First Chinese Emperor’s ‘Afterlife Army’ Gets Bigger as 20 More ‘Terracotta Warriors’ Discovered

The so-called ‘Terracotta Warriors’ are life-size figures that are believed to have been built to protect the first Chinese emperor in the afterlife.

More than 20 new ‘Terracotta Warriors’ have been uncovered in one of the pits located on the territory of the mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, who unified China in 221 B.C, media reported.

According to Live Science, the unearthed warriors were mainly infantry and chariots, as well as a few generals, judging by their headgear.

The Terracotta Army, a form of funerary art buried circa 210-209 B.C., was accidentally discovered in 1974 and has been considered among the world’s most famous archaeological sites since then. Modern archaeologists believe that the army was created to serve the emperor in the afterlife.

It is believed that the “afterlife army” consisted of 8,000 sculpted warriors placed in three pits about 1.6 km northeast of the mausoleum. Archaeologists have already discovered about 2,000 of the warriors that were usually buried with weapons, such as swords and crossbows.

According to the Emperor Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum Site Museum’s website, the warriors are often found in pieces and put back together. The same procedure awaits the newly unearthed soldiers as scientists get closer to learning something new about the Terracotta Army.