How and why were the Xian warriors created?

When Qin came to power, faith did not diminish, but brought a subtle change to replace the elements of reality. ceramic representations. “So we can begin to understand what Terracotta Warriors are and why they were created.”

Marcos Martinon-TorresA professor at Cambridge University explains this by touring the exhibition with Carlos Mazón, chairman of the State Council at MARQ. The warriors of Xian, legacy of the Qin and Han dynastieswill open its doors at MARQ today.

A “unique” example is More than 120 items from 9 Chinese museums“presented for the first time in the world» and «never seen as here».

And not just for him.The original seven warriors and a horse shown or because They are seeing each other in Spain for the first time in almost a decade. or because these soldiers are for the first time They’ve been breaking up with Xian since 2018. “We wanted to do something complementary discourse from science and besides talking about archeology and history, there is a lot of science in this exhibit ».

Xian’s famous warriors, of which Of the 8,000 estimated to exist, 1,500 have been excavated in the pit – which meant removing Land equivalent to 5,000 trucksthey are just one element The “accessory” found at the entrance to Emperor Qin’s mausoleumbuilt on a field 100 square kilometers. “With its palaces, waterfowl canals, acrobats, and acrobat pyramids, it is an authentic city that was built to live in the afterlife for maybe a little over ten years. The emperor’s tomb is 60 meters highunexcavated and at the entrance there is an army of terracotta to defend it ».

These warriors are at the center of the world MARQ exhibitionbut it works 1000 years of Chinese history“To better understand the context, when, how, and why of warriors, from a few centuries before the emperor to a few centuries later,” notes the curator.

three room tour

The three temporary rooms of the Alicante museum travel in time. historical pieces, but also different music and scents. “Room 1 smells like cherry and rice; room 2, incense and room 3, lotus flower and tea. And not because it smells good, so it smells like then». There are also many educational and accessible resources.

First room focuses on China before mergingFrom 700 to 221, when the empire was founded. “Because sound and music are so important in ritual worlds, there are gorgeous pieces like bells or bottles and architectural elements.”

It also includes what it means to unite in a region. different cultures, languages, writings and religions. Therefore, different types of coins are shown, such as the installed coin, oil lamps, censers or belts ».

The room closes with a copy of one of the ten stones that appeared in the Tang empire in the seventh century of our era.and the oldest inscription containing the typeface It was standardized during the Qin period. This is the only non-original part with two cars. It weighs 1,200 kilograms and consists of 3,000 pieces.incapable of leaving China by law.

This The second chamber approaches the “world of the dead”, it is the place of warriors. “These objects were not created to be shared with us, so we must be aware of what a privilege it is to see this here.”

Described in this field how warriors were made. Models, raw materials, production stages, types of pigments and minerals, how clay is modeled, polished and painted. A fact highlighted in this section, It took 25 wood varnish to paint one of these figures.. It was also established video matching where the original colored appearance of one of these terracotta soldiers (replica) is mirrored as it is.

“Initially they were supposed to be built on some kind of piecemeal assembly line, but instead we showed that this was not the case. there were different production cells, each autonomous, produced by all fighters, then they took it to the grave as a referral».

Soldiers in the third room

The encounter comes with the warriors and the horse weighing 200 and 350 kilos respectively. third roomwhere they appear inside the circular capsules that give them a futuristic air, as if rising from the ground, on a journey from the past to the present. “Once the story’s been revealed, now’s the time everyone sees the warriors as they want» highlights Marcos Martinón-Torres.

everyone is different between them. From features to clothing, decorations, hairstyles and posture. And they are accompanied by two more terracotta figures: the barn helper and the fisherman figure.

Moreover Other much lesser known warriors of the Han dynasty, “two or three generations after the first emperor.” He also wanted to bury it with his terracotta warriors, in this case much smaller. they appear naked because they are wearing real clothes, and without arms because they are wooden joints..

And in this last room, in memory, a tribute to those who made these warriors a World Heritage Site. “They did tens of thousands of workers, mostly anonymously and by force, as a slave, convict or prisoner ». related to 18 known names because “someone took the trouble to write them on a ceramic tile – one of which can be seen in the exhibition – and we wanted to pay homage to them to make visible the invisible without which history would not be written”.