Clay Armies

Xi’an -of course- is most well known for its full-size, subterranean terra cotta warriors. Famously, no two of the soldiers are alike, each one of their eight thousands faces was individually sculpted. One of the cooler aspects of the Terra Cotta Warrior experience is that visitors view most of the soldiers right where they were put 2,200 years ago and right where they were found forty years ago. Unlike other great antiquities, such as King Tut, the Terra Cotta Warriors have not been removed and relegated to distant museums. Instead, the museum –essentially a giant airplane hangar- was built right over the burial site. Some of the warriors have been purposely left half excavated so that the visitor can see the terra cotta artifacts in various states of excavation.

The result is that visitors get two amazing experience. They get to revel in the wonder of these 2200-year-old life-size figurines and the colossal force of will that must have been required to bring about the creation of such an extensive engineering feat. But the visitor also gets to experience a little bit of the excitement of discovery -discovery that is ongoing. Granted it’s archeology that is so slow that it appears to be at a standstill to the untrained eye.

Several years ago a German art student dressed himself up like a terra cotta warrior. Somehow he snuck passed security and managed to stand in formation with real terra cotta warriors for several minutes before he was discovered and promptly removed.

Genius.

I was seriously tempted, but realized that I had left my terra cotta warrior outfit at the cleaners.