Casket and signs of mercury found at Terracotta Army site
A 15-tonne casket has been discovered at the final resting place of China’s first emperor, but it doesn’t belong to the king. So whose body is inside? And why are there signs of mercury at the site?
READING LEVEL: ORANGE
New clues from the site of the Terracotta Army have shed light on the life and death of China’s first emperor Qin Shi Huang* and his son Prince Gao.
For many years, historians had little direct evidence about Emperor Qin’s final resting place – only what was written by China’s most famous historian, Sima Qian*. However, Sima lived from 145BC to 86BC and Emperor Qin died in 210BC. So well over a century had passed by the time Sima wrote his great work ‘Shiji – the Records of the Grand Historian’.
But more recent scientific discoveries have given weight to some of the details written in the accounts.
Evidence is mounting that a 15-tonne casket* pulled from the outskirts of Emperor Qin’s fabled tomb last year belongs to his noble, yet tragic, son Prince Gao.
And new clues are strengthening the likelihood that the emperor’s famous mausoleum* really did house an enormous, realistic model of the vast empire he had conquered.
WAS SIMA’S STORY ACCURATE?
By the time Sima wrote his accounts of the emperor’s rule, a sense of legend and grandeur around the king’s reputation would have likely grown. The reputation of the emperor could have affected the way stories were told about him, leading historians to question the accuracy of the accounts.
However, archaeological evidence has revealed some of the details in the story could actually be true.
In Sima’s records, Emperor Qin had spent much of his reign searching for the secret of eternal life. But every alchemist*, explorer, magician and priest he tasked with the job failed.
The first thing he had done when taking the throne at age 13 was order the construction of an immense mausoleum.
Sima wrote that 700,000 workers had laboured 38 years to complete the funerary complex at Mount Li in Shanxi province, north-central China.
“Replicas of palaces, scenic towers, and the hundred officials, as well as rare utensils and wonderful objects, were brought to fill up the tomb,” he wrote.
“Mercury* was used to fashion imitations* of the hundred rivers, the Yellow River and the Yangtze, and the seas, constructed in such a way that they seemed to flow. Above were representations of all the heavenly bodies, below, the features of the earth.”
The first modern evidence that some of this could be true came in 1974.
Farmers digging a well stumbled on the pottery statue of a soldier. Archaeologists soon found an entire terracotta army, exact in every minor detail.
“As further excavation revealed the extent of the emperor’s mausoleum, with offices, stables and halls, along with clay figures of officials, acrobats and labourers and life-size bronze animals, it became clear that the Han dynasty* historian Sima Qian, writing in second century BC, hadn’t been exaggerating after all,” writes the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Philip Ball.
COULD THERE BE MERCURY RIVERS?
“Measurements of soil resistivity* have revealed another intriguing feature,” wrote Ball. “They show a so-called phase anomaly*, which is produced when an electrical current is reflected from a conducting* surface, such as a metal. Could this be a sign of mercury?”
Chinese state-controlled media reported the chemical makeup of mercury recovered from the mausoleum matched that found in the cinnabar* mines of Xunyang, 120km away. Once used as a pigment and traditional medicine, smelting* cinnabar would release the mercury bound within it.
New surveys of Xunyang have found three ancient mining sites that produced the mineral along the Shengjia River valley. All three contain artefacts dating from the Neolithic era* to the Qing Dynasty*.
The Global Times reported up to 100 tonnes of mercury has been detected in the mausoleum.
“Mercury has excellent insulation properties, forming a sealed thermal barrier within the tomb, while also having antibacterial effects,” the report said.
“Therefore, scientists widely surmise* that the mercury in the tomb was used for preservation and antitheft purposes.”
MYSTERY OF THE CASKET
Like Emperor Qin’s mausoleum, Chinese archaeologists have been nervous about picking apart the burial casket excavated last year, but so far they have found about 6000 bronze coins, as well as jade, silver, and gold figurines. A complete set of cutlery and porcelain crockery has been recovered, as have pieces of armour and weapons.
