Into the Dust Archaeology

Episode 41 - Terracotta Warriors Site Visit and Archaeology News

• Jason

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Episode Summary

This episode covers one of the ultimate archaeology site visits: the Terracotta Warriors, just outside of Xi'an, China. Created to guard the tomb of the infamous Emperor Qin Shi Huang, builder of the Great Wall of China, this veritable archaeological army was among the most significant archaeological finds of the 20th century. In this episode, we discover its history, its unlikely discovery by a farmer, and how to visit.

Also, in Archaeology News, we look at 3 recent archaeological discoveries making headlines in the archaeology world:

1) DNA Study sheds light on who the Silk Road Sogdian people were
2) Innovative Indigenous Archaeology project in Australia
3) One of the best intact and oldest Neolithic villages discovered in the French Riviera

Useful Links:

  • All you need to know about the Terracotta Army: Smithsonian
  • Who were the Sodgians? HERE
  • Australian Aboriginal Archaeology HERE
  • Neolithic village in France HERE


Watch the video version (it's better!): https://www.youtube.com/@Into_the-Dust_Arch

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#archaeology #archeology #archaeologicaldiscoveries #ancienthistory #traveltips

Welcome to the Into the Dust Archaeology podcast. As you'll be able to tell, this is best meant as a video. So if you'd like to see the visuals, please check me out on YouTube at Into the Dust Archaeology. Happy listening. All right. For today's site visit, we are going to visit one, if not the most famous archaeological discovery of the 20th century. And it's a site most of you have probably heard of, but not that many outsiders actually come to visit, and it is a sight to behold. Picture this. You are standing face to face with rows upon rows of thousands of identical, monochromatically colored soldiers standing in formation, ready for action. No, no, no, not those soldiers, these soldiers, the famous terracotta warriors. However, two small corrections. First of all, they're not identical, even though from afar they look that way. And secondly, they're not monochromatic. They were actually initially painted, but more about that later. For this story, we are going right to the middle of China to a city I know well because I lived there for a year. It's a home of 13 dynasties in Chinese history, so a major historical city, and some of China's best food. This is Xi'an. But 2,400 years ago, before Xi'an became a great city, the fifth dynasty in Chinese history, the Qin dynasty, had its capital in Shenyang, just to the west of present-day Xi'an, actually where the airport is located nowadays. Its founder, Qin Shi Huang, ruled with an iron fist and unified the whole country such as it was at the time. You see, after the previous Zhou dynasty collapsed, it had descended into a chaotic mess of small warring states. And Qin Shi Huang unified all of this. In fact, he was the first emperor of China to call himself Emperor Huangdi. Before that, they were simply known as King Huang. And like many great leaders, he was a builder. That's what I do is I build. I was always very good at building. It was always my best thing. I think better than being president, I was maybe good at building. You surely know probably his greatest building project, a little thing called the Great Wall of China. Though what you see today is largely the result of other dynasties work. In Qin Shi Huang's time, it looked more like this because it was largely made of rammed earth. He was renowned for his cruelty. reportedly killing philosophers, burning books, and committing all kinds of other atrocities. However, some of this was definitely exaggerated by the A'han dynasty that followed him. They usually look to vilify the previous dynasty and modern communist anti-imperialist propaganda. However, the sources all agree he was a hard dude and therefore he's generally seen as a villain today. However, his reign did not last long. He died on the throne just after 11 years, and his son and successor committed suicide just a few years after that. So the whole dynasty only lasted 14 years, but boy did it leave quite a legacy on the Chinese landscape. But although he died just age 49, Qin Shi Huang had a little obsession with living forever, and hence he set out numerous search parties in all directions looking for the so-called elixir of life. a brew that was created by a mythical white rabbit and said to confer eternal life. Now that's whack. But failing that, he planned to live forever in the afterlife, and hence he had an enormous tomb built to simulate the entire royal court staffed with soldiers, attendants, servants, et cetera, so he would have everything he needed for eternity. It must have been magnificent. But after the dynasty was defeated in 207 BC, the capital at Shenyang was burned and the enormous tomb of Qin Shi Huang was abandoned, slowly covered up by the lowest soil and forgotten. some things that should not Which brings us to March 29th, 1974, when a group of Chinese farmers, then working in a collective work group under Chinese communism, were digging a well