The Emperors Necropolis - Assignment Example

 In 1974, while peasants worked to dig a well near the Shaanxi Provence in China, the workers unearthed a nearly complete terra-cotta warrior. This drew a quick and immediate response from the Chinese archeological community, who began excavating the entire area surrounding the find (Lubow, 2009). The archaeologists, ultimately, did not find a handful, or a few dozen, but over seven thousand terra-cotta, not a single one the same. This variable army was only a half an hour drive from the Mausoleum of Shi Huang Di, the First Emperor of China. The researchers quickly understood that these warriors were part of the burial complex and it was far more than a tomb, but an actual Necropolis, or City of the Dead, which had been built under the order of Shi Huang Di. There are many mysteries spoken of in relation to the tomb and First Emperor. The overall scope and detailed complexity of the tomb have been called astonishing and astounding. Why did he build it? Did he really seal up living people inside the tomb to prevent its secrets from being revealed? How in a time so long ago was such a thing able to be built? Truly, it is a magnificent accomplishment, but the Tomb of Shi Huang Di is less about mystery or mythology, but a product of armies of man power over the course of decades. In order to understand the creation of the Mausoleum we must understand the man who claimed the title of the First Emperor of China. Yin Zheng took the throne in 246 BC, at the very young age of 13, and managed to unite several warring kingdoms. With these successes he took the name Shi Huang Di, or First Emperor. He was a force to be reckoned with, but not all of his contributions to China were militant in nature. The Emperor standardized a coin system, universalizing potential commerce in the different kingdoms. He also created a standard of weights and measures, commissioned roads and waterways to connect the states, and the first to conceive the Great Wall of China (Roach, 2012). He was a man of great and immense power, amassing more wealth and control that any previous ruler before him. Not long after unifying the feuding kingdoms, he conceived and commissioned the tomb that would be so much more. Shi Huang Di was fixated on the afterlife and believed that he would continue on when his mortal life was over. This is entirely not unlike the ideology behind the Pharaohs of Egypt. The Emperor entirely planned for his rule, his kingdom, his actual court, would continue into the afterlife. Thus, Shi Huang Di did not create a final resting place per say, but a city where he would live on. It is said in the mythology of the First Emperor that he avidly sought immortality, going so far as to send emissaries to acquire it, which at one point included children who may never have returned. He did not achieve his goal. He spared no expense on the construction of his Necropolis, he set to the task more than 700,000 Chinese prisoners, slaves, and laborers. They worked, continuously, for nearly forty years before it was completed. In fact, it was not completed at the time that Shi Huang Di died, at the age of fifty, and it was his son, and heir, who completed complex two years after his father’s death (Mausoleum of Qinshihuang, 2012). It is indeed true that many artisans and workers were sealed inside the tomb alive. This was believed to be, partly, to prevent them from sharing the secrets of the tombs construction and its valuable contents, but also because they had not entirely completed their work. They were still completing sections as they were sealed inside. More were placed inside the tomb to join the Emperor in his afterlife, close servants and a number of Shi Huang Di’s concubines may be found somewhere within the tomb as well. A manmade mountain that stood much taller than it does today due to natural erosion and time, covered the mausoleum and making it a very “pyramid-like” symbol aiming to the heavens. However, the external structures that once stood to mark the path to the great Mausoleum were burned in a fire and destroyed by enemies a few short years after the Dynasty lost power. The entire complex is estimated to a little more than 2000 meters north to south and just shy of 1000 meters east to west. There are two city walls, one internal and one external, with gates that one time were watchtowers (Mausoleum of Qinshihuang, 2012). Today, the pits containing the warriors are a major place of tourism, where a museum has been erected, essentially around them, and a large portion has traveled the world in exhibits. Excavation of the Necropolis has revealed more than the terra-cotta army, but animals, musicians, and court entertainers, great chariots and archers. There are weapons that have remained sharp even after millennia. There is a faux ceiling designed to resemble the heavens, and reportedly there is tale of a river of mercury emulating eternal waters (Lubow, 2009). How could so much be done at this time without the advantages of modern mechanisms and technologies? The answer is simple: by hand with the aforementioned army of builders and laborers over long years. Presently accepted thinking believes that the Emperor pushed for mass production, “…artisans turned out figurines like cars on an assembly line” (qtd in Lubow, 2009). Clay is by far an easier substance than other available materials off the time like bronze to use in fabrication. Hiromi Kinoshita, who helped curate the British Museum’s expedition, explained that the individuality of the soldiers was likely had nothing to do with representing specific living people, but the physical and varying ethnic traits found in all the different provinces under his rule (Lubow, 2009). Although archeological endeavors and research have been pursued through the decades and the proof of multitudes of chambers that have been mapped, there is still one section that remains untouched. The Emperor’s actual tomb area, the place where his remains may truly rest has not been excavated. However, it is believed that even greater treasures and artistic wonders are likely to be found. One expert in a 2006 interview explained that excavating the area could be damaging to the materials inside, as they do not know for certain the condition of the interior underground structures (Roach, 2012). There is also great concern for the well-being of the artifacts found, those made of fragile materials, like silk, might be negatively affected when exposed to light and air after so long isolated. In the end, the level of craftsmanship, complexity of architectural design, and the magnitude of the effort certainly earns the entire complex the definite title of “Wonder of the World.” But it was not magic or divinity that allowed for such an accomplishment but the blood, sweat, tears, and, in some cases, lives of hundreds of thousands of workers. There is no real mystery left in the construction of the Shi Huang Di mammoth complex, aside from continuing to wonder what other wonders of art and craftsmanship may still be hidden inside. Scholars are secure in the understanding that the complex construction is the product of hard, long human labor. Whether the First Emperor Shi Huang Di was a self indulgent and somewhat tyrannical ruler who truly intended to take his whole world with him in death, or, simply, a proud ruler who wanted his contributions remembered and to set an example of the potential of what a united China could achieve, matters little. It may never be known all the true motivations and attitudes of the ancient Emperor. Either way, he has accomplished both. The time of his rule brought great change to China and the great tomb and Necropolis he left behind has withstood the test of time and earned him in a way the very immortality that he sought. References Lubow, A. (2009, July). Terra-cotta soldiers on the march. Smithsonian.com, 1-3. Retrieved from http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/On-the-March-Terra-Cotta- Soldiers.html?c=y&page=1 Mausoleum of qinshihuang (259bc to 210bc). (2012). Retrieved from http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/atam/115132.htm Roach, J. (2012). Terra-cotta army protects first emperor’s tomb. National Geographic. Retrieved from http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/archaeology/emperor-qin/ Read More