Speaker 1 (00:00:00):
Coming up on Art Palace. 

Speaker 2 (00:00:03):
Actually, the entire complex is 38 square miles 

Speaker 1 (00:00:07):
Yaa. 

Speaker 2 (00:00:08):
That's half the size of the city of Cincinnati. 

Speaker 1 (00:00:24):
Welcome to Art Palace, produced by Cincinnati Art Museum. This is your host, Russell Iig. Here at the Art Palace, we meet cool people and then talk to them about art. Today's cool person is Helen Rensburg, one of our docents who will be taking me on a tour of the exhibition Terracotta Army Legacy of the First Emperor of China. So we are looking at a map here in now. This will be a good test. Does Russell know the name of the exhibition that we're standing in? I know it is Terracotta Army Legacy of the first Emperor of China. 

Speaker 2 (00:01:11):
Correct. Yay. 

Speaker 1 (00:01:13):
Hooray. I got it. Okay, so we are looking at a map here. What is this map we're looking at? 

Speaker 2 (00:01:19):
This map begins the exhibit because it shows how the Chin Dynasty grew, spread from the western area of China into the eastern area of China. Then conquered the seven warring states. That's when the first emperor was king, before it became emperor. 

Speaker 1 (00:01:36):
So at this point, these are all like, this is a state here. Chen is a state. Correct. And Han is a state, Chu is a state. These are all 

Speaker 2 (00:01:45):
Way Dow, Jan and Key, 

Speaker 1 (00:01:48):
And they're all fighting each other 

Speaker 2 (00:01:49):
For hundreds of years. 

Speaker 1 (00:01:50):
Yeah, yeah. 

Speaker 2 (00:01:52):
The warring states periods lasted a pretty long time, but as the Chin Dynasty grew in power because they were able to expand agriculturally and get wealth, they got the wealth to move to the east and actually people immigrated into the chin area because it was someplace they could make a living and survive. So you had more soldiers, you had more resources, and with that they one by one conquered each of the seven warring states, and with that probably grew to an area close to half of what the size of the United States is today. 

Speaker 1 (00:02:32):
Wow. 

Speaker 2 (00:02:33):
Yeah. 

Speaker 1 (00:02:34):
Yeah. It's easy to forget how truly big China is. It's one of those weird things with the kind of projected maps that we have too with it ends up looking a little bit smaller on a lot of maps, I think, than it really is. 

Speaker 2 (00:02:51):
But I went on Google last night and the area of least present day China is nearly exactly the same as the area of present United States. Yeah. 

Speaker 1 (00:03:00):
I found this cool website that lets you pick up countries and move them around the map to see how the distortion affects their scale and relationship. And China was one that I moved over to the United States. I was like, oh my gosh. It is almost exactly the same size as the United States. That's right. Yeah, 

Speaker 2 (00:03:18):
That's right. It's pretty amazing. 

Speaker 1 (00:03:20):
Yeah. 

Speaker 2 (00:03:21):
So what the chin we're doing, we're moving from the western mountains of China into basically the agricultural rice bowl and wheat bowl of China, which gave them a lot of wealth with that gave 'em a lot of power. So eventually for those who can't see the map, it came down about the area of Shanghai and eventually the empire came all the way down to where Hong Kong is now. So it grew in the very short 15 years that the empire was under emperor. 

Speaker 1 (00:04:02):
Okay. Wow. I'm glad we're looking at this too, just because I am generally pretty bad geography student, so this is good to orient me as well. Also in all of this stuff, I was like, oh, okay. Until I visit a place I don't bother usually checking a map out chat geography. It's like, yeah, I know roughly where it is on the globe, but I don't know all its details. Right. Alright, well, should we move on to 

Speaker 2 (00:04:32):
Sure. What I'd like to start out with is the sword that is here because it represents the military power that the first emperor was able to consolidate under himself. The other very cool thing about this sword is that it is a very precise combination of copper and tin, which made it flexible, but very, very sharp. You'll notice how long it is. The other thing is that they used a chromium oxide on the blade that made it sharper, and it's something the modern day metallurgist didn't discover for another 2000 years. So they were ahead of the rest of the world, at least for that technology. 

Speaker 1 (00:05:15):
Yeah, wow. 

Speaker 2 (00:05:18):
Another thing that goes along with the military conquest is the battle bell that's right here. It is mounted what some people might think of as upside down right now. 

Speaker 1 (00:05:27):
Okay. 

Speaker 2 (00:05:28):
But actually it could be played this way with the open end up or the open end down because it wasn't a bell as we use today that has the clapper on the inside. It was specially constructed so that it has a oval cross section and depending on where you hit it, you got different tones of the bell. That way the person directing the battle could even give orders using this bell depending on how it was hit. 

Speaker 1 (00:05:56):
It 

Speaker 2 (00:05:56):
Could for advance retreat pause and move left, move right, move forward. So it's a pretty amazing communication tool 

Speaker 1 (00:06:08):
For 

Speaker 2 (00:06:08):
That time because their armies were huge, tens of thousands of people, and so communication across the battlefield was quite important. 

Speaker 1 (00:06:17):
Wow, I didn't realize that. 

Speaker 2 (00:06:20):
Absolutely amazing thing. Wow, 

Speaker 1 (00:06:23):
That's so cool. 

Speaker 2 (00:06:23):
When the emperor conquered the other seven warring states, 

Speaker 1 (00:06:29):
He 

Speaker 2 (00:06:29):
Inherited quite a variety of cultures with their own political systems, their own monetary systems, and in order to grow the empire, he realized that there were a couple of reforms that he needed to do. Now these reforms had been done in his own territory about a hundred years before that, and those reforms included standardizing money, standardizing weights, and standardizing writing systems because you had all these really different warlords who were taking control of different geographic areas. So what we're looking at in this case is some of the different monetary systems that were used as the emperor was consolidating his power. So some of them used these amazing bronze objects that look kind of strange to us, but they were actually agricultural knives. Then other ones are ax heads, and this went back to the fact that they would often use agricultural implements for monetary pieces. They also used fabric and other things. So it was very important that it was you could move from one part of the empire to the other as a business person and easily be able to trade your goods without working out well, five of my axes worth or two of your knives. 

