Unearthed (2016–…): Season 2, Episode 8 - Treasures of the Terracotta Army - full transcript

The Terracotta Army,

a legion of mysterious
clay soldiers

stand ready for battle.

The discovery of this
8,000-strong terracotta army

is really our first vivid,
clear view of ancient China.

They may guard one of
the most notorious figures

in China's history.

Now archaeologists are using

revolutionary imaging
technologies to find out --

who was this extraordinary army
built to protect?

Who were its soldiers
expected to fight?



And what magnificent treasures
are they still defending?

To solve these mysteries,

we'll piece together
the warriors,

we'll unearth ancient skeletons,

and blow open a hidden tomb

to reveal
the astonishing secrets

at the heart
of this ancient wonder.

Captions paid for by
Discovery Communications

The Terracotta Army --
one of the greatest

archaeological discoveries
ever made.

It was unearthed just 40 years
ago in the heart of China.

Lindesay: When I look at this man here
and his fellows all around,

you really feel the power
of the Chinese state.

These warriors are part of
a massive ceremonial complex



spread across 20 square miles.

The warriors appear
to be guarding

a 150-foot-high soil mound,

which lies 1 mile to the west.

Archaeologists suspect this
enormous structure

hides a lavish tomb,

sealed over 2,000 years ago.

But who was the tomb built for?

And what threat were the
warriors defending it against?

To find out,
teams of investigators

unearth mysterious
military hardware...

...and scientists unravel

the mysteries
of ancient Chinese alchemy.

To do this would have
just seemed like magic.

All part
of the extraordinary effort

to unlock the secrets
of the terracotta army.

Nearly 8,000 soldiers stood
in perfect battle formation,

spanning almost
three football fields,

each one handcrafted
in the image

of a warrior 2,200 years old.

On the front line,
a vanguard of crossbowmen.

Row upon row of armed warriors
stand to attention behind.

Among them once stood
130 war chariots.

The soldiers stand tall,

but thousands more remain
in ruins,

awaiting resurrection.

This formidable army
gives an incredible insight

into the birth
of a nation.

21st century China
is a global superpower

and the world's
most populous country.

But China as we know it today
hasn't always existed.

In 230 B.C.,
China wasn't one nation.

It was divided into
seven warring states.

Historian William Lindesay
wants to understand

how this fractured land
was united

to create the nation
we see today.

Lindesay:
When I look at this warrior,

I see an individual
from 2,000 years ago,

and he and his likes,
they founded China.

Today, William’s working
with archaeologists

to reveal the secrets
of China's birth.

The team's job is
to rebuild the statues.

Through their work,
new clues are emerging

that help answer the question
"what were the statues for?"

Repairing each warrior
is a very long

and painstaking process.

Dr. Lan Dixiang has spent
the past 23 years

piecing together the clues.

Every completed soldier
adds another layer

to the terracotta army's story.

But it's taken
four decades for the team

to rebuild just 1/4
of all the warriors.

But today, innovative
3-D laser-scanning technology

is speeding up the process

and allowing archaeologists
to discover exactly

why these terracotta statues
were built.

Professor Zhang Weixing is
the chief archaeologist

at the terracotta army museum.

The 3-D scans allow a computer

to build a virtual model
of the statue.

Using this technique,

the team has uncovered
something extraordinary --

not all the statues were
designed to stand guard.

Although most of the statues
are ready for battle,

a handful appear
ready to entertain.

Together with the soldiers,
the acrobats paint a picture

of courtly ritual
and imperial power.

They appear to have been created
to defend and entertain

the ruler of an ancient empire
from beyond the grave.

But who was this leader?

One man seems to be missing
from this terracotta universe --

the man who built it.

William is on the hunt for him
in the warrior command pit.

This pit is the command center
for the whole terracotta army.

There are 68 warriors
down there, but the key group

is right in the center --
the chariot group.

The chariot's drawn
by four horses.

Behind them, there are four men,

but the grouping
looks unbalanced.

It seems there's
one man missing.

The army's commander in chief
should be here,

but he's nowhere to be seen.

Some people think
that could be the commander

of the army himself --
the emperor.

Many archaeologists believe

the missing figure
is China's first emperor.

A military genius, he conquered
six neighboring states

to unify China.

And he believed that even death
wouldn't put an end to his rule.

A power-hungry megalomaniac,
he craved immortality

and believed he would rise
from the dead to take his place

as the terracotta army's
supreme leader.

Archaeologists
believe his body lies here,

in this mysterious mound.