east of Xi'an. When one of them, Yang Jiefa, struck something with his hoe and discovered the headless statue of Terracotta. They were aware of the emperor's tomb mound, that was known, but that was about two kilometers away. And trust me, it did not look like that in the 1970s. The local villagers were superstitious and thought digging up old stuff like this would bring bad fortune upon the community. However, Yang knew better and he made his way to the local museum at Lintong. The staff there paid him 10 RMB or a dollar 40 today per cartload of stuff that he brought in. Now, back in that time when China was very impoverished, that was actually a healthy sum. And with each cartload, it became more and more clear that they were dealing with a major site, perhaps connected with the emperor's tomb. So finally, on April 25th of that year, the archaeologist self-taught from the local museum, Zhao Kangmin, arrived on site. When he arrived, he saw pieces of the statue being kept by villagers as souvenirs. Some of them just tossed away, and even small kids playing with some of the fragments. and he knew something was up because he had previously excavated three statues, terracotta of kneeling archers nearby. However, that was way back in 1962. And since then, China had continued to undergo the Cultural Revolution in which the communist Red Guards aimed to destroy all vestiges of Chinese culture. So Kangmin tried to keep his threadbare excavations quiet. so no one would come to destroy the site. But soon word got out. Luckily, the megalomaniacal dictator Mao Zedong was infirm at this point and would be dead in two years. So the Cultural Revolution was winding down and rather than destroying the site, real excavations began. Pretty soon the association with Emperor Qin Shi Huang became apparent as hundreds and hundreds of these terracotta figures were pulled from the ground. and it was figured that this must have been part of the Royal Necropolis. And as the word spread, these terracotta warriors soon became international superstars. A museum opened up on site as early as 1979, presumably several iterations before the one that you can visit today. The site has drawn millions and millions of visitors, mostly domestic, but also a lot of high-profile international visitors. This right here is our farmer, Yang Jiffa, along with US President Bill Clinton. Yang used to drop by the site fairly frequently back when I lived there, but given that he's over 90 years old today, you probably won't see him on your visit. And what exactly was uncovered after all was said and done after all the excavations? First of all, lots of life-sized terracotta warriors, about 2,000 of them. They range from about 175 to 200 centimeters or five foot seven to six foot six tall with the larger ones usually have a higher rank. Yes, that's right. They designed this to be a functioning army with a hierarchy. So there are generals and other officers, infantry armored and unarmored, cavalrymen with a pillbox hat, helmeted chariot drivers, spear carrying charioteers. kneeling crossbowmen, armored archers, and standing archers without armor. Though there are about 10 base style faces, these were then individualized in slight ways to make them all unique. And a 21 study of the facial morphology of people in the nearby region in China showed that they bore a strong resemblance to those of the terracotta warriors. and they weren't all soldiers. There are also 11 of what are interpreted as acrobats or dancers, which display a bit more individuality, anatomical correctness, and sculptor skill with motion. And there also are some non-martial imperial administrators. After all, in such a centralized state, you needed these people for the smooth functioning of affairs. And as there are cavalry and chariots, there are, of course, plenty of horses. some of mounted, some unmounted, some on chariots, and some in formation with the soldiers. Also, as this is an army, most of the soldiers had real weaponry, though these were either looted long ago or rotted away. However, some intact armor, helmets, and swords, among other weapons, have been found. More than 40,000 arrowheads were found clustered in groups of 100. And recent research has shown that these different clusters were manufactured together in a cellular manufacturing type system that you might find in a Toyota factory today. All of these are arranged in four main pits that are fully excavated and open for viewing. But some of what you can't see is equally interesting. There was an area of cranes, ducks and other such birds arranged almost as if in a park. And there are also other terracotta attendance kneeling near them. So perhaps this is reflective of one of the emperor's pastimes. There were also pits with bones of some exotic animals, so that maybe suggested the emperor liked hunting. Now this is all pretty overwhelming, I know, but believe it or not, that is not even the half of it. In fact, it's estimated to be just about a quarter of what's under there. Archaeologists estimate that there are many as 8,000 soldiers in total. 