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00:02the terracotta army a legion of mysterious clay soldiers stand ready for battle the discovery of
00:12this 8,000 strong terracotta army is really our first vivid clear view of ancient China they may
00:22guard one of the most notorious figures in China's history now archaeologists are using revolutionary
00:31imaging technologies to find out who was this extraordinary army built to protect who were its
00:41soldiers expected to fight and what magnificent treasures are they still defending to solve these
00:51mysteries will piece together the warriors will unearth ancient skeletons and blow open a hidden
01:01tomb to reveal the astonishing secrets at the heart of this ancient wonder
01:20the terracotta army one of the greatest archaeological discoveries ever made it was unearthed just 40
01:29years ago in the heart of China when I look at this man here and his bellows all around you
01:37really
01:37feel the power of the Chinese state these warriors are part of a massive ceremonial complex spread across
01:4720 square miles the warriors appear to be guarding a 150 foot high soil mound which lies one mile to
01:56the west archaeologists suspect this enormous structure hides a lavish tomb sealed over 2,000 years ago but who
02:06was the tomb built for and what threat were the warriors defending it against to find out teams of
02:15investigators unearth mysterious military hardware
02:21and scientists unravel the mysteries of ancient Chinese alchemy to do this would have just seemed like magic all part
02:33of the
02:33extraordinary effort to unlock the secrets of the terracotta army nearly 8,000 soldiers stood in perfect battle formation
02:48spanning almost three football fields each one handcrafted in the image of a warrior 2,200 years old
02:58on the front line a vanguard of crossbowmen row upon row of armed warriors stand to attention behind
03:08among them once stood 130 war chariots the soldiers stand tall but thousands more remain in ruins awaiting
03:19resurrection this formidable army gives an incredible insight into the birth of a nation
03:3121st century china is a global superpower and the world's most populous country but china as we know it
03:40today hasn't always existed in 230 BC china wasn't one nation it was divided into seven warring states
03:55historian william lindsey wants to understand how this fractured land was united to create the nation we see today
04:02when i look at this warrior i see an individual from 2 000 years ago and he and his likes
04:10they founded china
04:12today williams working with archaeologists to reveal the secrets of china's birth
04:19the team's job is to rebuild the statues through their work new clues are emerging that help answer the
04:27question what were the statues for repairing each warrior is a very long and painstaking process
04:35Dr. Lan de Sheng has spent the past 23 years piecing together the clues
04:41Dr. Lan de Sheng has spent the past 24 years piecing together the clues
04:42University of China in Ontario
04:57Every completed soldier adds another layer to the Terracotta Army's story.
05:03But it's taken four decades for the team to rebuild just one quarter of all the warriors.
05:15One, two people can be able to rebuild.
05:20They need to be able to build together the forces of the military to be able to rebuild.
05:27So this is a real challenge.
05:31But today, innovative 3D laser scanning technology is speeding up the process
05:37and allowing archaeologists to discover exactly why these Terracotta statues were built.
05:45Professor Zhang Weixing is the Chief Archaeologist at the Terracotta Army Museum.
06:06The 3D scans allow a computer to build a virtual model of the statue.
06:13Using this technique, the team has uncovered something extraordinary.
06:18Not all the statues were designed to stand guard.
06:21We have a series of work in the building.
06:24So we can create this type of machine.
06:30This is a very important part of our work.
06:34Although most of the statues are ready for battle, a handful appear ready to entertain.
06:41Together with the soldiers, the acrobats paint a picture of courtly ritual and imperial power.
06:57They appear to have been created to defend and entertain the ruler of an ancient empire from beyond the grave.
07:05But who was this leader?
07:08One man seems to be missing from this Terracotta universe.
07:13The man who built it.
07:18William is on the hut for him in the warrior command pit.
07:23This pit is the command center for the whole Terracotta Army.
07:27There are 68 warriors down there.
07:29But the key group is right in the center.
07:31A chariot group.
07:33The chariot's drawn by four horses.
07:36Behind them, there are four men.
07:38But the grouping looks unbalanced.
07:41It seems there's one man missing.
07:44The army's commander-in-chief should be here.
07:49But he's nowhere to be seen.
07:52Some people think that could be the commander of the army himself, the emperor.
07:58Many archaeologists believe the missing figure is China's first emperor.
08:04A military genius, he conquered six neighboring states to unify China.
08:11And he believed that even death wouldn't put an end to his rule.
08:16A power-hungry megalomaniac, he craved immortality.
08:21And believed he would rise from the dead to take his place as the Terracotta Army's supreme leader.
08:29Archaeologists believe his body lies here.