Historians believe the casket may belong to the legendary Prince Gao.
In Sima’s account, Emperor Qin’s first son, Fusu, was supposed to inherit the throne. But the plotting of his many sons to become emperor led to Prince Hu Hai rising to the top.
Prince Hu Hai’s older brother Prince Gao knew he was doomed. So he resolved to publicly confront his younger brother to demand an honourable death and the right to be buried with his famous father.
“For the first time in 2000 years … we have a chance to figure out if what Sima Qian wrote is correct,” says Oxford University associate professor Hui Ming Tak Ted.
Part of the skull has been recovered. Testing shows it to belong to a healthy male, aged between 18 and 22 years old.
And the youngest objects identified so far fit the timeline of the emperor’s death.
But a royal signet or personal seal would have to be recovered before the burial’s identity is confirmed.
TERRACOTTA ARMY FAST FACTS
* About 2000 terracotta warriors have been found at the site of Emperor Qin’s mausoleum but historians believe there could be about 8000 in total.
* The terracotta army included bronze chariots and sculptures of horses
* The figures all have different facial features and are unique, as if they are real people
* The warriors were buried in battle formation and include archers, generals, charioteers and officers
* It wasn’t just an army, there were also terracotta acrobats, musicians and bronze water birds buried in the mausoleum
POLL
GLOSSARY
- Qin Shi Huang: emperor of the Qin dynasty and the first emperor of China, reigning 221-210BCE, responsible for eliminating the other rival states in China and uniting the country under one rule, Emperor Qin introduced sweeping reforms, universal standardisation of weights, measurement and language and linked up fortresses to build the Great Wall of China
- Sima Qian: considered the first and possibly greatest historian of China
- casket: coffin
- mausoleum: an impressive building housing a tomb
- alchemist: someone who practices alchemy, the precursor to chemistry, where practitioners believed they could base metals into gold
- mercury: a toxic, silvery metal liquid
- imitations: copies of something
- Han dynasty: the dynasty that came after the Qin dynasty, started by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu
- soil resistivity: measuring how resistant soil is to an electrical current
- phase anomaly: a change in the phase of a light or electron waveform
- conducting: attracting electricity
- cinnabar: a red mineral rock that has mercury in it
- smelting: extracting metal from ore by heating it up and melting it
- Neolithic era: the final stage of the stone age
- Qing Dynasty: the last imperial dynasty of China, starting in 1644, before being succeeded by the Republic of China in 1912
- surmise: presume something is true without having evidence to back it up
EXTRA READING
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Tech unwraps mummified mystery
What to do if you find a dino bone
QUICK QUIZ
1. How old was Emperor Qin when he took to the throne?
2. What are two of the details that Sima Qian wrote about Emperor Qin’s mausoleum?
3. What testing has been done at the site to confirm the presence of mercury?
4. What needs to be found to prove the 15-tonne casket belongs to Prince Gao?
5. How many terracotta warriors have been found so far?
LISTEN TO THIS STORY
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Clay warriors
Using modelling clay or Play-Doh, sculpt your own small “terracotta warrior” with unique facial features, armour, or weapons.
Put all the class’s soldiers together to make your own “mini army.”
Time: allow 25 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: Visual Arts, History, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking
2. Extension
Like Emperor Qin’s death, a sense of legend and grandeur around the king’s reputation would have likely grown, as often happens when people pass. Why do you think stories get better or more grand after people pass, and their shortcomings are often overlooked?
Write your thoughts below.
Time: allow 10 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking
VCOP ACTIVITY
Read with Kung Fu punctuation
Pair up with the article between you and stand up to make it easy to demonstrate your Kung Fu punctuation.
Practise reading one sentence at a time. Now read it again, while acting out the punctuation as you read.
Read and act three sentences before swapping with your partner.
Take two turns each.
Now ask your partner to read a sentence out loud while you try and act out the punctuation. Can you keep up? Swap over?
Try acting out two sentences – are you laughing yet?