China: 2,100-Year-Old Mini-Terracotta Warriors Army Found

A 2,100-year-old pit has been found in China, where archeologists have discovered an army of miniature sculptures of warriors, chariots, musicians, cavalry, and watchtowers.

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Around 300 sculptures were found, very similar to the 8,000 terracotta warriors army. The Terracotta Army is a form of funerary art that was buried to accompany the First Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang (210-209 BCE), as an afterlife guard. Archaeologists estimate the three pits may contain around 8,000 figures. It was listed by UNESCO in 1987 as part of the world's cultural heritage.

Chinese officials from the Culture Ministry, researchers from the Cultural Relics Agency and the Shandong Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology estimate that the army was placed in the pit around two thousand and one hundred years ago. About 100 years after the life-size terracotta warriors were buried near the Qin Shi Huang emperor tomb.

These miniature statues were found in a town near the Chinese city of Linzi, near the coast of the Yellow Sea around five hours away from Beijing.

"The presence of the pit and its army, arranged in a formation usually reserved for the burials of monarchs or high-ranking officials, suggests there should be a royal burial mound nearby, but the archaeologists think it may have been destroyed decades ago during railway construction," the Archeology Journal stated.