace and secondary pits contain bronze chariots and skeletons of horses have been discovered as well. All of this was a manifestation of Qin’s quest for immortality and eternal power.

Qin declared himself emperor in 221 BC after victory in war with six warring states. He was the first ruler to unify China. He quashed the power of feudal nobility and recruited competent administrators to successfully manage the system. Qin standardized weights and measures, written language and currency. His road network likely exceeded 4,000 miles, including 40-foot-wide speedways with a central lane reserved for the imperial family. On the northern frontier, the emperor dispatched his most trusted general to reinforce and connect existing border barriers, creating a bulwark against nomadic marauders. Made of rammed earth and rubble, these fortifications became the basis for the Great Wall, most of which would be rebuilt in stone and brick during the 15th century A.D. under the Ming dynasty. He wanted his great army with him after he died. His underground empire was a miniature of his real one. More than 700 000 laborers toiled 36 years building his monument,

At the age of 49, after and 11 years of reign he died while on a journey of the elixir of life. Qin  died due to ingesting mercury pills, made by his alchemists and court physicians. Ironically, these pills were meant to make Qin Shi Huang immortal. To conceal Qin Shi Huangdi’s death—and disguise the stench of a decomposing corpse—until the travelers returned to the capital, Zhao Gao took on a cargo of salted fish.

To gain insight into ancient techniques the Terracota Army museum launched a workshop to recreate terracotta troops. A worker loops coils of wet clay to form the body and arms, Placing a hand in the body for support they join arms and body and legs together with a paddle. Fingerprints and paddle marks found in broken ancient statues confirm the techniques authenticity. Ancient craftsmen also used molds to mass produce heads and ears. Armor details were sculpted manually. A half inch of clay was laid over molded head and hand-worked to give each warrior its own character. In the last part, heads were fired separately and attached to bodies. In 1000C statues are baked for several days until they glow red.

Some archaeologist think that the real soldiers of Qin served as models – each face is distinctive and unique. The terracotta figures are life-sized. They vary in height, uniform, and hairstyle in accordance with rank. Originally, the figures were also painted with bright pigments, variously colored pink, red, green, blue, black, brown, white and lilac. Most of the figures originally held real weapons such as spears, swords, or crossbows, and the use of actual weapons would have increased the figures’ realism. Most of the original weapons however were looted shortly after the creation of the army, or have rotted away. Nevertheless many weapons such as swords, spears, battle-axes, scimitars, shields, crossbows, and arrowheads were found in the pits.

The best is still to come. Chinese still didn’t decide to excavate his tomb. According to a description written a century after the emperor’s death, the tomb contains a wealth of wonders, including man-made streambeds contoured to resemble the Yellow and Yangtze rivers, flowing with shimmering, quicksilver mercury that mimics coursing water. (Analysis of soil in the mound has indeed revealed a high level of mercury) Witings say the emperor created an entire underground kingdom and palace, complete with a ceiling mimicking the night sky, set with pearls as stars. Sima Qian’s description of the tomb includes replicas of palaces and scenic towers, „rare utensils and wonderful objects”, 100 rivers made with mercury, representations of „the heavenly bodies”, and crossbows rigged to shoot anyone who tried to break in.Modern archaeologists have located the tomb, and have inserted probes deep into it. The probes revealed abnormally high quantities of mercury, some 100 times the naturally occurring rate, suggesting that some parts of the legend are credible. Hundred of skeletons have been uncovered near the tomb, many of them believed to be artisans and workers who helped build the grave. According to Sima, these laborers were put to death to preserve secrecy of the location and its treasures: “After the burial and sealing up of the treasures, the middle gate was shut and the outer gate closed to imprison all the artisans and laborers, so that not one came out. Trees and grass were planted over the mausoleum to make it seem like a hill,” he wrote.

Qin era gold sword.

Terracota army armour made from tiny wire-linked limestone plaques

Rare terracota army soldier with preserved painted face

To be immortal – chinese jade burial suites, 2200 years old.

Just 15 of the extraordinary head-to-toe jade suits that promised immortality to the Chinese imperial family have ever been found. During the reign of Chinese dynasties, the ancient Chinese believed that when a person dies, he or she entered into the after life. Death was comprehended as a prolongation of life, and an emperor’s mausoleum was his after-life palace, mirroring his regal life on earth. All of the daily comforts of their past life such as servants, attendants, objects, pets, wives, guardians, concubines, food and drink were to be provided for them in the after life. This was accomplished by burying all of these things with the deceased when they died. As an ancient Chinese philosopher said, „Treat death as life.” It was not uncommon to kill people in order to be buried with their master, but as dynasties evolved clay replicas replaced the real thing.

