1974 · Asia · Science
Farmers digging a well near Xi’an uncovered the first terracotta warriors in 1974, revealing part of the vast mausoleum complex built for Qin Shi Huang, China’s first emperor.
Atlas dossier · Cold War & DecolonizationFree device narration · synchronized English captions · transcript available
Why it matters
Farmers digging a well near Xi’an uncovered the first terracotta warriors in 1974, revealing part of the vast mausoleum complex built for Qin Shi Huang, China’s first emperor.
Yang Zhifa and fellow farmers · Chinese archaeologists · Qin-era artisans and labourers · Qin Shi Huang
The discovery made the scale, craft and political imagination of Qin state formation visible to the world and remains a continuing archaeological site rather than a finished treasure hunt.
Interpretation note
This dossier distinguishes the event’s basic chronology from later arguments about meaning, responsibility and legacy. When comparing religious, national, Indigenous or scholarly interpretations, consult the primary and institutional sources above alongside peer-reviewed historical work.
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