08:32In this mysterious mound.
08:36Tales from ancient China.
08:38Describe the mound as containing an incredible secret.
08:46A burial complex sealed deep below the earth.
08:52But for over 2,000 years, no one has ever laid eyes on this masterpiece.
08:59The tomb walls are said to be made from compacted earth.
09:04Towering 150 feet tall.
09:07And the stories claim that at the tomb's core lies a sacred crypt where the first emperor was laid to
09:13rest.
09:16This tomb may hold the secrets of China's first ruler.
09:20But for now, it remains one of history's greatest enigmas.
09:27If the treasures in the first emperor's tomb promised to be so spectacular, why haven't archaeologists already uncovered them?
09:36For decades, the Chinese have said, no, we're not going to explore it, we're not going to excavate it because
09:41we don't have the expertise or the preservation skills to save those antiquities.
09:48But I think, sooner or later, curiosity is going to get the better of them.
09:53They're going to open up the tomb of the first emperor.
09:58The ancient Chinese were buried with all the items they'd need in the afterlife.
10:04The earliest tombs were simple pits containing food and weapons.
10:09But over time, the tombs became ever more elaborate.
10:15Thousands of items were added.
10:17Chariots, musical instruments, and ornaments.
10:21The tombs became underground palaces built for the deceased to roam in the afterlife.
10:28But did the first emperor have even greater ambitions?
10:32Stories claim his tomb houses a recreation of all the lands he had conquered.
10:38A subterranean empire he could rule for eternity.
10:43These ancient legends describe the first emperor's tomb as a monument of unmatched extravagance.
10:50Filled with underground treasures, including a giant map of his empire crossed with rivers of flowing mercury.
11:00But is this bizarre legend true?
11:11The terracotta warriors stand guard over one of the largest tombs ever built.
11:17An ancient legend describes the tomb's secrets.
11:21But could this legend be true?
11:26It tells that at the heart of the colossal mound, the emperor is buried in an underground palace.
11:35A map of China adorns the floor.
11:38With rivers of flowing mercury that weave between mountains made of bronze.
11:46The rivers encircle the emperor's sarcophagus, his final resting place.
11:52And he lies beneath glistening jewels that mimic the starry sky.
11:57The legends paint a picture of a tomb unlike anything seen before in the ancient world.
12:04But are these colorful accounts pure fantasy?
12:07Or could they really be true?
12:13Today, Professor Zhang and his team are on the mausoleum mound.
12:19They're testing the soil, looking for signs of mercury.
12:22What made the first emperor feel free?
12:24What made the first emperor feel free?
12:49What made the first emperor feel free?
12:52To fill his mausoleum with this mysterious metal.
12:57Andrea Sella is a research chemist with a lifelong love of mercury.
13:02To obtain bulk mercury, and certainly enough to be able to make a little, a river of it, you would
13:11have to be operating on many helos, possibly tons scale.
13:16As a professor of chemistry, Andrea relies on centuries of accumulated knowledge to understand the world around him.
13:25He believes the ancient Chinese had a very different understanding of chemistry.
13:30They saw it as something magical.
13:34The quest for magic is in many ways a quest for understanding.
13:39I think it emerges out of the same impulse as the scientific process.
13:45The ancient Chinese were obsessed with a magical practice known as alchemy.
13:52They could perform remarkable feats, like the transformation of the ore cinnabar into metal.
13:58They believed this was a magical process that they could use to cheat death.
14:05When you see cinnabar, you realize what makes it special.
14:09If I take out a little bit and put it into this mortar and pestle, you really get the idea.
14:18This is almost the color of blood.
14:21It is this extraordinary pigment, one which has captured the imagination of people from time immemorial.
14:29There are cave paintings from across the world where animals have been drawn using cinnabar.
14:35Yet for all the wonder of this incredibly colored pigment, the really amazing thing happens when you start to heat
14:44it.
14:45The cinnabar undergoes a remarkable transformation.
14:49So we get a little bit of condensation, but immediately it starts to darken.
14:53You can see the color change.
14:55The red powder turns black.
14:57Wow, that was much faster than I expected actually.
15:01This black powder then transforms into a liquid, which then vaporizes and coats the walls of the flask with mercury.
15:11And so the amazing thing here is that we've actually got a mirror on the walls.
15:16It's a mercury mirror.
15:18We've actually transformed our beautiful red cinnabar into this weird silvery substance.
15:28The product of this reaction is a material that captured the ancient Chinese imagination.
15:35Andrea has a flask full of the stuff.
15:41If you take a little bit of mercury, you really understand why people used to call it quicksilver.
