Armored Kneeling Archer, Teracotta, Qin dynasty (221-206 BCE), China. Terracotta.
This Kneeling Archer, one of many terra-cotta figures, was excavated from Pit Number 2 at the Qin Shihuang Tomb Complex in 1977.
These remarkable figures are representatives of the army amassed by China’s First Emperor Qin Shi Huang some 2,200 years ago to guard him in the afterworld. Though Qin Shi Huang lived to be just 49, he is a pivotal figure in Chinese history—responsible for unifying all of China under one powerful leader and creating a legacy of a centralized bureaucratic state that was carried on to successive dynasties over two millennia.
Obsessed with the concept of immortality, he began to make plans for his immense burial complex at a young age while greatly expanding his power base in real terms. By defeating or allying with the seven independent warring principalities that had battled among themselves for generations, he ended China’s brutal Warring States period (475-221 B.C.) and creating a vast kingdom.
It is near Xian, that he built his massive mausoleum guarded by the Terra Cotta warriors. At 250,000 sq. ft., it’s the length of four football fields, and includes a replica of the imperial palace with stables, offices, an armory, an amusement park, a zoo, and an aviary filled with elegant bronze replicas of waterfowl.