Document-Based Questions - Debra J. Housel, M.S. Ed. 2008

Qin’s Terracotta Army
Amazing Discoveries

In 1974, some farmers dug a well near Xi’an, a city in northern China. As they worked, they uncovered something surprising. Buried in the ground were several lifelike pottery heads! The men took the heads home. They told others. Soon archaeologists came to study them. They started digging in the same place. They hoped to unearth more heads. What they found amazed the world.

They uncovered a huge pit. It had a brick floor and a roof of thick pine logs. Inside stood rows of hundreds of life-size warriors. They were made of terracotta, a baked clay. But they looked so real that they seemed to be an army frozen in time. And humans weren’t the only statues. There were chariots and horses, too.

Each soldier in the Terracotta Army can be told apart from all the others! Their heads were made from one of 12 molds. But eyes, noses, and hair were carved by hand to give each one a unique look. Armor and arm and leg positions added variety as well. Each figure was painted and had a bronze sword, crossbow, or spear. In most cases the paint is gone. And many of the wooden weapons have rotted. But it is still an amazing army. It guards Emperor Qin’s tomb. Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi lived from 259 to 210 BCE He was the first Chinese emperor. He came to power at the age of 13. He immediately had 720,000 slaves start making his tomb. At the same time, he told craftsmen to make a terracotta army to serve him in the afterlife. It took the workers 37 years to fulfill his wishes.

In 1976 archaeologists found three more pits. One was empty. The other two held nearly 8,000 statues! To protect them, the people built a museum over these pits. It is now one of the world’s most popular tourist sites. The discovery of his amazing army has given Qin the immortality he had hoped for.

People have not yet begun to uncover Qin’s tomb. It is actually bigger than the Great Pyramid in Egypt! It looks like a hill covered in grass and bushes. But hidden below is a whole city with clay people. A Chinese writer wrote about the tomb. He said that Qin’s underground palace was the same as the one in which he had lived. Filled with gold and silver, it has ceilings twinkling with gems and pearls.

Qin’s Terracotta Army

Qin’s Terracotta Army

1. Qin Shi Huangdi was the

a. last Chinese emperor.

b. first Chinese emperor.

c. name of the place where the emperor’s terracotta army was found.

d. name of the emperor’s palace.

2. Terracotta is a type of

a. wood.

b. metal.

c. clay.

d. glass.

3. You can tell that the emperor

a. believed that there was an afterlife.

b. thought that his tomb was too big.

c. enjoyed riding horses.

d. wasn’t proud of his terracotta army.

4. Each soldier in the terracotta army looks identical to all the others. True or False? Explain.

5. Look at the photo of the terracotta army. In some cases it looks as if the soldier is holding something. Yet nothing is there. Why?

6. Would you like to travel to China to see the terracotta army for yourself? Why or why not?