Tales from ancient China
describe the mound

as containing
an incredible secret...

...a burial complex sealed
deep below the earth.

But for over 2,000 years,

no one has ever laid eyes
on this masterpiece.

The tomb walls are said to be
made from compacted earth,

towering 150 feet tall,

and the stories claim

that at the tomb's core
lies a sacred crypt

where the first emperor
was laid to rest.

This tomb may hold the secrets
of China's first ruler.

But for now, it remains one
of history's greatest enigmas.

If the treasures in
the first emperor's tomb

promise to be so spectacular,

why haven't archaeologists
already uncovered them?

For decades,
the Chinese have said,

"no. we're not going
to explore it,

we're not going to excavate it,

because we don't
have the expertise

or the preservation skills
to save those antiquities."

But I think, sooner or later,

curiosity is going to get
the better of them.

They're going to open up
the tomb of the first emperor.

The ancient Chinese were buried

with all the items
they'd need in the afterlife.

The earliest tombs
were simple pits,

containing food and weapons.

But over time, the tombs
became ever more elaborate.

Thousands of items
were added --

chariots, musical instruments,
and ornaments.

The tombs became
underground palaces

built for the deceased
to roam in the afterlife,

but did the first emperor
have even greater ambitions?

Stories claim his tomb
houses a re-creation

of all the lands
he had conquered --

a subterranean empire
he could rule for eternity.

These ancient legends describe
the first emperor's tomb

as a monument
of unmatched extravagance,

filled with
underground treasures,

including a giant map
of his empire

crossed with rivers
of flowing mercury.

But is this bizarre legend true?

The terracotta warriors
stand guard over

one of the largest tombs
ever built.

An ancient legend describes
the tomb's secrets.

But could this legend be true?

It tells that at the heart
of the colossal mound,

the emperor is buried
in an underground palace.

A map of China adorns the floor,
with rivers of flowing mercury

that weave between
mountains made of bronze.

The rivers encircle
the emperor's sarcophagus --

his final resting place --

and he lies beneath
glistening jewels

that mimic the starry sky.

The legends paint
a picture of a tomb

unlike anything seen before
in the ancient world.

But are these colorful accounts
pure fantasy,

or could they really be true?

Today, professor Zhang and his
team are on the mausoleum mound.

They're testing the soil,
looking for signs of mercury.

What made the first emperor
fill his mausoleum

with this mysterious metal?

Andrea Sella is
a research chemist

with a lifelong love of mercury.

To obtain bulk mercury,
and certainly enough

to be able to make
a river of it,

you would have to be
operating on many kilos,

possible tons, scale.

As a professor of chemistry,

Andrea relies on centuries
of accumulated knowledge

to understand
the world around him.

He believes the ancient Chinese

had a very different
understanding of chemistry.

They saw it as
something magical.

The quest for magic is,
in many ways,

a quest for understanding.

I think it emerges
out of the same impulse

as the scientific process.

The ancient Chinese were
obsessed with a magical practice

known as alchemy.

They could perform
remarkable feats,

like the transformation
of the ore cinnabar into metal.

They believed this was
a magical process

that they could use
to cheat death.

Sella:
When you see cinnabar,

you realize
what makes it special.

If I take out a little bit

and put it
into this mortar and pestle,

you really get the idea.

This is almost
the color of blood.

It is this
extraordinary pigment,

one which has captured
the imagination of people

from time immemorial.

There are cave paintings
from across the world

where animals have been drawn
using cinnabar.

Yet, for all the wonder of this
incredibly colored pigment,

the really amazing thing happens
when you start to heat it.

The cinnabar undergoes
a remarkable transformation.

Sella: It's going to get
a little bit of condensation,

but immediately,
it starts to darken.

You can see the color change.

The red powder turns black.

Wow. That was much faster
than I expected, actually.

This black powder
then transforms into a liquid,

which then vaporizes

and coats the walls of the flask
with mercury.

And so the amazing thing here

is that we've actually got
a mirror on the walls.

It's a mercury mirror.

We've actually transformed
our beautiful red cinnabar

into this weird
silvery substance.

The product of this reaction

is a material that captured
the ancient Chinese imagination.

Andrea has a flask
full of the stuff.

If you take a little bit
of mercury,

you really understand why people
used to call it quicksilver.

It's because it dances around.

It's almost as if this
material were alive.

Transforming blood-red cinnabar
into mirrored mercury

seems remarkable on its own.

