Terracotta army gives up its secrets
Posted On: Apr 20th, 2015 at 12:42
China
Proof is now affirmed that the terracotta army – one of the most incredible archaeological finds in the world – is made of individual soldiers. Although it’s been long known that the faces of the terracotta army are all different, archaeologists wanted to know if the soldiers were created in some kind of production line or whether they are as individual as real people. The answer has been discovered by scanning the ears. Ears are as unique as fingerprints and a person can be identified by their ears alone. So the question was – were they all created equal and given a different face and some other quirks, or are they all completely unique? Now we know the results from scanning the soldiers in situ – the ears are all unique and the army is truly comprised of individual soldiers. Such detail is astounding and one must wonder at the techniques used to create the army…
Astonishingly, after more than two thousand years, Emperor Qin Shi Huang is still in situ and his grave unopened. Thought to contain riches beyond imagination, the grave could be as lavish as Tutankhamun’s tomb. The Chinese, however, are well aware of the writings of the Chinese scholar Sima Qian who, a century after the emperor’s death, described how the tomb was rigged with booby traps and laced with poison, and anyone who opens up the tomb will suffer a terrible death. Whether the account is true or not, the Indiana Jones-like story has scared the Chinese enough not to touch it. Personally, I would also err on the side of caution.
