"When we went into Tut's tomb, think about all the information we lost just based on the excavation techniques of the 1930s. "It's really smart what the Chinese government is doing," Romey told LiveScience. Still, scientists have yet to touch the central tomb, which holds a palace containing the body of Qin Shi Huang. "They're going to be digging there for centuries," Romey predicted. So far, they've uncovered about 2,000 clay soldiers, but experts estimate there are more than 8,000 in total. The life-size terracotta solider they dug out of the ground turned out to be just one of an army of thousands, each utterly unique, with individual clothing, hair and facial features.įor almost four decades, archaeologists have been excavating the site. In 1974, a group of farmers digging wells near Xi'an, China stumbled upon one of the most shocking archaeological discoveries of all time. The ancient Chinese, along with many cultures including ancient Egyptians, believed that items and even people buried with a person could be taken with him to the afterlife.īut instead of burying his armies, concubines, administrators and servants with him, the Qin emperor came up with an alternative: clay reproductions. When he died, Qin Shi Huang was buried in the most opulent tomb complex ever constructed in China, a sprawling, city-size collection of underground caverns containing everything the emperor would need for the afterlife.
Scholars still debate the details of how this occurred, and what unique tactics allowed the Qin emperor to achieve what no one had managed before.
These kingdoms had been warring for more than 200 years, but through a combination of military strength, strategy and natural disasters, Qin Shi Huang conquered them all, proclaiming himself not just a king, but also an emperor - the first of China. Qin Shi Huang (pronounced "chin shuh hwang") was born in 259 B.C., first son to the king of Qin, one of six independent kingdoms inside modern China.
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