But adding just
one more simple chemical

can change it back again.

Sella: But you can now take
that mercury

and heat it up slightly
differently with sulfur,

which you obtain
from volcanoes.

And in doing so, you regenerate
this astonishing red material.

You get back, in a sense,
to your starting point,

and so the fact that you have
this closed loop

becomes almost a metaphor
for this idea

that you start, you die,

and then, perhaps,
you can be reborn.

The mercury/cinnabar pair

reflected an entire
belief system.

The ancient Chinese believed

the world was built
from opposites --

heaven and earth,

day and night,

male and female.

They called these opposing
forces the yin and yang.

The two powers are
always held in harmony.

Ancient alchemy played
with these forces.

They could transform cinnabar's
yang into mercury's yin

and mercury's yin
back into cinnabar's yang.

They believed that by
repeating the cycle,

they could control time

and create the elixir of life.

Some scholars believe
that alchemists told the emperor

to consume potions
laced with mercury

so that he might live forever.

But Andrea thinks

the mixture may have done
exactly the opposite.

With the benefit of hindsight,
there's a real irony

in the fact
that here was a man

who was seeking immortality
through mercury,

when we now realize

that mercury is a very,
very poisonous element.

It does all kinds
of nasty stuff,

and so it's not surprising,
really, that he died suddenly.

The first emperor died
when he was just 50 years old --

his vast tomb still unfinished.

Workers had already made
thousands of soldiers

for the terracotta army

that would defend
his empire of the dead.

But how did workshops more used
to making clay roof tiles

suddenly start producing
these incredible sculptures?

And can the discovery of this
mysterious jade death suit

help investigators
figure out what happened

to the first emperor's body?

I think this gives us
a possible clue --

a vision of what might be

at the core
of the first emperor's tomb.

China's first emperor built
a terracotta army

of almost 8,000 warriors.

But no Chinese craftsman
had attempted

to create such lifelike
statues before.

William Lindesay is
investigating

how they managed
to achieve this incredible feat

with no previous experience
to draw on.

To think that those are
the finger marks

made by an artisan
2,200 years ago

is absolutely amazing.

Each warrior
is totally unique...

...with individual
facial expressions,

hairstyles...

and clothes.

Although they're weathered
today,

in their prime, each soldier
was painted in striking color.

They were a dazzling spectacle
of vivid pigments --

red, green, purple, and yellow.

The emperor's supernatural army
stood shining in all its glory.

William has come to a workshop
to meet a craftsman

who creates replica warriors
for export every day.

Lindesay: This workshop
is able to churn out

more than 10,000
life-size warriors every year,

and they're able to do so
because they have a fast method,

using molds to do the torsos.

Today, master craftsman
Han Pingzhe uses modern methods,

but he also studies how
the ancient craftsmen worked.

Master Han believes
the ancient Chinese

couldn't have used molds
for the warriors' torsos

because they didn't
have plaster.

Instead, they must have
used a much simpler method

more commonly used
for building pots.

Master Han shows William
pictures

that reveal how the craftsmen
in the first emperor's reign

built the soldiers.

Lindesay:
When you look at this picture,

you can see
these layers of coils.

Each one is about
an inch and a half in height,

and it's clear that
the body of the torso

was built up in that manner
up to shoulder level.

They build up
the warrior's torso,

just as the ancient Chinese did.

We've got to wait now,
until it dries.

If we were to continue,

the burden of the clay
would basically make it slump.

So the method here is
do a bit, wait a long time.

Making each soldier with
coiled clay was a slow process.

A factory line created hundreds
of legs on spinning lathes.

Another team coiled the arms,
and another made the heads.

The craftsmen coiled clay
into a hollow torso

and carved intricate
details by hand.

Then workers baked
the body parts in a kiln

at nearly
2,000 degrees Fahrenheit,

standing the heavy torsos
upside down

so they didn't topple over.

Finally, workers
assembled the pieces,

lacquered and painted
the figures,

and the soldiers
were ready for battle.

Incredibly, the ancient
Chinese craftsmen

who made these lifelike statues
started out as potters

who made terracotta
building materials.

but William’s convinced

they were transformed
into fine artists

by the threat
of extreme violence.

The evidence for this can be
found in the makers' marks

stamped on each clay warrior.

Lindesay: The purpose of these characters
was to assign responsibility

for the quality
of workmanship.

They were useful, perhaps,
if any work was substandard.

If any expression on
a warrior's face was not liked,

the inspectors of the warriors

could easily trace back
to the workshop

and mete out whatever
punishment they liked.

