Terracotta Army in China: Fingerprints Give Clues to Sculptors

Clay Warriors at the Mausoleum in Xi'an: 33 percent of women

Apparently no one should be able to defeat him in the afterlife: For more than 2200 years, thousands of clay warriors guarded the burial complex of the famous Qin Shihuangdi, founder of the Chinese Empire. The figures are considered a masterpiece of the crafts.

Until now, it was believed that the figures discovered in 1974 were formed exclusively by men. But new analyses of fingerprints on the sculptures suggest that women and children were also involved, a research team reported in the Journal of Cultural Heritage.

The life-size figures date from the 3rd century BC and are individually designed. Even the features differ, as does the equipment. Originally they were painted colorfully.

In total, the legendary Terracotta Army once comprised between 7,000 and 8,000 life-sized clay warriors and more than 650 horse sculptures. Several have been almost completely preserved to this day.

When they formed the clay warriors, their builders left traces – in the form of fingerprints. They were created when the clay had not yet completely dried. A research team led by Xiaoxi Li from the Mausoleum Museum in Xi'an, where the grave was built more than 2200 years ago, has examined 79 fingerprints of a total of 36 figures. The tracks had been pressed into the tone in various places, on the arms, the tanks, on the heads of the warriors.

The scientists photographed the imprints and measured the distance between the individual lines, the so-called papilla species. This distance tends to increase as children get older. They then compared the ancient imprints with modern fingerprints of men and women of different ages.

According to a model calculation, only about 45 percent of the fingerprints came from adult men, another 33 percent from women and the rest from adolescents under 15. “The model results show that the craft community did not consist exclusively of adult men,” the study authors write.

Although the researchers were only able to examine a small part of the plant and it is not clear whether the other figures were children and women at work. Nevertheless, the investigation is enough to reconsider previous assumptions.

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