The face that China's museum sector presents to the world might have looked very different had a farm labourer chosen another part of a remote field in which to dig a well back in 1974. Depending on which version you hear, his shovel either jarred against the head of a clay soldier or he simply yanked a broken leg up out of the ground.
More than 30 years and 40 million visitors later, the Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum in Xian, the capital of Shaanxi province, has become one of China's major tourist attractions.
The success of the terracotta warriors as an attraction has also inspired museums across the country to modernise and open their doors to foreign investment and technology. The labourer has become something of a celebrity too, and now sits in one of the museum's four major halls signing books. A quarter of all visitors come from overseas and on a good day 10,000 people visit.
The profile of the terracotta warriors looks likely to increase even further soon. The museum is bound to get more visitors when Beijing hosts the Olympic Games in 2008 and for those who can't make it to China, the British Museum has just successfully negotiated to bring a large number of the warriors to the UK as part of an exhibition on Emperor Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor of China. An agreement has now been reached with the Chinese authorities, and the exhibition is to open in September 2007.
The terracotta warriors have been described as the greatest archaeological find of the 20th century. A basic museum was opened on the site in less than a year after the discovery and Unesco listed it as a World Heritage Site in 1987. But visitors of even ten years ago would not recognise today's 21st century, shining construction.
The warriors are housed in a vast complex that covers 200,000 sq metres and includes acres of pleasantly landscaped grounds accompanied, inevitably in modern China, by an equally substantial shopping plaza.
The terracotta figures were entombed - along with the living architects and contemporary equivalents of the site's project managers - to accompany Emperor Qin into the afterlife. Qin began work on the warriors when he ascended the throne aged 13 in 246BC, employing 700,000 slaves over 38 years.
He was a busy man: he also initiated construction of the Great Wall of China and was responsible for unifying a number of warring factions into what would become China, and for producing the first unified version of Chinese characters. It is thought that Qin's vision lasted just 50 years, before his tomb was ransacked and burned during a peasant uprising.
Today's visitors are greeted by a museum representing the new China - four monumental halls, with displays generally laid out to western levels of interpretation. The pits are five to seven metres beneath ground level with the terracotta figures placed in corridors divided by earthen and wooden partition walls and paved with grey-blue pottery bricks. The earth walls originally sustained wooden roofs that featured huge rafters (the imprints are visible).
The largest and most famous pit holds the infantry. So far, about 2,000 soldiers have been uncovered and restored. Up to 4,000 more are believed to lie underneath, awaiting restoration. A 'warrior hospital' is on public display at the rear of the aircraft hangar-style hall, where staff attempt the Herculean task of piecing together broken limbs and heads.
The second pit is L-shaped and consists of infantry, cavalry, archers and charioteers, with crossbow archers and heavily armoured kneeling figurines. Pit three is smaller and has just 70 warriors, thought to be the officer class.
The final hall houses a stupendous horse-driven chariot, which may have been intended to carry the emperor's soul into the afterlife. A fourth pit was found empty, and museum staff believe this indicates Qin had plans to expand even further at the time of his death.
The museum continues to grow. The Chinese government has provided the equivalent of £55m towards the construction of three additional museums to house the statues of acrobats, civil servants and warriors found close to the emperor's tomb a mile away from the main museum. The government is currently buying up the houses of local villagers, and the museums are expected to open within ten years.
For now, plans to excavate the emperor's tomb, which lies under a tree-covered hill, have been put on hold. For archaeologists around the world, this delay is all but unbearable. This tomb is believed to contain a vast array of treasures, including a map of the earth with rivers made of mercury, eternal lamps, and Indiana Jones-style booby traps with crossbows to attack the unwary.
But the decision is defended by Jin Kai, a senior education curator and guide at the museum. 'The technology does not exist yet that is appropriate,' he says. 'If we open the tomb and the treasures are lost, they stay lost. We think it is better to wait for the next generation to open it.'
If and when the tomb is open, it will be Chinese archaeologists who do the work. The museum has in recent years embraced western technology and financial support, but rebuffs requests by foreign archaeologists to work on the soldiers. 'This is a patriotic museum,' says Kai. 'So far, only Chinese experts work here; there's a sense that this is our own business.'
While some examples of good quality methods, such as humidity monitors, are visible, the pressing issue for the museum's 50 resident experts in archaeology and preservation is conservation. 'It's the biggest challenge we face,' says Kai. 'Visitors can bring bacteria ,which falls onto the soldiers, and the carbon dioxide they breathe out can create small areas of pollution. If one day we have the money, we will introduce air conditioning and humidifiers to pit number one.'