William has more evidence

that shows just how ruthless
the first emperor could be.

Lindesay: Just beside his burial mound,

a graveyard of shallow pits
has been found,

and it's full of skeletons --
skulls, ribs, limbs.

I can see everything here --
even teeth.

Very, very gruesome images

that show us,
once the burial mound was built,

the workers were cast
into the pits --

perhaps buried alive.

China's histories tell us

that the first emperor's
terrifying regime

buried alive
not only slave laborers,

but scholars, too.

His ministers ordered
the burning of books.

Under the first emperor,
China was a totalitarian state.

The first emperor meted out
collective punishment,

which means if
one person fouls up,

any poor work submitted,

the whole workforce
would have been put to death.

By enforcing such
extreme conditions,

the first emperor ensured

that the warriors
the workshops produced

were faultless
and ready to face any enemy.

But what frightened him
so much?

And who was he
expecting to fight?

China's first emperor built
a life-size replica army

to stand guard
over his vast mausoleum complex.

But were these
terracotta warriors

just very convincing
toy soldiers?

Or were they really
expected to fight?

When we see
the terracotta warriors,

we don't see any
weapons in their hands

because the weapons
were all found on the ground,

and they're now
in the museums.

William Lindesay has
special permission

to inspect some of the
2,200-year-old weapons

unearthed alongside
the warriors.

Lindesay: The gem here is this
magnificent bronze sword.

The profile of the blade,
the sharpness in the lethal tip

would have been
plunged through armor.

The warriors' weapons were real,

but who were
they going to fight?

Professor Zhang Weixing
is working at a pit

immediately to the east
of the burial mound.

The floor of the pit
is covered

in thousands
of mysterious stone squares.

Professor Zhang believes
that they're a clue

to the warriors' potential foe.

His team is picking
up the pieces.

The pieces are jumbled together

like a jigsaw
tipped out of its box.

But unlike the bronze weapons,

this material is like nothing
used by a real-life army.

Piecing together
the shards of stone...

...transforms the fragments
into a vest of armor.

More than 600 pieces...

are fastened together
with bronze wires.

Each piece is just
1/10 inch thick...

...and would shatter
under a hard blow.

If this suit were made
for a living army,

it would be made of leather.

So why is it made of stone?

This suit of stone armor

took professor Zhang's team
six months to piece together.

And professor Zhang believes
he's cracked the riddle

of its surprising
building material.

The stone armor was designed
to offer protection

against evil spirits
in the afterlife --

because the emperor
had good reason

to be fearful
of vengeful ghosts.

In his lifetime,
the first emperor

invaded six neighboring states
to unify China,

and he made many enemies
who wanted him dead.

One assassin attacked him

with a poison dagger
wrapped in a map,

one with a metal-ended lute,

and another dropped a metal cone
on his traveling carriage.

they all failed,
but the first emperor

was afraid of similar attacks
when dead,

so he provided
suits of stone armor

for the spirits
of his fallen comrades.

These ghosts could fight
alongside the terracotta army

in a battle of the dead.

The combined forces of
the first emperor's spirit army

were expected
to defend the universe

he would rule in the afterlife.

But what treasures did
the first emperor take with him

when he died?

The amazing thing
about this chariot is,

if it was pulled,
the moving parts would rotate.

It's such a brilliant
piece of art.

The terracotta warriors

stand guard over a universe
of artistic brilliance.

Lindesay: The surface of the horses
and the detail on the chariot

is absolutely outstanding.

The sleeves of the charioteer -
you can see the creases there.

They look almost realistic,
but they're made in bronze.

It really is a masterpiece.

William believes
the level of artistry achieved

by the first emperor's craftsmen
created a calm oasis

in the first emperor's
hellish world.

Lindesay: The emperor is taking everything
he experienced in his life

to the underworld with him.

The beauty, the magnificence
of this chariot,

and the drama of those acrobats,

I think they're just a hint
of the glorious things

that must lie
in the underground palace

of the first emperor,

and that's a phenomenally
exciting prospect

for the future.

The first emperor
imagined a life after death

of military might
and artistic genius.

But when he died, what happened
to the world he left behind?

The first emperor was buried
in a magnificent mausoleum

and protected by thousands
of terracotta warriors.

But archaeologists
have discovered more

than just people made from clay
in the vicinity of his tomb.

Archaeologists have discovered
99 pits sealed underground.

They contain dark secrets.

