Wanted: New recruits for China’s ancient Terracotta Army

Archaeologists have resumed excavations at the site where the famed Terracotta Army of Qin Shi Huang, China’s first emperor, was discovered in 1974. Scholars estimate that around 8,000 life-size sculptures of soldiers, horses and chariots were buried at the emperor’s vast mausoleum complex in Xi’an, north-west China, in the third century BC. Archaeologists are excavating pit no 2, where they expect to find around 1,400 soldiers and horses, 89 war chariots and 116 warriors on horseback. The tomb complex-turned-museum is a major tourist attraction, drawing more than two million visitors a year.