Terracotta Warriors are sculptures for Qin Shi Huangs tomb

The army of terracotta warriors was created in the third century BC and comprises an estimated 7000 life-size soldiers standing in three pits that cover more than 20,000 square meters [1,2,3] and are located approximately 1.5 km from Qin ...

Since they were accidentally discovered 50 years ago by a group of farmers digging a well, these life-size clay figurines have revealed intriguing details about the soldiers of Qin – the feudal state that unified China, for the first time ...

The Terracotta Warriors were discovered by chance in 1974 by a farmer digging a well near Xi’an. Composed of over 8,000 life-size clay soldiers, his 130 chariots with 520 horses, and his 150 mounted knights, each figure has unique facial features, hairstyles, and armor.

When a viewer first steps into the galleries of Age of Empires: Chinese Art of the Qin and Han Dynasties (221 B.C.–A.D. 220), he or she comes face-to-face with four life-size ceramic warrior figures with distinctive postures. Beyond the statues, one can see the silhouettes of many more armored warrior figures receding into a dark background, inviting the viewer to picture an army of thousands of sculptures of this kind. Some warrior figures even appear to be headless, simulating what one might have found at the army pits of the First Qin Emperor (Qin Shihuangdi) in Xi'an, China. Terracotta army, pit no.

The focus of these later tomb figurines also shifted away from officials and soldiers serving the Empire to household servants, attendants, and entertainers, as well as model granaries and herds of livestock. The reason for the sudden emergence of these life-sized, detailed figures has puzzled scholars for generations. As some have pointed out, prior to the terracotta warriors China lacked a tradition of large-scale sculpture in the round.

Excavations in Pit K9901 uncovered ... terracotta sculptures that have been dubbed "The Acrobats", which have been remarked to display an advanced understanding of human anatomy. The original function of these statues remains unclear, but they have been described as either potentially acrobat or dancer figures. The number of these figures uncovered thus far are relatively few compared to the more noted warrior figures, with ...

In order to achieve immortality, he built himself a tomb — a vast underground city guarded by a life-size terracotta army including warriors, infantrymen, horses, chariots, and all their attendant armor and weaponry.

... (~210 BCE) collection of thousands of life-size clay figures of soldiers, horses, chariots, and other artifacts in Xian, China, buried with Qin Shi Huangdi, China's first emperor.

The Terracotta Army refers to the thousands of life-size clay models of soldiers, horses, and chariots which were deposited around the grand mausoleum of Shi Huangdi, first emperor of China and founder...