Piecing the Past Together

Fresh out of Beijing, we land outside Xi’an and within minutes we’re whisked away on a coach to a museum just outside the city. This museum is a recent discovery as it contains miniature versions of the Terracotta Warriors, almost toy-like. We enter a giant pyramid and gather around a display case where the era is set and get a brief glimpse of the area’s history. Around eighty pits have been discovered which have been split into three large sections. We descend a dark tunnel to examine the first of the pits which contains some pottery. It’s dimly lit to preserve the area, and we walk through contained tunnels so as not to disturb the atmosphere, but the glass doesn’t make taking photographs easy. There are substantial numbers of child dolls, cows and pigs, and what could be urns with stoppers shaped like the head and body of people. There’s also models of horses with carriages in various scales and some are painted, although these could be for reconstruction purposes rather than being the actual discovery.