Speaker 2 (00:07:56):
So what the chin did was they took their standardized coin, which is a circle that represents heaven and a square that represents the earth and made this a standard coin across the entire empire. Then your business people could easily move their goods because there was an agreed upon coin and how much it was worth. There is an inscription on it that actually we know the calligrapher that did the calligraphy that became the inscription. What's amazing is that this style of coin continued to be used for the next 2000 years in China. 

Speaker 1 (00:08:34):
Wow. Yeah, I mean it looks like something recognizable to me at least as a coin. I mean, it's kind of funny because everything else here, it looks so bizarre as money, at least to think about it when you were talking about these as knives or farming implements. It's like, yeah, if I didn't read these labels and I just up to it, I would assume they were some sort of tool or something and not at all currency. So it's kind of interesting. I love the way it's set up with all these different states and then on the other side, you have this, what's the winner? Basically, this is what came out and it's like you can tell it's like, oh, well they decided to go with the one from their own area, so this is who conquered, and this is who gets to decide what the money looks like. 

Speaker 2 (00:09:23):
The victory writes the history. 

Speaker 1 (00:09:25):
It is probably the most elegant of the solutions though, as far as, 

Speaker 2 (00:09:30):
Well, it's certainly the easiest to transport because you'll notice how much smaller it is, 

Speaker 1 (00:09:33):
And 

Speaker 2 (00:09:34):
Then because of the square on the center, they would string these on cords and it'd be very easy to carry. Well, my interests are Japan. What's very interesting is this is exactly the shape and size of the 50 y coins still in Japan today because this style was so functional and so efficient that other cultures adopted it. So the final one on the pillow here is the winner of the beauty contest, I guess you'd want to say. 

Speaker 1 (00:10:05):
Yeah. It's a little smaller it looks like than maybe the older one, 

Speaker 2 (00:10:09):
But 

Speaker 1 (00:10:10):
Still the same basic idea, 

Speaker 2 (00:10:12):
And as the economist I've studied to be, the easier it is to transport your money and that people agree that this is worth X amount than the easier it's for trade. But another thing that's really important, Russell is standardized weights. 

Speaker 1 (00:10:29):
Yeah. 

Speaker 2 (00:10:29):
That this bale of cotton or this bushel of rice is the same weight. So when I trade my coins for that, I know I'm getting the value for it. So this what looks like a bell shape or at least a Chinese bell shape 

Speaker 1 (00:10:48):
Is 

Speaker 2 (00:10:48):
Actually a weight. 

Speaker 2 (00:10:50):
So it was used to certify that something was X amount of weight. Now what you're looking at there is an edict, and that also shows both of these objects show the standardization of the writing system as well as the standardization of weights. Both objects have edicts on them that were proclamations by the emperor that this should be done or this shouldn't be done. The plaque was actually mounted somewhere in a public place so people would be able to see it. Not that everybody could read it, someone would probably have to read it to them, but it would be there. The weight also has edicts on it about what to do and what not to do, which is pretty amazing. 

Speaker 1 (00:11:36):
I am so interested in that idea of standardized measurements and the way those are always somewhat arbitrary, but the meter that has the protected case in France or wherever where it's like we're protecting the actual meter that is like, okay, this is the standard of 

Speaker 2 (00:11:58):
The time clock. 

Speaker 1 (00:11:59):
Right? So you have all of these different things that are the actual thing that is this sort of abstract idea. I don't know. I just like that it 

Speaker 2 (00:12:10):
Is really abstract 

Speaker 1 (00:12:11):
Because 

Speaker 2 (00:12:11):
The world doesn't work on hours, minutes or seconds. 

Speaker 1 (00:12:14):
Right. 

Speaker 2 (00:12:15):
Mother nature doesn't do that. 

Speaker 1 (00:12:16):
Right? Yeah. Well, yeah, standardized time. I mean, that's something people, until really the railroads, it didn't really matter. The idea of what's 12 o'clock in one town in 12 o'clock in another town didn't really matter because you're, 

Speaker 2 (00:12:32):
Until you missed the train. 

Speaker 1 (00:12:33):
Right, exactly. Until we had trains and it's like, well, it matters that this town is on the same time as that town. So I love those ideas of abstract ideas that we take for granted as well too. 

Speaker 2 (00:12:46):
Well, if we go over to the calligraphy chart, I think I can give you some information that put this in context. That's a rubbing that Holme had done for one of the items here in the gallery. What's very interesting about this, so this is at least 2,300 years old, and any modern educated Chinese person could read this because their writing system became standardized over time, and it did include this, which is called the seal script, which is a little bit more geometric than what often times we see in what we consider the lovely calligraphy 

Speaker 1 (00:13:24):
With 

Speaker 2 (00:13:25):
The graceful strokes on that one. 

Speaker 1 (00:13:28):
Yeah, yeah. I can see a little bit of a difference what you mean. There isn't the sort of line weight variation that you're used to. Correct. And probably largely also, this was a rubbing from stone, right? You said, so it's like when you're chiseling something, you don't have brush variation as well, so it's easier to chisel in a straight 

Speaker 2 (00:13:49):
Line. Oh, you got to see some monuments, modern monuments in Asia, they do pretty amazing job. 

Speaker 1 (00:13:53):
Well, yeah, I'm sure it's like it's mimicking the trying to mimic the brush stroke, and that's probably become just a part of, well, that's what the character looks like now is the idea of how you can make it with a brush and by varying line weight. 

