How many terracotta pits have been excavated so far?

Up to now, the Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses have excavated three mercenary pits. They were named Pit No. 1, Pit No. 2 and Pit No. 3 respectively.

The Terracotta Warriors and Horses, also referred to as the Terracotta Warriors or Qin Warriors, the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units, the first batch of China's world heritage sites, is located in the terracotta warriors and horses pit thousands of kilometers east of the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang in Lintong District, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province.

Terracotta warriors and horses are a category of ancient tomb sculpture. In ancient times, human martyrdom was practiced, and slaves were accessories of slave owners during their lifetimes, and slaves should be used as burial objects for slave owners after the death of slave owners. Terracotta warriors and horses are funerary objects made in the shape of terracotta horses (chariots, war horses, soldiers).

On March 4, 1961, the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang was announced as the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units. In March 1974, the Terracotta Warriors were discovered. In 1987, the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang and the Terracotta Warriors and Horses Pit were approved by UNESCO to be included in the "World Heritage List", and was known as the "Eighth Wonder of the World", which has been visited by more than 200 foreign heads of state and heads of state, becoming a golden business card of China's glorious civilization in China, and is known as one of the world's eight rare treasures of ancient tombs.

There are more than 8,000 terracotta warriors and horses in the No. 1 pit of the Terracotta Warriors.

In March 1974, farmers in Xiyang Village, Lintong District, stumbled upon the fragments of terracotta figurines buried in the past while digging a well. After more than a year of exploration and test excavation by archaeologists in Chaquewan, it was confirmed that it was a large figurine pit, that is, the No. 1 terracotta warrior pit.

The No. 1 figurine pit is 230 meters long from east to west, 62 meters wide from north to south, and is 14,260 square meters deep from the current surface. According to the calculation of the arrangement density of the unearthed terracotta figurines and pottery horses in the test excavation, there are about 6,000 pieces of terracotta figurines and pottery horses buried in the No. 1 terracotta warriors pit, and there are also a large number of bronze weapons.

Artistic value

Arousing the shock and attention of the whole world, these terracotta figurines and pottery horses organized according to the military formation at that time provided vivid material materials for the study of the military establishment, combat methods, and cavalry equipment of the Qin Dynasty. The discovery of the Terracotta Warriors has been hailed as "the eighth wonder of the world" and "one of the great discoveries in the archaeological history of the twentieth century".

The Terracotta Warriors and Horses of the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang are a treasure trove of world human culture comparable to Egyptian pyramids and ancient Greek sculptures, and its discovery itself is one of China's most spectacular archaeological achievements of the 20th century. They fully express the artistic talent of the Chinese people more than 2,000 years ago, and are the pride and precious wealth of the Chinese nation.

The Terracotta Warriors and Horses Pit is an underground tunnel-type civil structure building, that is, a large pit about 5 meters deep is dug from the ground, and parallel earthen partition walls are built in the middle of the pit. Wooden columns are arranged on both sides of the wall, and horizontal timbers are placed on the columns, and the horizontal timber and earthen partition walls are densely covered with canopy wood, and a layer of reed mats is laid on the canopy wood, and then covered with loess, thus forming the top of the pit, which is about 2 meters above the surface of the ground at that time. The bottom of the figurine pit is paved with blue bricks.

The height of the space from the top of the pit to the inside of the pit bottom is meters. After the terracotta figurines and pottery horses are put into the figurine pit, the doorway around is blocked with standing wood, and the doorway is filled with rammed earth, so a closed underground building is formed.

From Encyclopedia.