davefales Loc: Virginia

Seeing the XiAn, China display of terracotta warriors buried to protect the dead Qin emperor is an amazing experience. The images of unique clay soldiers in formation are familiar worldwide.

We got to visit three of the pits under excavation. They claimed only 10% of the figures have been excavated. The Chinese have delayed opening what they believe is the Emperor Qin's tomb until technology progresses to a point that they can be sure exposure to air will not damage the paint...which happened to the soldiers already.

The Qin dynasty (220-206 BC) was short lived and faced an uprising by forces they had subjugated to form the first empire. Forces of the rebellion entered the tombs to steal the weapons the statues had. They set fires and damaged lots of the soldiers.

The head of each soldier has a distinct face and is set in a hole in the torso. Some of the heads are so badly damaged they only display the reconstructed body.

They have also excavated spectacular life size bronze pieces.

We bought the slick book with staged lighting photos. I can only wish I had had that opportunity. No flash allowed.

I spent some of my photog time capturing the statues in various states. Here are some examples.

The Image You Are Familiar With

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Soldier Fragments Being Excavated

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Archaeological Staff at Work in the Big Pit

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Broken Soldier

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Putting Humpty Back Together

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Note Protective Plastic Bags

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My Wife Shot This One with the Sony

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Side View

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Big Picture

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Bronze Wagon

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RichardSM Loc: Back in Texas

Very very nice thank you for posting those wonderful pictures .

iDoc Loc: Knoxville,Tennessee

Thanks for taking us to this wonderful site. The pictures are excellent and your narrative makes it complete.I particularly enjoyed seeing the Bronze Wagon and learning that each head and face are unique.

Doddy Loc: Barnard Castle-England

Nice ones..would love to go there.

Tikva Loc: Waukesha, WI

A really nice series of photos. Thank you for posting them and for telling the story behind them. It is amazing what was accomplished so long ago without modern methods.

davefales Loc: Virginia

Thank you for the kind comments, Richard.

davefales Loc: Virginia

I may post some other bronze figure shots in another topic. The lighting of the bronzes was a strong test for my D7200. Lots of noise. Glad you liked the "story".

davefales Loc: Virginia

It's a long haul. 12 time zones away. I certainly recommend it...in the context of a much longer trip. Thanks, Doddy

davefales Loc: Virginia

My pleasure, Tikva. We saw a lot of Chinese museum artifacts 2-3000 years old that were amazing pieces of art.

jederick Loc: Northern Utah

Amazing subjects Dave, you photographed them very well...thanks for your efforts to bring them to us and sharing!!

MT native Loc: Big Sky Country — Montana

What remarkable images. Fascinating for sure !! Thanks for sharing.

rlaugh Loc: Michigan & Florida

Aren't these amazing!!...good job!

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

Neat set - what an interesting history.

Sylvias Loc: North Yorkshire England

Very enjoyable and informative post Dave, excellent series.

fourg1b2006 Loc: Long Island New York

How did they do that WOW....wonderful images.