It covers an area the size of Cambridge but so far only a tiny proportion of the site of the First Emperor of China’s underground palace for the afterlife has been excavated. Now Chinese archaeologists have used computerised imagery to complete a 3-D reconstruction of the giant tomb that lies 30 metres beneath a mound, with the Qinling mountains in the background. The dramatic imagery has been made available to The Times by the historian John Man, before he publishes pictures and a detailed description of it in his book The Terracotta Army: China’s First Emperor and the Birth of a Nation next month. The reconstruction of the tomb has been put together by a team led by Duan Quingbo, of the Shaanxi Institute of Archaeology, and it is being made public as some of the greatest finds at the excavation site — including figures from the famous Terracotta Army — are due to go on display at the British Museum. The life-size figures, including bureaucrats, musicians and acrobats connected to the First Emperor’s civilian administration, will go on display on September 13 — making it the largest show at the British Museum since its Tutankhamun exhibition had visitors queueing around the block in 1972. The treasures include some of the 1,000 figures that have been excavated so far. An estimated 7,000 more are believed to be underground.

A description of the palace dating from 89BC — about 100 years after its construction — hints at fabulous wealth, with models of palaces and pavilions, vessels and precious stones. Mr Man said that the reconstruction came about after archaeologists probed down from the surface, hitting stone and rammed earth walls. “If you join the dots, they look like an underground, four-sided palace of some considerable size.” Nobody knows what sort of roof it had. If it was wooden, it would have collapsed long ago, he said. About 3,000 families have been moved out of the area, near Xian in the Shaanxi province, in preparation for a more detailed survey around the tomb, although the excavations will continue for many decades. The tomb is unparalleled in world archaeology. The Terracotta Army was discovered by chance in 1974 and the site that it guards has continued to be dug since then, with many new treasures coming to light.

View: Full Article | Source: Times Online