At the foot of Lishan Mountain on the east side of the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang in Shaanxi Province, there is a small poor mountain village called Xiyang Village. On March 1, 1974, villagers in Xiyang Village were digging water conservancy facilities to fight drought, so several villagers went to the stone beach in the south of the village to dig a well and accidentally found fragments of pottery figurines.
At the time, the villagers didn't know what it was. Some people say it is the god of war in the temple, others say it is the god of plague, and even say that the poverty situation in Xiyang Village today is caused by these ominous things, and many people have broken the figurines.
At that time, Lin Anwen, a reporter from Xinhua News Agency, wrote an article about "" after many field investigations.
A batch of qin shi huang mausoleums were unearthed
Qin Dynasty warrior pottery figurines
The article, published in the People's Daily issue 2396, quickly attracted the attention of the leaders of the State Council.
At that time, Li Xiannian, then vice premier of the State Council, immediately issued instructions to suggest that the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and the Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee immediately take rapid protection measures. Thus, terracotta archaeology began immediately. But no one imagined at the time that they were about to embark on a historical discovery that shocked the world.
On May 18, 1979, the excavation of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses Pit No. 1 of the Mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin officially began. The entire pit is divided into 27 exploration units with an area of 20m×20m. Archaeologists carried out detailed excavations and cleansing of each exploration unit. During excavations, excavated clay figurines and some terracotta horses were restored and displayed on the spot. The Terracotta Warriors are similar in size to real people and real horses. Sorted by row and column. Magnificent and astonishing. It's like a thousand armies and horses coming at you.
At first, the excavation of the Terracotta Warriors was closed, but later the archaeological site was opened to domestic and foreign audiences through excavation, making the Terracotta Warriors famous all over the world.
Among them, the largest number of terracotta pits is the samurai
Figurines
, all made according to the size of a real person. One of the most exciting things for archaeologists is the discovery of lifelike colored servants. It's a pity a lot of color
The moment of exposure to oxygen at the time of excavation, its brilliant colors disappeared.
In fact, the Terracotta Warriors were all painted in the beginning. Archaeologists speculate that when the Qin people made colored servants, they first applied a layer of paint on the outside as a base, and then a layer of paint. However, since being buried underground for more than 2,000 years, the paint layer has aged and can easily fall off. At present, due to the special burial site, only a very small number of colored servants have been retained.
The following small editor will show you the moment when the terracotta warriors were unearthed, so that we can feel the superb wisdom of the ancients.
Photo 1: The newly unearthed painted terracotta warriors come to life
Photo 2: Unearthed painted terracotta warriors
Photo 3: A painted terracotta warrior, half of which is still in the dirt
Photo 4: Archaeologists excavate the Terracotta Warriors
Photo 5: Archaeologists excavate the Terracotta Warriors