When a group of farmers digging a well in 1974 struck a broken terracotta head, they had brushed only one corner of the funerary complex of Qin Shi Huang (259–210 BCE), China's first emperor. Subsequent excavation revealed more than 8,000 life-size soldiers, 130 chariots, and 670 horses arrayed across three great pits — and the site is still not fully cleared.

No two soldiers are identical. Faces were cast from a small set of moulds, then hand-modified: hairstyles, beards, expressions were individualised. Uniforms vary by rank: officers, archers, infantry, cavalry stand in formation with distinct postures and equipment. When excavated, the figures were vividly painted — red, blue, green — but on contact with air most of the pigment flakes off within minutes. Current practice is therefore slow, controlled excavation.

Qin Shi Huang founded China's first centralised state, began the Great Wall in its early form, and standardised script, weights, and coinage. The funerary programme was designed to carry that empire with him: a garrison the size of an army, plus stables, acrobats, attendants, and bureaucrats. The tomb mound itself remains unopened. Ancient sources say it contains a model of the heavens with rivers of flowing mercury.