Terra Cotta Soldiers, from Mandiberg's Flickr Photostream
While visiting Rebecca’s folks in California, we made a trip to the Bowers Museum to see an exhibit of the Terra Cotta Warriors of the Qin dynasty. The story of Qin and his necropolis are the subject of the upcoming Mummy film.
The exhibit was well done, with roughly 100 actual pieces. They also gave audio handsets for each visitor to listen to information about the different pieces in a self-guided tour format. They were novel, but unless you can’t read, they quickly became a distraction. One of the more interesting facets I learned was just how little of of the pieces have actually been excavated, as well as how recent some of the pieces were uncovered.
Supposedly, they are all unique, making them the Cabbage Patch Kids/ American Girl Dolls of their time. I paused for a moment and contemplated how historians might explain uncovering the Field of Concrete Corn, or Brutus on Parade thousands of years from now. I came up with nothing.
If you happen to be near Santa Ana, I recommend checking out the exhibit, it is a rare opportunity to see these up close.