130 chariots pulled by 520 horses, and 150 cavalry horses besides. But as such a big chunk of the site is already excavated, why not just finish the job? Actually, when they were made, they were brightly colored, with a lot of the paint visible when they first were unearthed. However, exposed to the air, the paint faded and peeled off, sometimes even within minutes. And some of the colors were rather garish, as a 2015 study revealed the kneeling crossbow men to be rather festive? As part of the exhibit, you can see some reconstructions of what a fully painted soldier might have looked like. And for this reason, the rest of the site, and of course, the emperor's tomb itself, has not been excavated. Archaeologists want to be sure they can properly preserve the paint and whatever else might be in there. before opening everything up. And as breathtaking as what you can actually see is, what's still underneath the ground must be a maze balls. You see, geophysical surveys aiming to get these sort of boundary and full extent of the site, they estimated to be as large as 38 square miles or 98 square kilometers. So what we can only imagine what's still beneath the earth. So hesitating to excavate is actually a pretty responsible course of action. Also found in another nearby pit in 2003 and understandably not available for viewing, there was a pit of 121 skeletons found. And these were all men usually age 15 to 40 with a lot of signs of wear and tear and hard labor on their bones. And as such, they are usually interpreted to have been workers. which kind of belies the usual myth that the workers were killed to preserve the site's secrecy, because these skeletons had no visible signs of violence on them. They probably just died of overwork, exhaustion, and disease. Moreover, recent ancient DNA testing on the skeletons showed that they were, a lot of them, from minority groups, particularly in southern China, and we discussed some of that a few weeks ago in archaeology news. So this makes it appear like they were probably enslaved and captured prisoners, perhaps from some of Qin Shi Huang's warring abroad. I'm telling you, this Qin Shi Huang was a real hard ass. And trust me, despite the fact that most of the site is still underground, it is definitely awe-inspiring, something you will not forget. The Terracotta Warriors are located about 45 minutes outside of downtown, and there's not much in the way of public transportation to get there, so you're probably going to want to get a tour. However, those are not particularly difficult to find in Xi'an. And those tours usually come with a guide, which, broken record alert, you're not going to want to do without at a site of this size and complexity. But if you really don't want to do that, at least get the audio guide. It costs like three or four dollars. In terms of visiting, it's a bit of a mixed bag. Now, the site and the museum have been upgraded in the 20 years since I've been there. So presumably they've changed out the really tacky Disney like video. However, that pyramid in Sphinx is still there, so who knows. There's also cheesy photo ops and what looks to be a majorly tacky stage performance. The museum and the pits themselves probably require a minimum of two hours, though more like three if you're really into it. The site of the mausoleum is also visitable, but as that was never actually opened, it's more of just a park experience with some informational signage. Honestly, however, the most impressive part is just standing at the pit, gazing out over the massive formation. And there's a section where you can come level with the soldiers as well. That's what will stay with you, I think. Otherwise, Xi'an is an amazing ancient city with the defensive walls still standing, a vibrant Muslim or Huimin minority with their own quarter and their own mosque, and plenty of other historical sites. though a lot of the rampant development has taken away much of the city's charm. And don't forget to sample some of the Rójiá Mó, Biáng Biáng Míyán, and other local delights while you're there. So there you have it, the Terracotta Army, one of the most amazing archaeological discoveries of all time. And we don't even know the half of it. Archaeology News, the news you can trust. All right, for today's archaeology news, we have a bunch of stories from around the globe because it has been a busy 2025 thus far. We're going to start out right in the middle in an area at the heart of the Silk Road in Central Asia called Sogdiana. And this is right in the present day stand. So Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, etc. And the people who hailed from there were known as Sogdians, but not much is actually known about them. They were merchants and traders who rose to prominence during the golden age of the Silk Road from the seventh to 10th centuries AD when the Tang dynasty in China was also at its peak. And I have a warm place in my heart for Xi'an, China, as I did live there for a time. Now, the Sogdians were depicted in art spanning the full length of the Silk Road from Persia to China. And here's a depiction of those Sogdians at Persepolis. the old ceremonial capital of the Persian Empire, which was eventually captured by Alexander the Great. And in this view, they look pretty well Persian, right? Right. But they were also shown in