Mysteries of the Terracotta Warriors
Kau Yan School, Gittings, Mark – 8
t’s been more than 40 years since some Chinese farmers discovered the Terracotta Warriors. In that
time, teams of archaeologists and scientists from all over the world have spent thousands of hours
studying this amazing discovery. But despite all their hard work, there are still lots of mysteries
which they haven’t been able to solve.
One mystery is why the Terracotta Warriors were made more than 2,200 years ago. We think that
the First Emperor of China called Qin Shi Huang, who is buried in a tomb a mile away from the
Terracotta Warriors, believed in life after death, so he wanted an army to protect him in his afterlife. But
we have no proof of this.
Another mystery is why no two out of the approximately 8,000 warriors are exactly the same. From a
distance, they look similar. But when you study them closely, there are little differences in their faces and
ears. We think that the emperor ordered the workers to copy from an army of real warriors, which
would explain why they are all different from each other. But again, we have no proof of this.
Yet another mystery is the way the warriors were painted. Over the past 2,200 years, much of the
paint has faded from the warriors. This makes life even more difficult for the archaeologists and scientists
trying to solve this mystery. Some paint still remains and, while most warriors have pink faces, there is
one strange warrior with a green face. Some experts believe this warrior was painted green by mistake.
Other experts think the green face was designed to frighten enemies away. But yet again, we have no
proof of this.
Still another mystery is why one of the pits is empty. Unlike the other three pits, pit number four
doesn’t have anything in it. Some people think that the emperor planned to bury criminals in this pit. But
no bones have been found, so this mystery is still unsolved.
Scientists have succeeded in solving some mysteries. For example, they recently used laser technology
to reveal the binding material used to stop the paint from falling off the warriors. That is an important
discovery because it will make it much easier to restore the warriors. Maybe in the future, the scientists
and archaeologists will succeed in solving some other of the other mysteries as well.
But the biggest mystery of all is what is hidden inside the nearby tomb of Qin Shi Huang, which has
still not been opened after thousands of years. According to a famous historian named Sima Quan, the
tomb contains a wonderful underground kingdom. But his writings also warn that the tomb is protected
by crossbow booby traps and 100 rivers of poisonous mercury. No one knows whether this is really true
or not. So until they excavate the tomb, this biggest mystery of all will remain unsolved.
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