Speaker 2 (00:14:07):
But to put this in context, the Egyptians in 3,150 were in the middle of the beginning of their first dynasties, and they were already developing hieroglyphics. Now, by the time that we're talking about that, the Chin Dynasty was, that was a tome period 

Speaker 1 (00:14:27):
In 

Speaker 2 (00:14:27):
Egypt. In India at 2,600 to 1900 BC India was the mature Indus civilization, which also had a writing system. Of course we're all familiar with Hammurabi and his first laws, and that was 1810 to 1750 BC and Babylonia in China itself, the Chong dynasty was 1600 to 10 46 bc and of course the Chong bronzes have quite a lot of writing on them too. So actually the writing that we're looking at here might be from the third century bc, but it had been developed over 1500 years earlier. Pretty astonishing to put that in context, isn't it? Another interesting thing is right before the Chin Alexander the Great made it to India, so we are not sure how much his influence came over into the chin, 

Speaker 1 (00:15:24):
But 

Speaker 2 (00:15:24):
It was certainly there on the Western border. If you're looking at our western world, the Greeks were in the middle of the Hellenistic period. The Romans were in the middle of the Roman Republic and here in the Americas, the Mayans were in their early classical period, and all of those, of course had writing systems, but this is the one that we didn't need translators to work on. When we found an unearthed, or I should say the Chinese found an unearthed 

Speaker 1 (00:15:55):
Just because the language had stayed the same or so similar. 

Speaker 2 (00:15:59):
So similar. 

Speaker 1 (00:16:00):
If 

Speaker 2 (00:16:00):
You come over this chart, actually Russell over here on the wall, this particular row shows the different warring states, all of the ones that this is their symbol for horse across five of the seven warring states. You can see how different they are. 

Speaker 1 (00:16:19):
Oh, yeah. 

Speaker 2 (00:16:20):
Now this is the chin, and so this had developed in the ninth century, this particular form of the pictograph, and it had started out with Oracle bones and the Chong Dynasty, then bronze, then drawn seal, which was just about the same time, I mean, was in the Chin Dynasty. Eventually it got up to the Han and then the present day, and you can see the common thing that is there, you have the horse's head with the main flying out 

Speaker 1 (00:16:54):
To the 

Speaker 2 (00:16:54):
Right. Then you have the body of the horse, and you have the four legs, and eventually that magnificent tail 

Speaker 1 (00:17:01):
Coming 

Speaker 2 (00:17:02):
Off the end. So you can see how it evolved over time and yet kept same of the same ideas across 

Speaker 1 (00:17:11):
Centuries 

Speaker 2 (00:17:11):
And centuries. 

Speaker 1 (00:17:12):
Yeah, that's when you just brought me over. The first thing I noticed about that, I was looking here at the bottom comparison of all the ones, and when I got to the last one I was like, oh, it looks like a horse. Although I didn't think of a Maine, I thought actually I was seeing more of a person riding the horse, but that makes sense. 

Speaker 2 (00:17:31):
We have a beautiful model of a grainery here, and this grainery really represents the foundation of wealth in the Chin Dynasty with its agricultural production, you were able to feed and clothe and house all of your subjects. And of course, when we get over to the terracotta warriors, that's going to be pretty interesting to understand the number of people that were involved with this whole endeavor 

Speaker 1 (00:17:58):
On 

Speaker 2 (00:17:58):
That one. Another thing that the chin did, the Chin Emperor did, is I'd like to go back up here to where the horse items are. 

Speaker 1 (00:18:07):
Okay, 

Speaker 2 (00:18:08):
Because the horse was the major means of transportation and then became of course a major status symbol. But what the chin did is you needed standardized money, you needed standardized weights, you needed standardized writing system to record all your business deals. You needed a way to get things back and forth. 

Speaker 1 (00:18:30):
So 

Speaker 2 (00:18:30):
What they did is they standardized the wagons and the width of the axles, so no matter what, you had award chariot a cart to bring your goods to market. It was all the same width. 

Speaker 1 (00:18:47):
Okay, 

Speaker 2 (00:18:47):
So if ruts develop in the road, you all fit in the same rutt, 

Speaker 1 (00:18:52):
Right? 

Speaker 2 (00:18:53):
You weren't bogged down going, I can't get out of this. What we have here is some interesting items that were used to decorate the horses, but this one is amazing, the horse neck chain, you had a beautiful beast that was doing a good job for you, and you loved your horse and you decorated him. 

Speaker 1 (00:19:15):
Yeah. Isn't 

Speaker 2 (00:19:16):
That huge? 

Speaker 1 (00:19:17):
This horse had a lot of swag. It is got imagining this baller horse walking in with this gold chain 

Speaker 2 (00:19:26):
Bling. 

Speaker 1 (00:19:27):
Yeah, yeah. Lots of bling. Lots of bling here, man. 

Speaker 2 (00:19:30):
Isn't that a common human trait though? 

Speaker 1 (00:19:32):
Yeah. Yeah. 

Speaker 2 (00:19:33):
That you've got something that you love and adore and you really try to show off. Another thing this represents is that before this, the chin considered bronze and jade more valuable than gold, but it wasn't until they had trade with the nomads from the erasion steps and they brought gold to the chin that the chin began to use gold, and it became a status symbol. Also. In fact, if we walk around here, a lot of people are going to walk past this tiny tiger. He's only about two inches long and about of an inch tall, but he's absolutely spectacular. His grinning teeth, his big ears, you can also see his muscles. These were ornaments that were put on horses and put on clothing also. 