artwork and paintings way over in China, and here they're shown in a very Chinese style. However, a new ancient DNA study into two Sogdian individuals found buried together in a tomb shed some light on all of this. I do think it's being a little bit oversold, but more about that later. The tomb was discovered in Ningxia, which is sort of in the middle of China, not too far from that Tang dynasty capital in Xian. So this is far outside of the Sogdian heartlands in Central Asia. Excavated back in 2014, the tomb was full of the sorts of material culture that's now associated with the Sogdians, like these figurines, but also symbols of their place in Chinese society, like these Tang dynasty coins. However, the ADNA results reported in the publication do add an interesting twist. You see, we're used to putting people in boxes thinking of them as genetically harmonious, like this ethnic group came from here and they are from this line of descent. However, there are many ethnic groups who migrate and there are also those known as middlemen minorities. These are groups who are widely dispersed in many different societies, often engaged in trade and commerce. And for these types of folk, genetic homogeneity might not really be an option. For example, Jewish people across the world look very different despite a lot of shared cultural and religious traditions. And this is basically what the study found. If you look at the man's descent, he looks like a Central Asian based on his ADNA. However, the woman looks typically East Asian, what you'd find among the Chinese. And that's what we saw a few weeks ago with our episode about the Avar DNA project. Remember, the Avars were also Central Asians who transplanted themselves elsewhere. In their case, they were in Europe, and they overlapped in time with the Sogdians. Now, they remained quite culturally distinct, but as we saw, some of them did intermarry with local women. And in my own work, we're seeing this in early medieval England, where people buried in a purely Anglo-Saxon style are actually of Celtic or mixed descent. However, my gripe with this paper is what I mentioned earlier. These conclusions are drawn from just two burials taken to be man and wife based on how they're buried together. Huge errors of interpretation based on just a few genetic samples have been made before, including one particularly egregious case which messed with the entire history and cultural identity of the island nation of Vanuatu, causing it to be rewritten and rewritten again. So it's a cool paper and project, but let's not jump to conclusions, all right? The next story weaves together a few different themes we've discussed before, including indigenous archaeology and micro-ware analysis. Now for this one, we are off to Sunbury, which is a suburb of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. And this sits right in the traditional homeland of the Roorungeri Woi Roorung people. Sorry, I know I botched that, but as I've never heard a lot of Australian Aboriginal names pronounced properly, pardon my ignorance. Anyway, so this particular group of Aboriginal people is represented by the Wurundjeri Woiwurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation, who represents the group's interests in the area and protects their cultural heritage. And one thing this area has lots of earthworks, essentially raised circular mounds that have been there for who knows how long and for what purpose, we don't know. There used to be hundreds of them all around. but a lot of development and lack of preservation means just about 100 remain. And as my personal focus is England, this is not something entirely unknown to me. You see, the country is dotted with these circular earthworks and enclosures. For example, this one at the Trundle, which is a Neolithic earthwork within an Iron Age hill fort in West Sussex in the south of the country. I did a survey there in 2023. No one knows what either the Neolithic earthworks or the Iron Age hill fort were actually for, but that's another story. Well, that's the same thing for these Aboriginal earthen circles in this area of Victoria. No one is quite sure what they signify. So in a sign of the times with the improving relationships generally between Aboriginal groups and archaeologists, the Wurundjeri Woiwurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation and a group of archaeologists from all over Australia, from different universities, collaborated to try to figure this question out. What do these earthworks mean? Many previous excavation surveys and studies of the earthworks have been done in the past, presumably without collaboration of the local indigenous people. And these have indicated some of the archaeological remains to be as old as 15,000 years. And in one of those studies in 1979, A group of archaeologists excavated what was known as Sunbury Ring G and found tons of stone artifacts. The current study aimed to date the mound more precisely and study the artifacts. So first for the dating, the team re-excavated the mound, collecting in the process lots of layers of rocks and sediment. And remember, those layers are called stratigraphy, really the bread and butter of archaeology. And if you want to know more about that, look at my ABCs of archaeology episode about that topic. And in the absence of really a lot of organic remains, the team relied on something called optically stimulated luminescence, which is a way of dating where you can estimate the last time I believe that the sun struck the rocks in the formation. So they were buried after that. and that indicated the mound to be anywhere from 590 to 1400 years old. They also analyzed the many stone artifacts found on site, using lithic studies to try to figure out the purpose of stone tools, looking for signs of heat and residues, and at the micro-ware patterns. Putting all these analyses together, they identified some of the stone tools as for ceremonial scarring of human skin and or to create bird feather adornments, while others were used to process animal remains for consumption, basically butchering. Also, some of the fragments had been subject to intense heat, suggesting that campfires were built in this area. It's important to understand that these observations and interpretations were not made just using the science alone, but actually in close consultation with the aboriginal groups who did weave in their cultural practices and memories to aid in the interpretation. Hence, this study establishes this locality as a place where the ancestors of the Woi-ru-run-speaking people lived and worked, traveled to and through for both practical and ritual purposes. And you can take a drink. But seriously, this is another powerful and encouraging example of Indigenous archaeology at work with professional archaeologists. And finally, let's go for some fun in the sun in the French Riviera, where it appears our ancient ancestors did very much the same thing. The specific site is found in Cavalier-sur-Mer, not far from the famous town of Saint-Tropez. And here, an urban rehabilitation project was taken place in this town center. which doesn't particularly surprise me as a lot of these towns, though beautiful naturally, are graced with architecture from the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. And of course, in old Europe, when you build something, you definitely need to have an archaeological survey done. I think that's old Europe. Now, in the US or UK, this is typically done by private contractors, but in France, it's usually the job of the government. The agency in this case is known as INRA. That's the National Institute for Preventative Archaeological Research, which is what they call rescue archaeology, preventative. And they found something pretty amazing in this place. Perhaps the best preserved Neolithic village in Europe and the second oldest one found in France. And it is from the Cargile culture. But what does that mean, Cargile? Remember, in archaeology, when we're looking at really ancient prehistoric cultures and societies, We often name them by what their pottery looked like because that's usually all that survives or the best surviving stuff. And in this case, we call it cardinal because it's decorated with motifs that are made using the cardium shell. Now, I never knew that's what it was called, but trust me, you've seen these things before at the beach. This cardinal culture spread from Anatolia, which is present day Turkey. westward along the Mediterranean about 8,500 years ago, and it lasted for about a thousand years. Now, it's not the sexiest stuff, but it is definitely distinct from other pottery cultures you would have found in Europe in the Mediterranean during this time. So during the early construction phases on this project or maybe in the pre-construction survey, somebody noticed something funny at a depth of about four meters or 13 feet and decided to call the excavation team in. The dead giveaway was certainly these shards of clearly cardinal wear pottery, but that was only the beginning. They then discovered a house with two parallel stone walls and an apse measuring five by seven meters or 16 to 23 feet. And as archaeologists dug away to try to find the edges of the site, they eventually uncovered an extensive area of 4,200 meters squared or 46,000 square feet. It was huge. Really too much to handle, actually. That's what she said. Seriously, though, the dig continued through the end of 2024, and as far as I know, is still ongoing. Dating evidence points to about 4800 BC or almost 7000 years ago. And the way the houses are designed do have parallels of stuff found in Italy. Only one older example from the early Cargill period was found in France, and it's not as extensive as this site. Due to development and preservation, open-air sites like this are rare. Most sites from this period in time are found in caves because that's usually better preserved, and we've seen a lot of those already on the show. Anyway, that'll do it for this episode of Archaeology News. We've been to China and Central Asia, Australia and France, so it is time to give it a rest. Hey, if you like what you heard, give me that thumbs up below, hit that bell to subscribe, or if you want to support more independent archeology content, consider contributing to my Patreon, where you can enjoy some exclusive members only benefits and other goodies. Until the next dig.