Buried treasure in the Terracotta Army could confirm ancient legend
This story is a collaboration with Biography.com.
Fifty years ago, a routine well-digging operation on the outskirts of Xi’an, China, led to the unexpected discovery of a single clay soldier. As government authorities continued to excavate the well, they discovered that the soldier was just one of several terracotta soldiers guarding a vast necropolis. It turned out that they had discovered the mausoleum of the first emperor of Qin, a burial site dating back over 2,000 years.
Half a century later, the legendary mausoleum continues to reveal its secrets. The latest excavation has uncovered a mysterious treasure that could confirm an ancient Chinese legend: A 16-ton box full of treasures – including armor, weapons, 6,000 bronze coins, jade, and camels made of gold and silver – has just been unearthed from a tomb within the vast burial complex, according to The Daily Express.
This type of untouched tomb is rare; neither the coffin nor its treasures appear to have been looted by grave robbers in the past two millennia. “Most ancient tombs have been robbed, so we didn’t have much hope for the coffin chamber,” said the head of the excavation, Jiang Wenxiao, who Express. “But it turned out it hadn’t been robbed. We were amazed.”
However, the tomb had “deteriorated significantly,” Wenxiao said, and fears of further destruction eventually prompted archaeologists to excavate and study it more than a decade after its discovery in 2011.
Now the archaeologists want to find out who exactly is buried there. “The magnificent nature of his burial suggests that he was an important warrior,” the experts said, according to the Express. This may be an understatement.
Qin Shi Huang was king of the Chinese state of Qin from 246 to 221 BC during the Warring States period. The mausoleum of the first emperor of Qin was built to house his remains and may also contain those of his son.
The recently excavated tomb is just one of many in the necropolis built in honor of Qin Shi Huang (秦始皇), the first emperor of Qin. As National GeographicQin himself requested the construction of this mausoleum shortly after he ascended the throne in 246 BC at the age of only 13.
Qin’s gigantic deeds as emperor ultimately justified the elaborate tomb he ordered. In addition to uniting the warring states that made up China, “Qin standardized coins, weights and measures, connected the states with canals and roads, and is considered the builder of the first version of the Great Wall.” NatGeo Remarks.
Much of what we know about Qin, the construction of his tomb and the secrets of the areas yet to be explored comes from a 2,000-year-old document called Shiji (史記), also known as Notes of the great historian.
Sima Qian (司馬遷), prefect of the scribes of the Han Dynasty, wrote Shiji (史記), which is called the “fundamental text of Chinese civilization”.
The Shijie, a comprehensive and extremely important work by the Prefect of the Grand Scribes Sima Qian (司馬遷), which contains everything from genealogical tables and biographies to the history of rituals and waterways, is, according to Grant Hardy, author of Worlds of Bronze and Bamboo: Sima Qian’s Conquest of History.
“Sima wrote a world history,” writes Hardy, “… and in doing so he defined what it means to be Chinese.”
The Shiji tells the story of Qin Shi Huang’s son, Prince Gao, who suffered a tragic fate. After Qin Shi Huang’s death, his eldest son Fusu was supposed to ascend to the throne. However, due to deception by certain members of the dynasty, Huhai, Qin’s 18th son, took power instead.
According to the story, another descendant of the Qin, Prince Gao, saw his brothers and sisters either killed or committing suicide and considered leaving the country. “But Prince Gao knew that his family would be hunted because of this,” said the Express summarizes: “… and confronted Hu Hai and told him that he had disappointed her father by not following him in death.”
According to the ShijiPrince Gao requested that after his death at her hand, he be buried in the mausoleum of the first Qin emperor. And in light of this recent excavation, archaeologists are wondering if the tomb they came across actually contains Prince Gao’s remains.
“For the first time in 2,000 years,” said Hui Ming Tak Ted, a Qin Dynasty historian and associate professor at Oxford University, “… we have a chance to find out whether what Sima Qian wrote is correct.”
Michael Natale is news editor at Best Productscovering a wide range of topics including gifts, lifestyle, pop culture and more. He has been covering pop culture and commerce professionally for over a decade. His previous journalistic contributions can be found on sites such as Yahoo! And Comic ResourcesHis podcast appearances can be found everywhere there are podcasts, and his fiction can’t be found anywhere because it’s not very good.
