Great Discovery of Terracotta Warriors and Horses
The land above Qin Terracotta Warriors was a large piece of barren pebbles beach before its excavation. In this field, over 10 ancient tombs from Han (206BC-220) to Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties had been discovered, during which process some buried terracotta warriors were destroyed. Having no knowledge about the value of the warriors' fragments, the grave diggers just left them scatter in the land. The seemingly weird land made the local people keep it at a respectable distance.
Long before the terracotta warriors were formally unearthed, the innocent villagers continually picked up the terracotta warriors' fragments for their own use. As it was a long tradition for Shaanxi People to sleep with heads resting on bricks, a villager thought he had found a nice pillow which was a good brick rod with slightly curved center. Unfortunately, he found the "pillow" was crawling with maggots the next day, making him goose lumps. Then he began to doubt the "pillow" may be an unlucky funerary object. Through a careful observation, he found that the brick rod was a part of arm of a terracotta warrior unearthed near the present Pit 2.
In March 1974, some villagers dug wells. When dug a distance of over seven feet deep, they accidentally discovered the burned earth, even deeper, some cavity potteries which looked like human bodies. And when reached over sixteen feet deep, they found the floor covered with a piece of blue bricks above which scattered the pottery pieces of human heads, arms and legs.
The news spread rapidly in the village and the superstitious old women believed that the digging had disturbed the Earth God. When the night fell, they would go to the site to burn incense and kowtow, offering apologize to the god. For fear of scaring the birds, they put a straw hat on a warrior to make it like a scarecrow in the land. Moreover, the bronze weapons like the arrow heads were discovered at the same time were sold very cheap.
Finally, a leader in the village found the terracotta warriors were unusual and reported the case to the superiors immediately. After analysis and research from multi-side participation, in 1976, the Chinese government confirmed the royal identity of these Qin terracotta warriors and decided to build a museum for them. Later, another two pits were discovered.
More
Emperor Qin Shihuang- an eternity emperor
Pit No.1: the largest pit among the three
Various and vivid works
Pit No.2: mysterious array of troops
Pit No.3: the supposed headquarter
Qin Terracotta Artisans-skilled but unfortunate creators
The Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses