Naked Han Terra-cotta Warriors
In 41BC, Han Dynasty Emperor Jing Di Liu Qi passed away after 16 years of struggle against his kinsmen and the Huns. He was buried in a chamber covered with a huge earth mound, which was surrounded by an imperial mausoleum known as Yangling Mausoleum, and his stories became legendary and even mythical.
He was almost forgotten until more than 2,000 years later. In May 1990, a highway connecting Xi’an city (the city where full-sized terra-cotta warriors were discovered in 1974) and airport was under construction. Because one part of the planned highway was in the protected archaeological site of the Yangling Mausoleum, construction workers were very careful not to disturb the emperor’s afterlife.
Upon accident, they found many terra-cotta burial figures: terra-cotta pigs, chickens, sheep, ox etc. More importantly, they found Han Dynasty Terra-cotta warriors. This turned out to be another important discovery in the late 20th century. After careful excavation, 81 burial pits were found and thousands of figures were unearthed.
Han Dynasty (202BC-220AD) Terra-cotta warriors are different from Qin Dynasty (221BC-206BC) Terra-cotta warriors in many ways: they don’t have a pedestal under their feet; they are nude, armless, they are 1/3 of the size of a real person, and were made a half century afterwards.
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