Speaker 1 (00:20:25):
Okay, 

Speaker 2 (00:20:26):
So it shows that this particular form of animal depiction came from the nomads. The gold came from the nomads, and then the chin adapted it to their own uses. You also see these beautiful square masks 

Speaker 1 (00:20:42):
That 

Speaker 2 (00:20:42):
Are gold. Those also come from the nomads because their wealth, they actually carried on their bodies 

Speaker 1 (00:20:49):
Rather 

Speaker 2 (00:20:49):
Than the chin, which were settled people. And so you can see tiny little holes there that some of the holes were used to attach the item to the clothing, but most of them were actually used to be filled with gems or fans. So they must've been pretty spectacular when they were done. Walk a little bit over here, more swag for the horse. That beautiful. The three rosettes on the bottom would be where parts of the bridle were attached on the side of the horses, and then the piece of the top is for the forehead. 

Speaker 1 (00:21:27):
Yeah, 

Speaker 2 (00:21:28):
So I mean, you are decking your horse out here. 

Speaker 1 (00:21:31):
Yeah. These are quite lovely and very elegant design almost. They could feel very contemporary as say like art deco or something. The designs on these are very, they feel very, if I did not know this was over 2000 years old, I would just be like, oh yeah, this could be from 20 years ago or 30 years ago. 

Speaker 2 (00:21:59):
Some designer could be in here one day and two years from now, we're going to find this out in a jewelry case somewhere because it definitely is modern enough for that. 

Speaker 1 (00:22:07):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're sort of timeless, I guess. 

Speaker 2 (00:22:10):
Very timeless. 

Speaker 1 (00:22:10):
Yeah. 

Speaker 2 (00:22:11):
It's like the bowl. Darius downstairs, 

Speaker 1 (00:22:13):
Right? Sort of looks good then. Looks good now. 

Speaker 2 (00:22:16):
There you go. There you go. More status symbols here. The horses and chariots, when they had more than one horse, they might have, a lot of times they had four horses and they had a bar there that the horses were up against. Well, depending on your status, you might only be able to have one bell on that bar, but as you came up in status, you could get up to eight bells on that bar. 

Speaker 1 (00:22:40):
Oh 

Speaker 2 (00:22:41):
My. As your horses went galloping along, you had a musical accompaniment 

Speaker 1 (00:22:46):
That 

Speaker 2 (00:22:46):
Not only probably was pleasing to the ear, but also sort of Well, I've got mine. Ha ha ha. Let 

Speaker 1 (00:22:51):
Everybody know you're coming. Let 

Speaker 2 (00:22:52):
Everybody know. 

Speaker 1 (00:22:53):
Let 

Speaker 2 (00:22:53):
Everybody know. We have four small bells here that were actually buried with horses. 

Speaker 1 (00:22:58):
So 

Speaker 2 (00:22:58):
Horses were very valued in the Chin Dynasty and they look like the battle bells, don't they? 

Speaker 1 (00:23:07):
Yeah, yeah. Same basic shape. 

Speaker 2 (00:23:09):
So it had to be something that was really, really important On that one. 

Speaker 1 (00:23:13):
We'll get a little bit of musical accompanying back 

Speaker 2 (00:23:15):
Here. Yeah, a little. The music compliment. Right. 

Speaker 1 (00:23:16):
We can maybe pick up some of the bell sounds here 

Speaker 2 (00:23:19):
At one point. We'll just go stand underneath 

Speaker 1 (00:23:21):
It. Yeah, we can just hold our mics up. 

Speaker 2 (00:23:25):
Much of the exhibit includes items before the first emperor of China, before the first Chin emperor, 

Speaker 1 (00:23:33):
Because 

Speaker 2 (00:23:34):
It's really important to understand that he might've been the first emperor of China, but there have been great dynasties scattered throughout China. Before that. As we said, the Chong went back to 1600 bc, so 1400 years before this, if my math is correct. So in this case, we're seeing a few things that are very important, and I want to point out the circular items in the back. There are mirrors. 

Speaker 1 (00:24:02):
Oh, okay. 

Speaker 2 (00:24:02):
Now what we're seeing is the backside 

Speaker 1 (00:24:05):
With 

Speaker 2 (00:24:05):
The decorations on it, and the other side would've been polished. We always like to know how good we look, 

Speaker 1 (00:24:12):
So 

Speaker 2 (00:24:13):
These actually serve two purposes. The mirrors were a status symbol, and you can see the scrolling designs on there, which are quite beautiful, and on the smallest one, it's a little hard to see, but there are animal designs on that. So animals, we've seen the tiger, we've seen how important the horse was, and that is important. Hundreds of these mirrors were found in tombs of royalty before the first empire was established. Interestingly, they were shattered 

Speaker 2 (00:24:50):
And it seems like the metals that they were made of were actually made fragile enough. There was easy to shatter them. We don't know why they were shattered, and that is one of the things you always have to keep in mind in an exhibit like this. These artifacts are the witnesses to history. We have very few written records of this time that will tell us what was going on, why something was being used. So we have to look at this and kind of consider how it fit in where it was found, who it was found with, what it might've been used for. The complex, the Chins complex was discovered 44 years ago, and archeologists have been excavating for 44 years. The couriers that were here a few weeks ago to help with installation said, this will probably go on for generations. There is just so much that they're finding, it's like a giant jigsaw puzzle, and each time they find another little piece and they have to figure out where it fits into this culture and the development of this culture, and sometimes what they find confirms a theory that somebody had other times bust it up, just blows it out of the water, and we're still searching for the answer about why something, 

Speaker 1 (00:26:13):
The 

Speaker 2 (00:26:13):
Idea's going going on 

Speaker 1 (00:26:14):
These mirrors would be shattered is just so funny because it's like to us, of course the idea of a shattered mirror is so common 

Speaker 2 (00:26:22):
And bad luck. 