15:48It's because it dances around.
15:52It's almost as if this material were alive.
15:58Transforming blood red cinnabar into mirrored mercury seems remarkable on its own.
16:05But adding just one more simple chemical can change it back again.
16:11But you can now take that mercury and heat it up slightly differently with sulfur, which you obtain from volcanoes.
16:20And in doing so, you regenerate this astonishing red material.
16:26You get back in a sense to your starting point.
16:29And so the fact that you have this closed loop becomes almost a metaphor for this idea that you start,
16:40you die, and then perhaps you can be reborn.
16:45The mercury cinnabar pair reflected an entire belief system.
16:52The ancient Chinese believed the world was built from opposites.
16:56Heaven and earth.
16:59Day and night.
17:01Male and female.
17:04They called these opposing forces the yin and yang.
17:08The two powers are always held in harmony.
17:15Ancient alchemy played with these forces.
17:18They could transform cinnabar's yang into mercury's yin.
17:22And mercury's yin back into cinnabar's yang.
17:26They believed that by repeating the cycle, they could control time.
17:32And create the elixir of life.
17:37Some scholars believe that alchemists told the emperor to consume potions laced with mercury.
17:43So that he might live forever.
17:47But Andrea thinks the mixture may have done exactly the opposite.
17:53With the benefit of hindsight, there's a real irony in the fact that here was a man who was seeking
18:00immortality through mercury.
18:02When we now realize that mercury is a very, very poisonous element.
18:08It does all kinds of nasty stuff.
18:10And so it's not surprising, really, that he died suddenly.
18:15The first emperor died when he was just fifty years old.
18:19His vast tomb still unfinished.
18:24Workers had already made thousands of soldiers for the terracotta army.
18:27That would defend his empire of the dead.
18:33But how did workshops more used to making clay roof tiles suddenly start producing these incredible sculptures?
18:43And can the discovery of this mysterious jade death suit help investigators figure out what happened to the first emperor's
18:53body?
18:54I think this gives us a possible clue, a vision of what might be at the core of the first
19:01emperor's tomb.
19:14China's first emperor built a terracotta army of almost 8,000 warriors.
19:19But no Chinese craftsman had attempted to create such lifelike statues before.
19:27William Lindsay is investigating how they managed to achieve this incredible feat with no previous experience to draw on.
19:35To think that those are the finger marks made by an artisan 2,200 years ago is absolutely amazing.
19:49Each warrior is totally unique.
19:55With individual facial expressions.
19:59Hairstyles.
20:01And clothes.
20:04Although they're weathered today.
20:07In their prime, each soldier was painted in striking color.
20:13They were a dazzling spectacle of vivid pigments.
20:17Red, green, purple and yellow.
20:22The emperor's supernatural army stood shining in all its glory.
20:34William has come to a workshop to meet a craftsman who creates replica warriors for export every day.
20:42This workshop is able to churn out more than 10,000 life-size warriors every year.
20:48And they're able to do so because they have a fast method using molds to do the torsos.
20:55Today, master craftsman Hong Ping-Jer uses modern methods.
21:01But he also studies how the ancient craftsman worked.
21:19Master Han believes the ancient Chinese couldn't have used molds for the warriors' torsos because they didn't have plaster.
21:27Instead, they must have used a much simpler method more commonly used for building pots.
21:46Master Han shows William pictures that reveal how the craftsman in the first emperor's reign built the soldiers.
21:54When you look at this picture, you can see these layers of coils.
21:59Each one is about an inch and a half in height.
22:02And it's clear that the body of the torso was built up in that manner up to shoulder level.
22:10They build up the warrior's torso just as the ancient Chinese did.
22:16We've got to wait now until it dries.
22:19If we were to continue, the burden of the clay would basically make it slump.
22:27So the method here is do a bit, wait a long time.
22:35Making each soldier with coiled clay was a slow process.
22:42A factory line created hundreds of legs on spinning lathes.
22:46Another team coiled the arms, and another made the heads.
22:53The craftsman coiled clay into a hollow torso and carved intricate details by hand.
23:04Then, workers baked the body parts in a kiln at nearly 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
23:10Standing the heavy torsos upside down so they didn't topple over.
23:15Finally, workers assembled the pieces.
23:19Lacquered and painted the figures.
23:21And the soldiers were ready for battle.
23:26Incredibly, the ancient Chinese craftsmen who made these lifelike statues started out as potters who made terracotta building materials.
23:37But Williams convinced they were transformed into fine artists by the threat of extreme violence.
23:46The evidence for this can be found in the makers' marks stamped on each clay warrior.