Foreign help has been welcomed: a Belgium organisation introduced a method of treating mould; the Cultural Relics Office of Bavaria of Germany created techniques that have successfully prevented the original paint on the statues from fading and flaking while other German assistance has bolstered the walls of the pits, which are prone to drying out. And staff from the museum have been sent overseas for training.
In a further indication of a readiness to open up to the west, the museum has recently started to welcome volunteers, to work alongside its staff. Placements of between two and four weeks are arranged through 'i-to-i', a British company that organises volunteering work overseas for people of all ages. While the work is not technical - entering the pits is off limits and volunteers often act as tour guides for English-speaking parties - it offers a valuable insight into the museum.
'It's totally worthwhile,' says Nicky Temple, who is working at the museum after completing a masters degree in archaeology, in which she specialised in museum presentation and interpretation. 'What other chance would I have to work in a world heritage site?'
Such placements also offer an insight into the Chinese approach to archaeology. 'When I arrived, I was amazed that they hadn't opened the emperor's tomb, as it had been known about for 20 years,' says Temple. 'But after a while, I could see their point. Maybe, in the west, we do rush in sometimes.'
The Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum appears to act as a 'headline brand', emphasising Xian's important role in Chinese history and attracting funding and international attention to other institutions within the city. Xian and its predecessor cities in the same area were the political, economic and cultural centre of what was to become China for 2,000 years. 'Sometimes we help smaller museums in Xian,' says Kai. 'We provide money or advice - there are museums that do not get many visitors.'
The best example of the positive effect on other institutions is the Shaanxi History Museum in Xian, which opened in 1991 and is recognised by Unesco and other organisations as China's first 'modern' museum. It was the first to truly meet international standards in terms of display cabinets, preservation and environmental control. The museum, located in a graceful Tang-style building, is home to 370,000 cultural relics, ranging from burial items from the early Shang and Zhou dynasties to unicorns from the 4th century BC.
In spite of the importance of the terracotta warriors on the development of the country's museums, for the Chinese they are more than just a museum. 'When young students visit our museum they see the cultural relics of their ancestors and see that they were so smart and clever, they become aware of their history and are just so proud.' says Kai.
And with the British Museum bringing some of the warriors to the UK and the interest that will be created during the 2008 Olympics, even more people will have a chance to seem them.
Mark Rowe is a freelance journalist
For more information on placements offered at the Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum contact i-to-i (tel: 0800 011 1156)
www.i-to-i.com Terracotta Warrior Museum website www.bmy.com.cn/index_eng.htm
More than 30 years and 40 million visitors later, the Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum in Xian, the capital of Shaanxi province, has become one of China's major tourist attractions.
The success of the terracotta warriors as an attraction has also inspired museums across the country to modernise and open their doors to foreign investment and technology. The labourer has become something of a celebrity too, and now sits in one of the museum's four major halls signing books. A quarter of all visitors come from overseas and on a good day 10,000 people visit.
The profile of the terracotta warriors looks likely to increase even further soon. The museum is bound to get more visitors when Beijing hosts the Olympic Games in 2008 and for those who can't make it to China, the British Museum has just successfully negotiated to bring a large number of the warriors to the UK as part of an exhibition on Emperor Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor of China. An agreement has now been reached with the Chinese authorities, and the exhibition is to open in September 2007.
The terracotta warriors have been described as the greatest archaeological find of the 20th century. A basic museum was opened on the site in less than a year after the discovery and Unesco listed it as a World Heritage Site in 1987. But visitors of even ten years ago would not recognise today's 21st century, shining construction.
The warriors are housed in a vast complex that covers 200,000 sq metres and includes acres of pleasantly landscaped grounds accompanied, inevitably in modern China, by an equally substantial shopping plaza.
The terracotta figures were entombed - along with the living architects and contemporary equivalents of the site's project managers - to accompany Emperor Qin into the afterlife. Qin began work on the warriors when he ascended the throne aged 13 in 246BC, employing 700,000 slaves over 38 years.
He was a busy man: he also initiated construction of the Great Wall of China and was responsible for unifying a number of warring factions into what would become China, and for producing the first unified version of Chinese characters. It is thought that Qin's vision lasted just 50 years, before his tomb was ransacked and burned during a peasant uprising.
Today's visitors are greeted by a museum representing the new China - four monumental halls, with displays generally laid out to western levels of interpretation. The pits are five to seven metres beneath ground level with the terracotta figures placed in corridors divided by earthen and wooden partition walls and paved with grey-blue pottery bricks. The earth walls originally sustained wooden roofs that featured huge rafters (the imprints are visible).