Corpses, such as that of emperor Liu Sheng and his wife the princess Dou Wan, have been found in spectacular jade suits made of thousands of small plaques sewn together with gold thread. The Chinese believed that jade would protect the corpses from decay; it was a symbol of life and vitality. Liu Sheng’s tomb in Mancheng, Hebei was built like an actual house with horses, stables, windows, storerooms with cookbooks and even a bathroom! Most of the 2,800 goods found in this tomb are unique and include the jade suits and other jade products, the famous Changxin Palace lantern and a gold-inlaid furnace.

The making of a jade burial suit was no easy job, because it had strict requirements on techniques. First, jade materials transported from far-away places were processed into thousands of small jade pieces of certain shapes and sizes after lots of procedures; second, each jade piece was polished and drilled, with the shapes and sizes of the holes undergoing special scrutiny and delicate processing; third, a lot of specially made gold, silver or copper threads were used to join the jade pieces. The finished suites were respectively called „gold thread sewn jade burial suit”, „silver thread sewn jade burial suit” and „copper thread sewn jade burial suit”. The shape of the suit was the same as a human body. The cost of making a medium-sized jade burial suit was almost equal to the property values of 100 then middle-class families put together. You can have an idea what an extravagance the suit was.

The most representative jade suit is the gold thread sewn jade suit found in the tomb of Liu Sheng in Mancheng, Hebei Province. It consists of 2,498 jade plates of different sizes that are joined with gold threads of over 1,000 grams. It was completed by more than 100 craftsmen in over two years.  Jade suits were first documented in literature around AD 320, although there is archaeological proof of their existence over half a millennium before. However, their existence wasn’t confirmed until 1968, when the tomb of Prince Liu Sheng and his wife Princess Dou Wan of the Han Dynasty was discovered. Believed to be one of the most important archaeological finds of the 20th century, the undisturbed tomb was unearthed in the Hebei Province behind a wall of iron between two brick walls and a corridor packed with stone.

Reticulated ball, China, 19th century. The Rubik’s Cube of the Ancient World

Chinese puzzle balls are ornate decorative items that consist of several concentric spheres, each of which rotates freely, carved from the same piece of material. Although the master carvers of old used ivory, in modern times you can find puzzle balls made of synthetic ivory, resin, wood, jade, and other materials. These detailed works of art are usually made up of at least 3 to 7 layers, but the world’s largest puzzle ball is actually made of 42 concentric balls all enclosed one within the other. Although the inner balls can be manipulated to align all the holes, Chinese puzzle balls got their name from people who, through the ages, pondered the mystery of making such objects.

So how exactly are puzzle balls made? Well, it certainly requires mountains of patience and a very steady hand. Chinese masters rotate a solid ball on a lathe and start by drilling holes toward the center of the objects. Then, using special “L”-shaped tools, they begin to separate the innermost balls. The tool with the longest upright has the shortest cutter, and the one with the shortest upright has the longest cutter. The craftsman lowers the longest tool to the narrow bottom of each hole in turn and rotates it to cut the innermost ball free. Then, using the second longest, which doesn’t reach as far down, but cuts a wider arc, he separates the second ball, and so on, from the innermost to the outermost shell. Because it is easier to work with, the exterior shell is the most elaborately carved, usually featuring an intertwined dragon and a phoenix.

Chinese puzzle balls are so delicate that they can only be carved by hand. Even the slightest flick of the wrist can chip one of the fragile inner layers and ruin days of hard work. To understand just how fine these things are, it’s not recommended you try to solve them by aligning all the holes, because there is a risk of damaging the concentric balls. Still, if you insist on solving this ancient puzzle, it’s best to use thin toothpicks or quills.

Chinese 2400-year-old pot of soup found in a tomb near the ancient capital of Xian. The soup was made of dog.

Archaeologists have analyzed the bones from the 2400-year-old pot of soup found in a tomb near the ancient capital of Xian, and despite how painfully stereotypical this is, it turns out those bones belonged to a dog. A puppy, no less.

There were 37 bones found in the bronze vessel from the Warring States Period (475 – 221 BC), and another bronze container held the remains of what appears to be wine. The food and drink were offerings made to the deceased and his ancestors by his surviving family.

The soup and bones were discovered in a small, sealed bronze vessel in a tomb being excavated to make way for the extension of the airport in Xian, home to the country’s famed ancient terracotta warriors, the report said.

The liquid and bones in the vessel had turned green due to the oxidation of the bronze, it said. Scientists were expected to conduct further tests to confirm the liquid was indeed soup and to identify the ingredients.