The famous clay soldiers of the Chinese Emperor Qin Shih Huang Di is one of the most intriguing mysteries for researchers
In the III century BC. China, in the then - the Celestial Empire - was ruled by Ying Chzhen, who took the name Shi-huang-di, which means "the first emperor". Immediately after accession to the throne in 221 BC. (at a very young age) he decided to take care of his afterlife.
By his order, more than 700 thousand slaves and convicts were driven to the nearest mountain Li-Shan to the capital. Breaking through the stone mass, they built a giant crypt with bronze walls in the mountain. In the middle there was a place for a sarcophagus. Under the vaults on the floor, a map of the earth's surface was drawn, where seas and rivers spilled into mercury. The sky was depicted on the ceiling.
But the ruler could not go to the next world unaccompanied. In the Chinese other world, the table of rank had to be observed even more accurately than in life. The divine person of the emperor was to be guarded by numerous guards with weapons, horses, and war chariots. Thank God, to kill or bury the warriors of Shi-Huang Di after his death in 246 BC. did not, only molded their life-size copies from clay.
Centuries have passed. In the spring of 1974, residents of the Chinese province of Shaanxing on the outskirts of Xi'an were digging a well and stumbled upon a sinkhole. A tunnel was opened, which led to huge underground halls with clay sculptures.
The discovered army consists of more than seven thousand full-size statues of warriors and horses, which were buried in 210-209 BC. together with the Chinese ruler Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of feudal China. For the first time, he was able to unite seven separate states on the territory of the country under the rule of one ruler and founded a dynasty that ruled from 221 to 207 BC.
Historians believe that Qin was one of the most powerful and important rulers in Chinese history, but his tyranny and incredible brutality led to a massive peasant uprising soon after his death, which ended the dynasty. The terracotta army, buried together with its ruler, should probably have provided him with the opportunity to satisfy his imperious manners in the other world, just as he did during his lifetime. And although instead of living warriors, contrary to the usual tradition, their clay copies were buried together with the emperor, which is regarded by some specialists as a very progressive step, one should not forget that, in addition to the statues of warriors, together with Qin, according to various estimates, up to 70 thousand (!) Workers were buried together with their families, as well as about three thousand concubines. And these people, unlike the soldiers,were very real.
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An army of clay warriors rests in battle formation in parallel crypts 1.5 kilometers east of the tomb of the emperor himself. The latter, in turn, is located 33 km east of Xian, the modern administrative center of Shaanxi Province, one of the central provinces of China. The crypts, which are 4 to 8 meters deep, are now located on the territory of the respective museum. The first of them was opened to visitors back in 1979, and the entire museum became available only in 1994. To date, archaeologists have freed about 1,500 statues from the ground.
The fact that these are copies made from living people is confirmed not only by facial expressions, but also by anthropological features. They show a clear resemblance to the inhabitants of the central part of Shaanxi province: a wide forehead, a large mouth with thick lips, a short mustache …
Thousands of artisans were invited to the court to "populate" the imperial burials with the clay army. The sculpted statues were fired in a kiln. After that, for several days, they cooled down in a special room. Then they were painted, dressed in silk clothes, they were attached with wooden hands and weapons were attached. Wooden hands rotated freely in the shoulders - this made it easier to wield weapons in the afterlife battles.
All the statues are hollow inside. Qin Shi-huang-di masters painted them in accordance with the table of ranks. The soldiers are dressed in short robes and unadorned breast armor; their hair is tied in a knot, and they have windings and shoes with rectangular toes on their legs. The officers are wearing breastplate armor with jewelry, high hats, boots on their legs. Generals - in scaly armor with decorations and hats in the form of two birds. Shooters - with bows and crossbows, in bibs and short robes.
Riders, riders, shooters with weapons in their hands seem to be alive. The one and a half meter horses froze in anticipation of a swift throw … Despite the fact that the colors have faded greatly, the appearance of the figures testifies to a very high level of skill and talent of the ancient Chinese craftsmen. And there are about 6 thousand such statues!
Thousands of terracotta warriors restored by specialists and put on alert made up an amazing exposition, which was called the “eighth wonder of the world”.
The figures of the warriors are real creations of art, since they were made individually, by hand and using various techniques. Each individual statue has its own unique features and even facial expressions. After shaping, the statues were baked and covered with a special organic glaze, over which paint was applied. The presented warriors differ in rank (officers, ordinary soldiers), as well as in the type of weapon (spear, crossbow or sword).
In addition to the clay statues, in 1980, two bronze chariots were discovered 20 meters from the emperor's tomb, each of which consists of more than 300 parts. The chariots are drawn by four horses, the harness of which contains gold and silver elements. Soon after the death of the emperor, his tomb was plundered, and the fire caused by the robbers led to the collapse of the ceiling, burying the many thousand-strong clay army in moist soil for more than two thousand years (it should be noted, however, that the plundered tomb in reality could only be one of the "dummies" created to divert the eyes, and the real tomb should still be looked for. However, this is a slightly different story).
At the very first attempts to excavate the statues, scientists encountered a very sad phenomenon: in the air, the outer layer of the sculptures quickly degraded. According to Heinz Lanhols, an archaeologist at the University of Munich, "after being removed from the ground, the statues immediately begin to dry out, and literally five minutes later, their coloring begins to peel and peel off." This happens when the relative humidity of the environment drops to 84%. To clarify the reason for the observed phenomenon, scientists conducted a chemical analysis of the statues. It turned out that the reason for the instability of the paint is due to the fact that the organic composition used before painting has undergone irreversible chemical changes during a long stay in wet soil. Therefore, now, when it dries, it begins to peel off from the underlying base along with the pigment applied over it. To avoid degradation of the veil, Lanhols and his colleagues proposed the following technology.
The statues extracted from the ground are immediately placed in containers, the humidity in which is maintained at the same level as in the ground. Further, the entire surface of the sculptures is treated with an aqueous solution of a substance called hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA). The latter is a monomer of some of the plastics produced today. HEMA molecules are small and penetrate into the smallest pores filled with moisture. After this treatment, the statues are sent to the nearby town of Linton, where the particle accelerator is located.
With the help of the latter, the warriors are irradiated with high-energy electrons, which causes the polymerization of molecules and the formation of "glue", which firmly binds the covers of the statue to the underlying terracotta. The advantages of the described method are that the HEMA molecules are water-soluble and small enough to penetrate the smallest gaps, as well as the fact that the resulting polymer does not alter the appearance of the statues, as many other compositions do (for example, many such substances are applied like varnishes and, hardening, cause some surface gloss).
British scientist Maurice Cotterell believes that the hieroglyphs of the Chinese alphabet are encrypted in the expressions on the faces of the clay warriors, with the help of which Shih Huang Di tried to convey Taoist wisdom to the descendants. According to Cotterell, each constituent element of the clay army - from the order of formation to the smallest details of the vestments - has a strictly defined meaning.
In essence, the terracotta army is a kind of ancient book, and by deciphering its secret symbols, people will not only comprehend the meaning of life, but also learn about the future. According to Cotterell, "encryption" contains information about the location of the signs of the zodiac and astrological events, on the basis of which horoscopes can be drawn up at any given time. Who will undertake this work?