Speaker 1 (00:26:23):
Right? And to us it's always this thing that's in pop culture is this symbol of inner turmoil. You can imagine someone dramatically smashing their mirror while they look at themselves, and so to think about that happening with a bronze mirror, it's hard not to put that back into it, that sort of emotional context of a fractured self or even those kind of ways that a lot of times people, I was touring some plantation in New Orleans and they were talking a lot about their practices of covering mirrors after death and stuff. So those connections with mirrors in the afterlife as well, or even I know in the African Gallery, some of the pieces have mirrors as well 

Speaker 2 (00:27:13):
Embedded in the stomach 

Speaker 1 (00:27:14):
That are sort of seen as almost like spiritual portals and things they are. So I just kind of wonder if even the fact of the shattering was intentional in that sort of way. We mirrors are mystical in some weird way. We always have this no matter what. We have this kind of mystical connection to mirrors 

Speaker 2 (00:27:34):
And here we have it maybe absolutely opposite 

Speaker 1 (00:27:37):
What 

Speaker 2 (00:27:38):
We have in our culture. Maybe someday we're going to actually figure out why they did it. 

Speaker 1 (00:27:41):
Yeah, I don't know. That's fascinating. 

Speaker 2 (00:27:43):
So let's hang out underneath the bell here. 

Speaker 1 (00:27:46):
Oh, I know. Yeah. This is one of my favorite parts of this side of the exhibit. 

Speaker 2 (00:28:00):
So while you hold that up there, Russell, I'm going to go ahead and say that we have one bell here, but this bell would've actually been part of a set of bells. The more bells you had, the more high you were in the court. The highest set of bells found so far was 64. Again, this is a cross section oval, which means that it can be hit at different time at different places to create different tones and you can get on the internet and actually find some of these bells played the best is a video from a Chinese museum that set them up as they were actually done and only play the bells. They don't add modern instrumentation into it, 

Speaker 1 (00:28:41):
Which 

Speaker 2 (00:28:41):
Is very cool. On this side, you are actually looking at dragons. You knew I had to work in the dragons, and the dragons here are facing each other and they are quite serpentine because dragons actually occur all around the world and most of them have a serpent like body. After that, they have wings, they don't have wings, they have claws, they don't have claws. It's kind of fun, but you have this mystical animal character that has many powers and in the east in Asia, the dragon is the guardian of the rice fields. How important can you get protecting the wealth of the country? If we slide over to this side, there is actually a lot of writing. It's not the easiest thing to see here, but I think it's important to show how even 500 years before the Chin Dynasty, they were using their calligraphy to mark the ritual objects and to add probably power to them by having this saying on it. 

Speaker 1 (00:29:56):
Yeah. I love this part of the exhibit, just being able to hear the bell because it just adds this whole other thing. It's like you see so many things like this in a museum and you're like, well, yeah, but I don't want to read about a bell. I want to hear bell. 

Speaker 2 (00:30:13):
Absolutely. 

Speaker 1 (00:30:14):
So it really is this whole interesting experience to look at this really old bell and then to hear what it might sound like and it certainly gives it more power than it would have just sitting quietly in a case for me. 

Speaker 2 (00:30:32):
Absolutely, and what you say it might be that recording is not this bell, 

Speaker 1 (00:30:37):
Right? Right. Yeah. 

Speaker 2 (00:30:38):
This old are very, very fragile. 

Speaker 1 (00:30:40):
You don't go around hitting. No. 

Speaker 2 (00:30:41):
You don't go around hitting 'em at all. Speaking of old, would you like to meet the oldest piece in the exhibit? 

Speaker 1 (00:30:47):
Yeah, I think I know which one because I saw it the other day and I was pretty shocked when I saw that age on there. This is pretty crazy. 

Speaker 2 (00:30:54):
This is our cylindrical mask with open work design official title. It's also known as a helmet mask and it's believed that it was worn. It's modeled after a wooden helmet that would've been used by a shaman, 

Speaker 1 (00:31:07):
So 

Speaker 2 (00:31:08):
A spiritual guide to the people of the time. The mouth is open, the eyes are open, and then it's got that long ridge for the nose. This is actually from the neolithic period of China from about 3,500 bc. Absolutely amazing that it was still intact. Unfortunately, it was one of the items that seems to have been part of a tomb robbers items, so we're not exactly sure where it was found, but we know it's from Luon County in the area of the Chin Dynasty. 

Speaker 1 (00:31:50):
Yeah, so I mean, it just kind of floored me when I just was over 5,000 years old. Right. That's crazy. Over almost 6,000, getting close there. It's so crazy. Anytime something is this old, I just am floored by its age alone and just a person made this that long ago. That's insane To me. It's this weird, to me, it's like time traveling, just looking at this thing and imagining and especially something like clay objects that still bear so much humanity of the making of them. Oh, 

Speaker 2 (00:32:26):
Absolutely. 

Speaker 1 (00:32:27):
You can see the imperfections in it, and so it feels like this extra connection with that person who made this 5,000 years ago 

Speaker 2 (00:32:39):
And how every culture has masks and they travel across time and how important the eyes and the mouth are because they're often what is most emphasized in any mask, in any culture. As we say, the eyes of the window to the soul, and it's one of those spooky things. I was in the gallery the other day with a group and somebody came to this one and said, star Wars, 

Speaker 1 (00:33:06):
Were they kind of on a Darth Vader thing? 

Speaker 2 (00:33:10):
Definitely. They're on a Darth Vader thing. 

