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The Imperial Burial Site

10 When archaeologist Yuan Zhongyi (yoo-ahn jong-ee) was sent to a field
in northern China to investigate some buried figurines, he thought he
would be there for around one week. But after digging in the ground for
a few days his team uncovered something. Extraordinary! It was a
gigantic pit covering almost 3.5 acres (14,300 square meters). It had a
wooden roof made out of pine logs and a floor paved with brick, and it
contained row upon row of life-size statues. They were an army of
warriors beautifully crafted out of baked clay known as terra-cotta.
Yuan Zhongyi soon realized that this must be part of the burial site of
Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi (chin shir hwong-dee) (259–210 B.C.E.). He
was the first emperor of China and was buried in a tomb in the area.

The Emperor

11 Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi was a major figure in
Chinese history—a leader, conqueror, and ruthless
tyrant. He successfully united six warring states into
the land of modern-day China. As soon as he became
emperor, Qin ordered 700,000 slave laborers to begin
working on the tomb in which he would one day be
buried, and he commanded craftsmen to make a
terra-cotta army to protect him in the afterlife.

The Excavation

12 Archaeologists continued digging at the site. In 1976
they found a second pit and then two more pits. One
of the pits was empty, but the others contained almost
8,000 statues. The archaeologists faced a huge task, Qin Shi Huangdi, first
and in order to protect the fragile figurines, they emperor of China and
temporarily refilled the new pits. Since then two of the founder of the Qin Dynasty
pits have been excavated. The figurines have been
displayed in Qin Shi Huangdi’s museum, which was
built near the site. It is now one of the greatest tourist
attractions in the world.

ruthless Someone who is ruthless shows no concern for other people and is very cruel.

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