The largest and most famous pit holds the infantry. So far, about 2,000 soldiers have been uncovered and restored. Up to 4,000 more are believed to lie underneath, awaiting restoration. A 'warrior hospital' is on public display at the rear of the aircraft hangar-style hall, where staff attempt the Herculean task of piecing together broken limbs and heads.
The second pit is L-shaped and consists of infantry, cavalry, archers and charioteers, with crossbow archers and heavily armoured kneeling figurines. Pit three is smaller and has just 70 warriors, thought to be the officer class.
The final hall houses a stupendous horse-driven chariot, which may have been intended to carry the emperor's soul into the afterlife. A fourth pit was found empty, and museum staff believe this indicates Qin had plans to expand even further at the time of his death.
The museum continues to grow. The Chinese government has provided the equivalent of £55m towards the construction of three additional museums to house the statues of acrobats, civil servants and warriors found close to the emperor's tomb a mile away from the main museum. The government is currently buying up the houses of local villagers, and the museums are expected to open within ten years.
For now, plans to excavate the emperor's tomb, which lies under a tree-covered hill, have been put on hold. For archaeologists around the world, this delay is all but unbearable. This tomb is believed to contain a vast array of treasures, including a map of the earth with rivers made of mercury, eternal lamps, and Indiana Jones-style booby traps with crossbows to attack the unwary.
But the decision is defended by Jin Kai, a senior education curator and guide at the museum. 'The technology does not exist yet that is appropriate,' he says. 'If we open the tomb and the treasures are lost, they stay lost. We think it is better to wait for the next generation to open it.'
If and when the tomb is open, it will be Chinese archaeologists who do the work. The museum has in recent years embraced western technology and financial support, but rebuffs requests by foreign archaeologists to work on the soldiers. 'This is a patriotic museum,' says Kai. 'So far, only Chinese experts work here; there's a sense that this is our own business.'
While some examples of good quality methods, such as humidity monitors, are visible, the pressing issue for the museum's 50 resident experts in archaeology and preservation is conservation. 'It's the biggest challenge we face,' says Kai. 'Visitors can bring bacteria ,which falls onto the soldiers, and the carbon dioxide they breathe out can create small areas of pollution. If one day we have the money, we will introduce air conditioning and humidifiers to pit number one.'
Foreign help has been welcomed: a Belgium organisation introduced a method of treating mould; the Cultural Relics Office of Bavaria of Germany created techniques that have successfully prevented the original paint on the statues from fading and flaking while other German assistance has bolstered the walls of the pits, which are prone to drying out. And staff from the museum have been sent overseas for training.
In a further indication of a readiness to open up to the west, the museum has recently started to welcome volunteers, to work alongside its staff. Placements of between two and four weeks are arranged through 'i-to-i', a British company that organises volunteering work overseas for people of all ages. While the work is not technical - entering the pits is off limits and volunteers often act as tour guides for English-speaking parties - it offers a valuable insight into the museum.
'It's totally worthwhile,' says Nicky Temple, who is working at the museum after completing a masters degree in archaeology, in which she specialised in museum presentation and interpretation. 'What other chance would I have to work in a world heritage site?'
Such placements also offer an insight into the Chinese approach to archaeology. 'When I arrived, I was amazed that they hadn't opened the emperor's tomb, as it had been known about for 20 years,' says Temple. 'But after a while, I could see their point. Maybe, in the west, we do rush in sometimes.'
The Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum appears to act as a 'headline brand', emphasising Xian's important role in Chinese history and attracting funding and international attention to other institutions within the city. Xian and its predecessor cities in the same area were the political, economic and cultural centre of what was to become China for 2,000 years. 'Sometimes we help smaller museums in Xian,' says Kai. 'We provide money or advice - there are museums that do not get many visitors.'
The best example of the positive effect on other institutions is the Shaanxi History Museum in Xian, which opened in 1991 and is recognised by Unesco and other organisations as China's first 'modern' museum. It was the first to truly meet international standards in terms of display cabinets, preservation and environmental control. The museum, located in a graceful Tang-style building, is home to 370,000 cultural relics, ranging from burial items from the early Shang and Zhou dynasties to unicorns from the 4th century BC.
In spite of the importance of the terracotta warriors on the development of the country's museums, for the Chinese they are more than just a museum. 'When young students visit our museum they see the cultural relics of their ancestors and see that they were so smart and clever, they become aware of their history and are just so proud.' says Kai.
And with the British Museum bringing some of the warriors to the UK and the interest that will be created during the 2008 Olympics, even more people will have a chance to seem them.
Mark Rowe is a freelance journalist
For more information on placements offered at the Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum contact i-to-i (tel: 0800 011 1156)
www.i-to-i.com Terracotta Warrior Museum website www.bmy.com.cn/index_eng.htm