Speaker 1 (00:33:11):
Yeah, I was wondering like, yeah, it'd be 

Speaker 2 (00:33:14):
Interesting to see other people's reactions if there are other, for me, it looks like a awa figure from the Japanese about the fifth century ad, and you could also say it looks like our nbe, some of the mad achievement pieces that we have here at the art museum, and I'm sure across many other cultures there'll be other people that'll come in and go, oh, that reminds me of, and I think that's one of the great things about an exhibit like this showing across cultures where we have things the same. Right next to this is the little warrior. He's about seven inches tall mounted on his horse, and this is at this time, again, because excavations are still ongoing. The earliest example we have of a warrior and a horse together, and it's just 100 years before our terracotta army was created, so whether the chin got the idea from this or not, we're not really sure it was excavated near the area. In fact, when they were digging for a steel factory, the couriers when they were here and I had a chance to talk to 'em, said, oh, you put a shovel in the dirt in our area and you're going to dig up something. It's a total challenge to keep up with 

Speaker 1 (00:34:30):
What 

Speaker 2 (00:34:31):
They're finding as China develops its infrastructure and continues to have its population grow. I think what we're going to do right now is hike on over to the terracotta warriors over here, Russell, 

Speaker 1 (00:34:45):
Which way are we starting? Oh, you want to start over? On the 

Speaker 2 (00:34:46):
Map? On the map, 

Speaker 1 (00:34:48):
And we are now on the opposite side of the exhibit with the terracotta warriors on it. 

Speaker 2 (00:34:56):
What everybody really comes to see. 

Speaker 1 (00:34:58):
I know I walked in on Saturday and the other side of the exhibit was plenty of space to move around. If it ever gets a little crowded over here, just take a break and walk over to the other side. There you go. 

Speaker 2 (00:35:12):
Basking some of that gold and beautiful. 

Speaker 1 (00:35:13):
That's right. There's a lot of cool stuff over there, but yeah, obviously this is what people came to see. 

Speaker 2 (00:35:19):
So this is a plan of the Emperor's Mausoleum complex. The central part of it, actually, the entire complex is 38 square miles, half the size of the city of Cincinnati by square miles. But let's start in the center there with number and that is where the emperor's tomb is located 

Speaker 1 (00:35:41):
Under 

Speaker 2 (00:35:42):
This huge hill 

Speaker 1 (00:35:44):
That 

Speaker 2 (00:35:45):
Has not been excavated and at this point there are no plans to excavate it because the next dynasty had recorded that the emperor had insisted that his tomb be inside his actual tomb was surrounded by rivers of Mercury. 

Speaker 1 (00:36:03):
Oh wow. 

Speaker 2 (00:36:04):
Mercury is toxic and Dr. Sung said this was not unusual for the time that there were other rulers had done the same thing. The excavators tested the soil around the mausoleum and it is toxic with mercury and they're not even attempting to go in at this time. Of course, everybody would love to know what's in there, 

Speaker 1 (00:36:26):
But 

Speaker 2 (00:36:26):
Nope, we're going on the outside. So there are inner walls and outer walls. The inner walls surround the mausoleum. This was a city into itself. It was meant to have ritual temples where offerings would be made for the emperor and the afterlife for they hoped thousands of years to come. That of course didn't occur. There were ritual buildings, there are workshops, there are all things that are going around. There are even some other tombs that are being excavated that we're trying to figure out who might be there. There are chariot pits, which were closest to the tomb, and we have the model of the chariot downstairs. It was found in thousands and thousands of pieces because the roof had collapsed on the pit and it took about five years to put it back together again. So the originals have their own museum. 

Speaker 1 (00:37:22):
There 

Speaker 2 (00:37:22):
Are two chariots and we have one of the models that has been made. Then there's officials in another pit. If you go in the outer ways, there's a stone armor pit. There's a pit where there are statues of entertainers from acrobats to strong men to all sorts of stuff. Then there's one pit that's made to look like it's a horse stable as maybe the horse stables were at that time. There's an office and residential area right there. If you go outside the outer wall, you have more stable pits, more tombs than you have the terracotta army. The terracotta army is over a mile from the tomb of the emperor himself, 

Speaker 1 (00:38:09):
So 

Speaker 2 (00:38:10):
They're out on the outside there to protect them 

Speaker 1 (00:38:13):
From 

Speaker 2 (00:38:13):
Invading forces. 

Speaker 1 (00:38:14):
It's like strategic, very 

Speaker 2 (00:38:16):
Strategic. This 

Speaker 1 (00:38:16):
Is where I would put my army in this life, so this is where I'm going to put them in the afterlife. 

Speaker 2 (00:38:22):
Absolutely, absolutely. And this point, they believe there are about 8,000 warriors based on what they have excavated. 2000 have been excavated. They're only very slowly excavating the others because the oxidation that's occurring as the warriors hit the air are making 'em a little more delicate and it's a huge restoration project, so they're using a lot of people as it is already. The terracotta warriors were buried on brick floors separated by rammed earth walls, covered over with huge wooden beams and then reed mats over that, 

Speaker 1 (00:39:08):
But 

Speaker 2 (00:39:08):
Over time, earthquakes, fires, floods, collapsed, all of that on top of the warriors, and so that is why they were so damaged as they were unearthed, and there's so many pieces that are being put together. Again, I almost forgot the out way out there. There's almost like a nature preserve and that's where our goose comes from. 

Speaker 1 (00:39:37):
Oh, okay. So we'll talk 

Speaker 2 (00:39:38):
More about that when we get 

Speaker 1 (00:39:39):
To the goose. A fake nature preserve. A fake nature preserve, right. Not a real one, but one for sculptures of animals. 

Speaker 2 (00:39:48):
We have the maximum number of warriors that the Chinese government allows out at any one time, and Genian and Dr. Sun were able to go to China and actually pick these out. 

Speaker 1 (00:39:59):
Oh, wow. They 

Speaker 2 (00:40:00):
Made a very specific selection so that we have representations of the different ranks and status of those in the pits from this high ranking general here all the way back to the back where the little stable boy is. So you get a sense of the variety that is there in the tombs or in the pits. 