23:53The purpose of these characters was to assign responsibility for the quality of workmanship.
23:59They were useful, perhaps, if any work was substandard.
24:04If any expression on a warrior's face was not liked, the inspectors of the warriors could easily trace back to
24:12the workshop and meet out whatever punishment they liked.
24:18William has more evidence that shows just how ruthless the first emperor could be.
24:24Just beside his burial mound, a graveyard of shallow pits has been found.
24:31And it's full of skeletons, skulls, ribs, limbs, I can see everything here, even teeth.
24:39Very, very gruesome images that show us, once the burial mound was built, the workers were cast into the pits,
24:48perhaps buried alive.
24:51China's histories tell us that the first emperor's terrifying regime buried alive not only slave laborers, but scholars too.
25:01His ministers ordered the burning of books.
25:05Under the first emperor, China was a totalitarian state.
25:11The first emperor meted out collective punishment, which means if one person fouls up any poor work submitted, the whole
25:21workforce would have been put to death.
25:24By enforcing such extreme conditions, the first emperor ensured that the warriors the workshops produced were faultless and ready to
25:33face any enemy.
25:38But what frightened him so much? And who was he expecting to fight?
25:54China's first emperor built a life-size replica army to stand guard over his vast mausoleum complex.
26:02But were these terracotta warriors just very convincing toy soldiers?
26:08Or were they really expected to fight?
26:12When we see the terracotta warriors, we don't see any weapons in their hands because the weapons were all found
26:22on the ground and they're now in the museums.
26:24William Lindsay has special permission to inspect some of the 2,200-year-old weapons unearthed alongside the warriors.
26:34The gem here is this magnificent bronze sword.
26:39The profile of the blade, the sharpness and the lethal tip that would have been plunged through armor.
26:51The warriors' weapons were real.
26:54But who were they going to fight?
26:58Professor Zhang Weixing is working at a pit immediately to the east of the burial mound.
27:04The floor of the pit is covered in thousands of mysterious stone squares.
27:10Professor Zhang believes that they're a clue to the warriors' potential foe.
27:16His team is picking up the pieces.
27:28The pieces are jumbled together like a jigsaw tipped out of its box.
27:34But unlike the bronze weapons, this material is like nothing used by a real-life army.
27:41The mortar could use of stone voila u.
27:52The mortar!
27:54The mortar!
27:55The mortar!
28:00The mortar!
28:06The mortar!
28:09of armor. More than 600 pieces are fastened together with bronze wires. Each piece is
28:23just a tenth of an inch thick and would shatter under a hard blow. If this suit were made
28:33for a living army, it would be made of leather. So why is it made of stone?
29:00This suit of stone armor took Professor Zhang's team six months to piece together. And Professor
29:08Zhang believes he's cracked the riddle of its surprising building material.
29:33The stone armor was designed to offer protection against evil
29:38spirits in the afterlife. Because the Emperor had good reason to be fearful of vengeful
29:45ghosts. In his lifetime, the first Emperor invaded six neighboring states to unify China. And
29:55he made many enemies who wanted him dead. One assassin attacked him with a poison dagger wrapped
30:02in a map. One with a metal-ended loot. And another dropped a metal cone on his traveling carriage.
30:10They all failed, but the first Emperor was afraid of similar attacks when dead. So he provided
30:17suits of stone armor for the spirits of his fallen comrades. These ghosts could fight alongside
30:24the terracotta army in a battle of the dead. The combined forces of the first Emperor's spirit army were expected
30:35to defend the universe he would rule in the afterlife. But what treasures did the first Emperor take with him
30:41when he died? The amazing thing about this chariot is if it was pulled, the moving parts would rotate. It's
30:51such a
30:52brilliant piece of art. The terracotta warriors stand guard over a universe of artistic brilliance. The surface of the horses
31:04and the detail on the chariot is absolutely outstanding.
31:09The sleeves of the chariot here. You can see the creases there. They look almost realistic, but they're made in
31:19bronze. It really is a masterpiece.
31:23William believes the level of artistry achieved by the first Emperor's craftsmen created a calm oasis in the first Emperor's
31:31hellish world.
31:33The Emperor is taking everything he experienced in his life to the underworld with him. The beauty, the magnificence of
31:43this chariot and the drama of those acrobats, I think they're just a hint of the glorious things that must
31:51lie in the underground palace of the first Emperor. And that's a phenomenally exciting prospect for the future.
32:01The first Emperor imagined a life after death of military might and artistic genius. But when he died, what happened
32:10to the world he left behind?
32:21The first Emperor was buried in a magnificent mausoleum and protected by thousands of terracotta warriors. But archaeologists have discovered
32:32more than just people made from clay in the vicinity of his tomb.
