Archaeologist Who Uncover China's 8,000-Man Terracotta Army Dies

 Terracotta Army
Terracotta Army (photo: Pixabay)
By M. GraceMay 22nd, 2018

China's state media reported that the Chinese archaeologist who uncovered the long-lost clay army of 8,000 soldiers died on Wednesday, May 16 at the age of 82.

Zhao Kangmin first found the terracotta warriors in 1974 when farmers 20 miles from Xi'an city were digging a well and struck into the pieces.

They originally had no idea that these items were precious and that the army were interred for more than 2,000 years to guard China's first emperor.

The farmers contacted Chinese authorities, who also sent out government archaeologists to confirm the discovery.

"Because we were so excited, we rode on our bicycles so fast it felt as if we were flying," Zhao reportedly stated.

Zhao found heads, torsos and limbs. Then, he began reconstructing them piece by piece. Each warrior was life-size, with different expression and face and details that were realistic down to their fingernails. Other archaeologists also uncovered standing and kneeling archers, armored officers, infantrymen and chariots with horses.

During that time, Zhao reportedly grew nervous about what he was restoring. He was "nervous that he might be swept up again by the madness of the Cultural Revolution, whose teenage Red Guards had forced him to criticize himself for being involved with old things and therefore encouraging the revival of feudalism," according to historian John Man in "The Terracotta Army."

Farmers who found the terracotta army eventually sued the government for not giving them the proper recognition of the historical discovery. But, Zhao said they did not receive the credit.

"The farmers saw the terracotta fragments, but they didn't know they were cultural relics, and they even broke them," he told China Daily in 2009. "It was me who stopped the damage, collected the fragments and reconstructed the first terracotta warrior."

Zhao was a curator in a museum and even after he retired from his role, Zhao would go to the museum every day and sit beside the terracotta soldiers he had reconstructed in the 1970s.

In the display room, he even wrote autographs that says, "Zhao Kangmin, the first discoverer, restorer, appreciator, name-giver and excavator of the terracotta warriors."

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