The Terracotta Warriors Museum in Xian has new discoveries.

by fulltimestudent 13 Replies latest social current

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  fulltimestudent

  The Museum at the site of China's first Emperor's mausoleum has a new exhibit. As archeologist's press on excavating the site, they have found the first examples of ancient Chinese armour, and it has now gone on display:

  A China national TV provides some images.

  http://english.cntv.cn/program/cultureexpress/20131216/104966.shtml

  An explanation is at:

  Reference: http://english.cntv.cn/program/cultureexpress/20131217/101923.shtml

  New stone armour found in the tomb of China's first emperor.

  Xi'an, the capital city of West China's Shaanxi Province, is world famous for Qin Shi Huang's Mausoleum, otherwise known as the site of the Terracotta Warriors. Designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1987, the mausoleum is the largest underground Imperial tomb ever discovered. And recently, archaeologists have made some new finds.

  At the Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum, some newly-restored stone armour is now on display. Each piece of armour is in a different shape and is connected by bronze wires, to ensure its flexibility.

  "This is the first collection of amour we restored. It consists of 612 pieces, and is divided into three parts. Each piece has small holes for the bronze wire to pass through and is delicately designed. Take a look at this helmet. It was made to fit the shape of our face. It's a very human design," Zhang Weixing, Deputy Director of Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum, says.

  Qin Shi Huang's Mausoleum

  This is the first time armour from the Qin Dynasty has been found. And there is certainly a large stash.

  The area archaeologists are planning to work on covers some 13,000 square meters. But only 500 square meters has been excavated so far.

  "In this area, we found dozens of pieces of stone armour, including helmets. They are displayed here in four lines," an archaeologist says.

  So far, 87 pieces have been found. But archaeologists predict that the total amount could exceed 6000. Although they look similar to us, specialists say they can see a strict principal of hierarchy from the designs.

  "These pieces of armour are quite large and rough, but those pieces are very delicate. The large pieces were for soldiers, and the delicate ones were worn by army generals," an archaeologist says.

  Besides armour and helmets, archaeologists have also discovered armour for horses, and spare parts from carriages. These finds indicate that a huge armour storehouse is part of the sprawling Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum.

  More discoveries are expected, as archeologists continue to excavate what may be best described as an armoury for the stone guardians who were to guard the emperor in his future life.
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  Hortensia

  Thanks for sharing that video - I enjoyed it.
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  LoisLane looking for Superman

  It would be so exciting to see in person.

  Fulltime , Have you seen the Warriors more than once?

  LoisLane
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  designs

  My wife and I saw these terracotta Chinese warriors many years ago in San Francisco, 1975. There was also the "Lady in Jade" a royal buried in a armour made of jade stone sown together with bronze threads like the armour described above.

  The warriors were big men, over 6' in height. There was also a Sacred Tree made of gold, under the tree stood two naked people, a man and woman, and intertwined in the tree's branches was a snake. Figure that one out.
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  LoisLane looking for Superman

  Cool.
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  nancy drew

  Archeology is fascinating one of my favorite places is gobekli tepe in turkey
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  marmot

  I can't wait until they finally excavate the main tomb. It supposedly has a small scale replica of the entire empire with lakes and rivers of liquid mercury.
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  fulltimestudent

  marmot:

  It supposedly has a small scale replica of the entire empire with lakes and rivers of liquid mercury.

  marmot, the problems that could be caused by the presence of a atmosphere saturated with mercury is one of the stated reasons why there has been no attempt to enter the main tomb. (Soil sampling around the area indicates a high level of mercury contamination) I'm not so sure about that as I think that protective clothing could be developed with self-contained breathing. A more valid reason (IMVHO) is the possiblity of materials deteriorating once the sealed tomb is opened to the atmosphere. The archeologists in charge of the project want to wait while technologies are developed to deal with anticipated problems

  Loislane:

  Have you seen the Warriors more than once?

  Only in exhibitions. I have not even got to Xian yet. That's the problem with China - there's so much to see, and I have so little time left to see it (after spending most of my life waiting in vain for the illusionery Christian paradise ) But for those with the time and money, Shanxi province and Shaanxi province (two different provinces next to each other, and both pronounced the same) are full of historical places to see.
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  fulltimestudent

  Designs:

  The warriors were big men, over 6' in height.

  Supposedly, the figures were designed to indicate heirarchical ranking. The 'leaders' (officers) were the largest and the common foot soldiers were smaller. Probably this bore little relevance to real life. I think there's a strong probablity that real life people of the era (across the world) were not so tall.

  There was also a Sacred Tree made of gold, under the tree stood two naked people, a man and woman, and intertwined in the tree's branches was a snake. Figure that one out.

  Yes! I'd also be fascinated to 'figure' that out.

  First run guess. Nestorian (Syrian) Christians were in China quite early, so depending on the age of that figure (tableau) that you saw, it could be someone's attempt at representing a biblical myth. Not a high probability (IMO) but a possibility. Then there is the possibility of Manichean (a Judeao-Christian sect) missionaries who were very active right across the Roman world and Asia. Mani, the founder was born around 261 CE into a Jewish/Christian family. The last Manichean temple in the world is in China (in the city of Quanzhou, and once a huge international trading port, to the north of Hongkong), the Manicheans liked to use illustrated texts to teach.

  The trading network that we call the Silk Road was huge and distributed all sorts of products across the world of that time, most people have little idea as to how huge it was. But along with products, the system also shared ideas.

  But a more considered guess is that knowledge of the Jewish myth, could have originated from Jewish traders. Its a bit of Jewish/biblical propaganda that all the Jews in the Babylonish captivity returned to Jerusalem. The majority of those Jews stayed in Babylon, became international traders and became rich. (The silly buggers who believed the 'return' story went back to primitive Jerusalem and depended on their rich Babylonian relatives to send them money). By the time of Islam, this privileged network of Jewish traders were known as Radanites and moved freely between the Christian and Muslim worlds. But as Dr Richard Folz argues (in his book, Religions of the Silk Road) the Jewish trade network may have existed for many centuries before Islam.

  The important thing to note here is that the Jews also used illustrations to teach. We (today) are fortunate to have a nearly complete example of a Jewish synagogue from the second or third centuries CE in the fortified ROman city of Dura Europos on the Euphrates river. At some point the Romans had confiscated the synagogue (which was built against the city wall) and filled it with sand to strengthen the wall. When discovered around 1932, and excavated, the beautiful frescos were still brilliant in color.

  

  Just one of the illustrated walls in the synagogue.

  All these suggestions are off the top of my head.

  One would need to know a lot more about the sculpture you saw, to attempt to demonstrate a provenance. If you ever track down where it is now, please post the info here.
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  designs

  Nice pic of the Synagogue's murals. Wish I knew more about the Golden Tree we saw. We were walking through the museum and rounded a corner and there it was in the middle of the room. At the time we thought like you that traders had brought the story of Eden on their travels to the Far East.