When and How were the Terracotta warriors created?
Around 246 BC when the young prince, Ying Zheng (Who would later call himself Qin Shi Huang), ascended to the throne as king of the state of Qin at the age of thirteen, construction of his massive tomb and the Terracotta warriors covering 56 sq km commenced. Construction of the tomb and Terracotta warriors took 37 years and 720,000 workers to complete. After the completion of the Terracotta warriors, the 2nd Emperor of the Qin dynasty, Hu Hai buried the artisans (who designed and worked on the statues) alive with Qin Shi Huang in order to keep the secret of his tomb safe. These artisans stayed and guarded the Emperor's tomb until their deaths.
The clay material called' yellow earth' used to create the Terracotta warrior statues was gathered by the workers in a pit near the area where the statues were discovered. Experts say that the yellow earth had to be 'worked' and processed before it could be formed into part of a Terracotta warrior. The head of a Terracotta was created with two moulds, one for the front of the head and one for the back of the head. These pieces of the head would be put together later and carvings were made to give each statue unique details. The torso, tunic and arms of a Terracotta warrior were hollow so these were made by coiling ropes of clay. The legs and hands of a Terracotta warrior were solid so they were believed to have been created in a similar fashion to the head: in two moulds. All these part are finally put together by putting patches of clay in between the pieces. After all the parts were joined together, a new layer of clay was put on the warrior which was carved by hand into detailed armour and layer of lacquer, a type of wood finish The statue was then hardened and made durable by firing it at 1,000 °C. A layer of coal was applied and then there was painting of the Terracotta warriors with vivid colours such as Chinese purple. The completed Terracotta warriors were placed in pits in formations which the real armies of Emperor Qin were in. The ranks of the soldiers were acknowledged in the statues with generals being taller and infantrymen being around 183 cm to 195 cm. Many clay statues other than warriors were created such as chariots, horses, officials, acrobats, strongmen, and musicians. |