If you’ve ever been to PF Chang restaurant, you’ve undoubtedly seen a replica of one these guys standing around in the restaurant. This week’s picture of the week is of one of the Terracotta Warriors which can be found near Xi’an (she-ann), China… and is hands down one of the most impressive man made things I’ve ever seen in my life; second only to the Moai of Easter Island.
The Terracotta Army is funerary art, created by slaves of the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, and were placed in his tomb to guard him in the afterlife. What was utterly fascinating about this was this emperor literally spent his entire life having these created so they could all be buried with him… and there are thousands of them! The archaeological site is now housed in these huge hangars with all the soldiers standing in the pits where they were found. It is truly an amazing sight to behold. The general thought is that the bodies were all made from molds, but the heads were all hand made… no two are alike. Archaeologists believe that the creators of the heads likely used each other as models, so what you are seeing here is the face of a man who lived over 2000 years ago (around 210 BC)! Pretty crazy stuff!
–Dan Thompson