Speaker 1 (00:40:24):
Yeah, there is. Yeah. I did drawings for the interactive back there. 

Speaker 2 (00:40:30):
Oh yeah, that's fun. 

Speaker 1 (00:40:31):
I spent a lot of time drawing these figures and tracing all their details, so there is a lot of variety. You start to realize when I would get to someone like the armored general or this middle ranking officer, I started to be like, oh no. I would look at all these plates and things on their uniforms, whereas I would just get to somebody in a nice simple robe and I was a lot happier. There's a lot less to draw. It's like, oh, thank, thank goodness. This one's nice and simple. 

Speaker 2 (00:41:02):
Each of the warriors was made individually. The feet are solid. Then the body and the head are hollow. There is a project being done on facial recognition, and so far they have found none of the upper officers who looks anything the same. 

Speaker 1 (00:41:22):
They're 

Speaker 2 (00:41:22):
All different. Their hairstyles are different, their hats are different. Their armor is different. Some of the stances are the same. So our general here, he's very cool. He's just in command. He's got a very serene face. His hands were originally on the top of the sword that we mentioned before, 

Speaker 1 (00:41:45):
So 

Speaker 2 (00:41:45):
His hands were resting. The sword was vertical below him, and then he's got one finger that's coming out, which is basically saying, I'm the one directing this here. I'm the one we know. He's a general because of the ribbons. If you notice the ribbons that come around his neck, they come off the front or the top part of his chest armor. He's a little bit less armor than some of the other ones have because maybe he didn't go into battle as much, but every one of these warriors, you'll notice the sleeves are pushed back, so it's like, we're ready. We're on the case. We're ready to go with that. He's got a very unusual hat on. You notice it's sort of like two pieces that come off the back. 

Speaker 1 (00:42:29):
Yeah, 

Speaker 2 (00:42:30):
Because originally those had pheasant feathers in them. Isn't that easy to say? And so the pheasant feathers would've dangled behind because they're very long, 

Speaker 1 (00:42:39):
Very 

Speaker 2 (00:42:39):
Beautiful feathers that would have marked his rank on that one. Next to him, we have a middle ranking officer. The middle ranking officer has a lot more armor on him, but one thing that visitors will notice right away is his head is a different color. 

Speaker 1 (00:42:53):
Yeah, that's what I noticed. 

Speaker 2 (00:42:56):
Right. Well, the heads were molded separately. 

Speaker 1 (00:42:59):
Okay, 

Speaker 2 (00:43:00):
And then details were added. Like this gentleman look at the frown lines in his forehead. 

Speaker 1 (00:43:06):
Isn't 

Speaker 2 (00:43:06):
That interesting? And he's got quite a different beard on there. Maybe a new style coming out in Cincinnati. 

Speaker 1 (00:43:13):
Yeah, maybe. 

Speaker 2 (00:43:13):
Who knows on that one, 

Speaker 1 (00:43:15):
Keep your eyes peeled if you're at a bar in O T R, because that's, see 

Speaker 2 (00:43:18):
If this shows up 

Speaker 1 (00:43:19):
There, you might be seeing this 

Speaker 2 (00:43:20):
Soon, but the different color is because they were mining clay and that's how you dig clay out of the holes. You mine them, and they had to be for 8,000 warriors digging all over the place to get enough clay to make these warriors. There was no standardization at that time in the clay, so some clays, this particular one being that red has more iron oxide in it, but also it didn't matter originally because these figures were painted when they were finished and they moved from the kiln to the shop that assembled them, and then they moved on probably to a shop that painted them. They were originally covered with a dark lacquer, and then on top of that dark lacquer colors were applied and we have a lovely chart over here that shows the colors and it's in the gallery guide too, so people can take that home and see it. I mean, we're talking bright yellow, Kelly Green, royal purple. One of 'em, our docents laugh about this juju be red, but actually it's a juju berry, 

Speaker 1 (00:44:28):
Right? 

Speaker 2 (00:44:29):
That is that color. It's not the candy 

Speaker 1 (00:44:31):
On 

Speaker 2 (00:44:32):
That one and blue and then a brown. Also, the Chinese government is collaborating with a German company to find out exactly what these colors are, if we can preserve them more, because all of these, there's only one officer, we'll go back to him in a minute. You can see a little bit of red, but generally, again, talking to the couriers that came, one who's a trained archeologist, once the last layer of dirt is removed from the Warriors within 25 seconds, the color is already starting to deteriorate. We didn't get a straight answer about how long it takes, and it could be just depending on the weather conditions that day, how long it takes, but it probably was just less than an hour and the color is gone. So it's not surprising that they're actually not excavating a lot of the warriors because they're waiting for the technology that will help them preserve the colors. 

Speaker 1 (00:45:35):
That's interesting. 

Speaker 2 (00:45:35):
I'm all for it. 

Speaker 1 (00:45:36):
Yeah, that's interesting, dude. 

Speaker 2 (00:45:37):
I think it'll be fabulous. 

Speaker 1 (00:45:39):
We want to keep these down there and that they're safer there than dug up. 

Speaker 2 (00:45:45):
Absolutely much safer than dug up. 

Speaker 1 (00:45:47):
Yeah. 

Speaker 2 (00:45:49):
Now this gentleman, you can see both hands are out. One would've held a crossbow and the other would've held a spear, so he was well armed. Then probably people will look at this figure right here and go, whoop, where's his armor? He is so plain. Well, he's a civil official and I'm really glad that home a and Ian picked this because this represents the fact that the Chin emperor really had a hugely organized military and court. He actually divided the country into 36 different, and each Commanderie had its own military specialists, its own administrative specialists and its own spy to make sure that everybody else worked the way they were supposed to do. 

