The Warriors The Color Of Magic - 1546 Words

Terracotta warriors - the color of magic In an old pomegranate grove two men go about digging a new well, as their shovels sink into the soft earth they begin to find bits and pieces of terracotta pottery shard made to resemble human beings. The year is 1974 and neither of these men know that they have found one of the most important historical, artistic, and scientific architectural finds in history. The ancient history of the Chinese people the deaths of their leaders had been a major event in the life of the people. Leaders were believed to be the reason for the continued survival, nay the reason for living of their people. When these leaders died it was the cultural norm that the entire emperors household, servants, advisors,†¦show more content†¦-The necropolis is modeled on the Qin capital Xianyang, it has an inner and outer city, but the tomb of the great Emperor has not yet been excavated. Archaeologists are currently preoccupied with many other sites surrounding the tomb. Most of the work going into excavating and preserving the Terracotta Army to the east of the tomb mound. Thus the Terracotta Warriors were born. As a potter myself I have always been fascinated with the herculean effort and particularities of the production of the Terracotta warriors. Each figure is life sized, not made using a mold and utterly unique from figure to figure. Further more not just any clay would do, because the statue would be so heavy due to its size the clay itself would have to be uncharacteristically strong as well as dense to stand up on its own power and also not to explode in the hand bricked kilns used at the time. The clay used to make these 8,000 life sized figures can only be found in one place which is located only 18 kilometers away from the Terracotta warriors grave. The method used in making the Terracotta warriors is the coil method, where long clay coils, or snakes, are wound into shape of each separate piece of the warrior. So his legs would be made separately from his torso or head. It would then be smoothed over and embellishments are then