Photos: China's Terracotta Warriors Have Moved Into The Field Museum

By Mae Rice in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 4, 2016 3:44PM

Around 7,000 of these six-foot-tall and taller warriors—significantly taller than men of the time—were found buried in three pits at the emperor’s tomb. (Copyright Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Center and Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum.)

Emperor Qin Shihuang, depicted here, commissioned the giant tomb for himself before he died. (Copyright Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Center and Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum.)

When the Terracotta Warriors were excavated from the emperor's tomb, starting in the 1970s, many were broken like these ones, and needed to be put back together by conservators. (Copyright Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Center and Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum.)

This archer, one of the guardians of the emperor’s tomb, likely once held a crossbow. (Copyright Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Center and Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum.)

The Chinese painted the Terracotta Army figures, but the pigments deteriorated over the years. Conservators try to preserve the remaining colors. (Copyright Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Center and Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum.)

Each warrior has a unique face and hairstyle due to different molds and details added by hand postconstruction. (Copyright Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Center and Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum.)

Chariots were an important part of China's army during the emperor's reign—hence the more than 130 models like this one discovered in the Terracotta Army pits. (Copyright Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Center and Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum.)

Chicagoans can meet a stock-still batallion of clay soldiers at the Field Museum starting Friday, at the opening of “China’s First Emperor and His Terracotta Warriors.”

When these warriors were first sculpted thousands of years ago, though, they weren’t meant for display. China’s first emperor, Qin Shihuangdi (pronounced chin she-wong-dee), initially commissioned them to protect him in the afterlife.

Obsessed with immortality—understandably, since he survived three assassination attempts during his reign—the emperor had major plans for after his death. He wanted to not just stay alive, surrounded by a 7,000-man stone army, but also continue to rule China. This is why his tomb, one of the greatest architectural discoveries of all time, was an underground replica of his empire.

The Field Museum’s exhibit features 170 artifacts from this tomb, including ten of the Terracotta Warriors, and explains the First Emperor’s legacy outside of his epic burial, too. His legacy is pretty astounding. A teaser: He united the country—which consisted, before his reign, of seven warring states—and achieved landmark political feats from standardizing Chinese script to inventing China’s most long-running currency: circular coins with a square hole in the center, called banliang coins.

He also casually built the precursor to China’s Great Wall, a protective wall to keep out enemies approaching from the North and West.

(These political achievements are especially impressive in light of Illinois’ ongoing struggle to pass a budget.)

To learn more about the First Emperor and his incredible tomb, visit the Field Museum, where the exhibit will be showing through Jan. 6, 2017. The exhibit requires a special ticket.