Museum of Qin Shihuang Terracotta Warriors and Horses, Xi’an
I’ve been looking forward to traveling to China this October, but now I’m looking forward to it so much more!
China Daily reports on an exciting new archaeological find in Xi’an, which, thanks to the famous (and much toured) terracotta warriors discovered there in the 1970s, is a city on every tourist’s itinerary (including mine).
Here’s the news:
A company of Terracotta Warriors—most
painted in rich colors—have been unearthed at the largest pit within
the mausoleum complex of the emperor who first unified China.A total of 114 Terracotta Warriors have
been found at No 1 pit, one of three, where excavation started in June
last year, said Xu Weihong, head of the excavation team….The clay warriors, ranging in height from 1.8 m to 2 m, had black hair;
green, white or pink faces; and black or brown eyes, the archaeologist
said.
Will these be viewable by the public by October? (If not, can I pull some journalistic strings?) Photos are expected to be published later this month, according to China Daily. But why wait? There’s already a jaw-dropping photo at the above China Daily link and another one here.
Any words of hype that you can think of—“amazing,” “spectacular,” “awe-inspiring”—don’t seem to do justice to these vibrant emissaries from another age. In the second photo, they appear to be exotic living beings, hanging out companionably in the pit with the drab archaeologists.
They were found in pieces and much conservation needs to be done, not to mention the urgent need to insure that the vivid pigments are preserved (as already noted by one knowledgeable comment appended to the article).
Do you think they’ll let me do a CultureGrrl Video amidst the warriors? (How do you say “blog” in Chinese?)