Surprisingly, the burial
chambers are empty.

But between
the entrance doorways,

dismembered human bones lie
scattered across the ground.

Somebody threw the body parts
into the tomb passageways

without ceremony.

Whose bones are they?

And why are they here?

Dr. Zhu Sihong is
an archaeologist

at the mausoleum museum.

He's looking for clues

that might reveal
who the bones belong to.

The history of
the first emperor,

written 100 years
after his death,

describes those buried
alongside him in his tomb.

The emperor had many mistresses,

and legend has it that
some were murdered.

Could these be their bones?

Dr. Zhu knows
the sex of the skeleton.

Lying alongside the bones,

archaeologists unearthed another
crucial piece of evidence --

the most ancient pearls
ever found in China.

Dr. Zhu believes the bones
and pearls back up the story

that the first emperor's son,
Huhai,

murdered
his father's mistresses.

But Huhai's rule was rocked
by political strife.

In the main pit, William is
looking for evidence

of this vicious end
to the empire.

See this warrior, here, this
color is not the original color.

No, this is the original color,
and this has been burned,

and it gives us a clue

of how the emperor's dream
of his dynasty,

his empire lasting
for 10,000 generations,

came to a very sudden end.

Within a decade of his death,
the dynasty was overthrown.

William believes
the scorch marks are evidence

that rebels
overthrew the empire

and tomb raiders ransacked
the terracotta warriors.

Lindesay: The rebels entered
those tunnels,

set fire to the chambers,

and caused the whole thing
to collapse.

The rebels
who overran the empire

destroyed as much of
the first emperor's mausoleum

as they could.

But archaeologists believe

that the first emperor's tomb
was untouched.

After 2,200 years buried
beneath the ground,

could there be anything
left of his body?

The discovery of
the terracotta army

has transformed
our understanding

of the man who unified China.

But archaeologists still have
countless unknown pits

and hidden tombs to unearth.

What treasures might the next
40 years of excavations find?

William Lindesay believes
the greatest surprise of all

may lie inside
the first emperor's coffin.

Jade was prized even
more highly than gold,

and the Chinese believed
it had magical properties.

This is the death suit
of Liu Wu, a Chinese prince

who died just 66 years
after the first emperor.

His extraordinary burial suit

is made of over 2,000
individual pieces of jade --

a green stone
treasured by the Chinese.

The first emperor was on a
constant search for immortality,

and all his successors
inherited the same obsession.

To the ancient Chinese,
life after death was possible,

but only if you took
the right precautions.

The key was to ensure

that a dead person's spirit
didn't perish.

This material had the property
of preserving

the most important part
of the human being,

and without preservation
of the soul,

there would be no hope
of everlasting life.

I think this gives us
a possible clue,

a vision of what might be

at the core of
the first emperor's tomb.

If we look at how the Chinese
respected and revered jade,

I don't think we can expect
the first emperor's body

to be in any other material.

To attain immortality,

it was also crucial
that the dead body didn't decay.

That way, the spirit
would continue to have a home.

This mummified body
of a Chinese noblewoman

who died just 50 years
after the first emperor

gives us another clue

to what might lie inside
the first emperor's tomb.

To preserve her body
for millennia,

undertakers wrapped her
in 20 layers of silk,

secured with nine silk ribbons.

They filled her coffin
with 20 gallons

of a mystery acidic liquid,

sealed it with lacquer,

then placed the coffin
inside three others.

They lowered the coffins
50 feet into a vault,

where the depth kept
the body cool.

Then they packed the vault

with 5 tons
of moisture-absorbing charcoal

and sealed her in
beneath 3 feet of clay,

creating an airtight seal
so her body would never decay.

Lindesay: I think, eventually,
sooner rather than later,

the tomb will be explored.
And when the archaeologists

go into the tomb
of the first emperor,

we may find a mummified body.

The Terracotta Army

was one of the greatest
archaeological discoveries

of the 20th century.

And investigators continue
to unearth new mysteries.

Lindesay: I think if I was to come back
here in 100 years' time,

I would realize
that what I've seen today

is really just
the tip of the iceberg.

It's the beginning of
an even more amazing story.

China's first emperor
forged an empire

through military genius
and tyrannical rule.

He built a terracotta army

to fight the vanquished spirits
of his defeated enemies

and to defend a magical tomb.

Beautiful sculpture...

exquisite metalwork...

and engineering
on an unprecedented scale --

combined to create
the ultimate city of the dead

and a universe the first emperor
could rule forever.