Warrior Horses

Reassembled horses.

If you study the horses, you'll see the patchwork effect of this massive restoration process. It's incomprehensible that they've found as 'large' of pieces of each figure that they did.

We visit all three pits. The lighting in the other pits isn't very good so the photos don't turn out very well. Pit 1 seems to be the 'general troops' pit--infantrymen, cavalrymen with horses and archers.

Pit 2 is much smaller and appears to be the Command and Control 'hub' where the Generals stand in the center on a mound. Each direction of the compass boasts an array of various types of forces--as if the General is giving commands to each regiment one by one.

The third pit is smaller then the first but much larger than the second and much less restoration work has occurred here. They seem to be taking their time in restoring this massive array of warriors. A good thing! Pit 3 only has a few restored warriors but piles upon piles of broken pieces. You see arms, hands, torsos and other fragments of warriors protruding from all over the pits. You can make out where the wooden cross beams for the structures were located before they were torched during the destruction rampages ordered by subsequent emporers. We also visit the vault which contains the bronze chariots they discovered. They're in incredible condition. They are guarded by massive entourages of security folks--I believe these chariots are what folks consider the 8th Wonder of the World--at least that's what it looks like by the layers of security they've placed around the vault. Incredible! An amazing site!

As for rnrB's world history class, this only reinforces what we've been studying about archaeology and how they discover new things about the past. I find it hard to believe that this incredible historic find was only discovered in 1974. I was just a young kid then--a little younger than rnrB is today. It reminds me how little we (as a people) know about our 'collective' past--even with all this vast knowledge folks have collected over the ages. There is so much more we are yet to learn. Even more of it that we'll never recover--knowing that many societies lived lifestyles that produced little to no 'reminders' of their existence (cloth/paper that decays, little pomp & ceremony with their burials and other 'life' rites). Wonder how often people actually 're-create' the wheel because we fail to learn from humans' past mistakes? Just something else that's interesting to think about. I'll ponder it during one of those 'insomnia' nights. ;)