32:50Archaeologists have discovered 99 pits sealed underground. They contain dark secrets. Surprisingly, the burial chambers are empty. But between the
33:05entrance doorways, the entrance doorways are empty.
33:07Dismembered human bones lie scattered across the ground. Somebody threw the body parts into the tomb passageways without ceremony.
33:21Whose bones are they?
33:24Whose bones are they? And why are they here?
33:39And why are they here?
33:43The history of the first Emperor, written 100 years after his death, describes those buried alongside him in his tomb.
34:10The Emperor had many mistresses, and legend has it that some were murdered. Could these be their bones?
34:30Dr. Zhu knows the sex of the skeleton.
34:34Dr. Zhu knows the sex of the skeleton.
34:47The most ancient pearls ever found in China.
34:54The most ancient pearls ever found in China.
34:58Dr. Zhu believes the bones and pearls back up the story that the first Emperor's son, Hu Hai, murdered his
35:06father's mistresses.
35:10But Hu Hai's rule was rocked by political strife.
35:14Dr. Zhu knows the soldier...
35:29In the main pit,
35:31William is looking for evidence of this vicious end to the Empire.
35:36see this warrior here this color is not the original color no this is the original color
35:42and this has been burned and it gives us a clue of how the emperor's dream of his dynasty his
35:50empire lasting for 10 000 generations came to a very sudden end within a decade of his death
35:57the dynasty was overthrown william believes the scorch marks are evidence that rebels
36:04overthrew the empire and tomb raiders ransacked the terracotta warriors the rebels entered those
36:11tunnels set fire to the chambers and caused the whole thing to collapse
36:19the rebels who overran the empire destroyed as much of the first emperor's mausoleum as they could
36:28but archaeologists believe that the first emperor's tomb was untouched
36:33after 2 200 years buried beneath the ground could there be anything left of his body
36:48the discovery of the terracotta army has transformed our understanding of the man who unified china
36:56but archaeologists still have countless unknown pits and hidden tombs to unearth
37:02what treasures might the next 40 years of excavations find william lindsay believes the greatest surprise of
37:10all may lie inside the first emperor's coffin jade was prized even more highly than gold and the chinese believed
37:20it had magical properties
37:23this is the death suit of liu wu a chinese prince who died just 66 years after the first emperor
37:32his extraordinary burial suit is made of over 2 000 individual pieces of jade
37:39a green stone treasured by the chinese
37:43the first emperor was on a constant search for immortality and all his successors inherited the
37:49same obsession to the ancient chinese life after death was possible but only if you took the right
37:56precautions the key was to ensure that a dead person's spirit didn't perish
38:03this material had the property of preserving the most important part
38:09of the human being and without preservation of the soul there would be no hope of everlasting life
38:17i think this gives us a possible clue a vision of what might be at the core of the first
38:24emperor's tomb
38:25if we look at how the chinese respected and revered jade i don't think we can expect the first emperor's
38:33body to be in any other material to attain immortality it was also crucial that the dead body didn't decay
38:43that way the spirit would continue to have a home
38:48this mummified body of a chinese noble woman who died just 50 years after the first emperor
38:55gives us another clue to what might lie inside the first emperor's tomb
39:00to preserve her body for millennia undertakers wrapped her in 20 layers of silk secured with nine silk ribbons
39:12they filled her coffin with 20 gallons of a mystery acidic liquid sealed it with lacquer then placed the
39:20coffin inside three others they lowered the coffins 50 feet into a vault
39:28the vault where the depth kept the body cool
39:32then they packed the vault with five tons of moisture absorbing charcoal and sealed her in beneath three
39:39feet of clay creating an airtight seal so her body would never decay
39:46i think eventually sooner rather than later the tomb will be explored and when
39:53the archaeologists go into the tomb of the first emperor we may find a mummified body
40:04the terracotta army was one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the 20th century
40:11and investigators continue to unearth new mysteries
40:36i think if i was to come back here in a hundred years time
40:41i would realize that what i've seen today is really just the tip of the iceberg it's the beginning of
40:48an even more amazing story china's first emperor forged an empire through military genius and tyrannical rule
41:00he built a terracotta army to fight the vanquished spirits of his defeated enemies
41:07and to defend a magical tomb beautiful sculpture exquisite metalwork and engineering on an unprecedented scale
41:19combined to create the ultimate city of the dead
41:22the ultimate city of the dead and a universe the first emperor could rule forever
41:27the universe the first emperor could rule forever
41:28the universe the first emperor could rule forever
41:40the world
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