
The first discovery made was in March of 1974 with the Terracotta Warriors being unearthed. A group of local peasants were in the process of building a well when their shovels hit upon what at first was thought to be a strange shaped rock but in actuality turned out to be the head of one of the buried warriors. Since this discovery, more than 8000 Terracotta warriors have been unearthed in several large pits about a mile near the pyramid. Amazingly, each one of these warriors was buried with real bronze age weapons and were painted with individual facial characteristics and colors. There have been many ranks of military personnel unearthed in the pits with examples of cavalrymen, kneeling archers, commanding officers and most prevalent of all are the foot soldiers. Many theories have been proposed to explain why these warriors were built and then buried but the one reason most archaeologists agree upon is they were most likely a military force to accompany the emperor in the afterlife. What is odd, is that there is no mention of these figures in any of the records from that time period though. Along with all of the warriors discovered, there have also been many more items found too. Numerous life size horses have been unearthed in formation with the warriors, a few half scaled bronze chariots have been found, and real stables with lamps, shovels and mangers have been unearthed too.