Speaker 1 (00:46:40):
So 

Speaker 2 (00:46:40):
Civil officials were very important to keeping the order and keeping everything flowing smoothly in the country. They were probably in charge of those unified weights and measures in charge of the roads, in charge of the rebuilding or the expansion of the Great Wall, which the Chin Emperor did, and the building of many canals so that the Chin had a superb transportation system at the time, which would've helped quite a lot. 

Speaker 1 (00:47:09):
Yeah, 

Speaker 2 (00:47:10):
Quite a lot. Now we move over here to our one gentleman, which surprised everybody when it got to Virginia originally, because this armored infantry, if you look at the ribbons that come out from his wild hairstyle there, there's red there. Somehow that red has survived, and we are so lucky that we have this in here because it gives just a little, little touch about what's going on. This is one of Homem a's favorite soldiers now he's got a lot of armor on. It's quite utilitarian, isn't it? Look down at his shoes. 

Speaker 1 (00:47:45):
Oh yeah. 

Speaker 2 (00:47:46):
He's got bows 

Speaker 1 (00:47:48):
On 

Speaker 2 (00:47:48):
His shoes. 

Speaker 1 (00:47:49):
His shoes are much more detailed than a lot 

Speaker 2 (00:47:51):
Of the 

Speaker 1 (00:47:51):
Others. 

Speaker 2 (00:47:52):
Right. Well, there's some theory that some of these warriors might actually be modeled on specific people, and home May's idea is that this gentleman had a mother or a wife who made those boots, especially for him, it's kind of a sweet idea, 

Speaker 1 (00:48:12):
And 

Speaker 2 (00:48:13):
He actually, if you notice, he's pulled up his leggings 

Speaker 1 (00:48:16):
Where 

Speaker 2 (00:48:16):
Everybody has those thick leggings down to the ankle. He's pulled his up, so you see his bows. 

Speaker 1 (00:48:21):
That's right. Yeah. You shoes got little bows, see shoes. Yeah, on his legs, so great. Yeah. The other shoes are much more kind of flat too and sort of have this very square, and these are much more rounded and 

Speaker 2 (00:48:34):
Show 

Speaker 1 (00:48:35):
Off the actual foot shape more, so 

Speaker 2 (00:48:37):
It's 

Speaker 1 (00:48:37):
Interesting. 

Speaker 2 (00:48:38):
I could use those as slippers. 

Speaker 1 (00:48:39):
I know. They look neat though, 

Speaker 2 (00:48:40):
And I encourage everybody to look at the backs of the figures too, because it shows the different hairstyles. Again, so far with all the higher ranking officials, the hairstyles are different, but someone has done an analysis of the lower infantry man, infantry men, and among them there are about 40 hairstyles. 

Speaker 1 (00:49:00):
Oh, wow. But 

Speaker 2 (00:49:01):
That's still pretty amazing, 

Speaker 1 (00:49:03):
Especially when you're talking about 8,000. We believe soldiers 

Speaker 2 (00:49:09):
Definitely here in the center of this room is our calvary man and his horse. I know the kids are going to go crazy about the horse. He's quite spectacular, and the other thing that's interesting is these are the only two that are smiling. 

Speaker 1 (00:49:25):
Everyone 

Speaker 2 (00:49:26):
Else is more battle ready and he 

Speaker 1 (00:49:28):
Kind of smiling 

Speaker 2 (00:49:29):
Stern and I'm on the job, and he's definitely smiling, so this might be his favorite horse. Even the horse looks like he's smiling. 

Speaker 1 (00:49:39):
Yeah, I know. The horse does seem pretty happy. 

Speaker 2 (00:49:41):
The horse seems very happy. Now, people will ask about the holes in the horse, but those were part of the process of firing, and you needed the holes that when it got up to those very, very high temperatures, the gases could escape and the horse wouldn't explode. 

Speaker 1 (00:50:00):
Typically, when you're firing clay, if you've never done it, it's best to leave a hole somewhere because if you don't, you risk that hot air blowing your piece up. So I'm sure that was a big risk of 

Speaker 2 (00:50:10):
And blowing up the ones next to you. 

Speaker 1 (00:50:12):
That's true. Yeah. Usually it takes up, takes out a few others, few innocent bystanders. 

Speaker 2 (00:50:22):
Now back to our little nature preserve. 

Speaker 1 (00:50:24):
Right. 

Speaker 2 (00:50:25):
We have this wonderful little goose, goose right here, and the goose was part of 46 other birds that included six cranes, 20 swans, 20 wild geese, and they were neatly arranged along a fake riverbank. They were actually doing bird things. They were dipping their head in the water or paddling around, and one of the cranes actually has a worm in its mouth, but he is way too fragile to come his 

Speaker 1 (00:50:52):
Legs 

Speaker 2 (00:50:52):
Like little chopsticks legs, but this particular goose is beautiful. His head is so neck, are so graceful. It is so accurate that ornithologists have actually identified exactly what kind of goose this is. It's a answer signaled, sorry, ornithologists if I said that wrong, or a swan goose that is native to Mongolia, and they migrate southward to China in the wintertime, so it's quite graceful. It's also very delicate, unfortunately. Well, what happened when they were unpacking it, a little bit of that scale from oxidation fell off, but we're very lucky to have that one, and that's a fairly recent discovery. This part, that pit was only discovered in 2000. 

Speaker 1 (00:51:44):
Oh, wow. That is very recent. Well, 

Speaker 2 (00:51:45):
It illustrate the fact that the first pit was discovered in 1974. This one in 2000. Who knows what we're going to find as they continue to go through 38 square miles of a necropolis. 

Speaker 1 (00:51:59):
Yeah. It is exciting to think about that, and I know I didn't understand that these had been discovered quite so recently until we started talking about the show. I was like, oh, really? Just in the seventies. That's when this was, I guess since it's always been around in my lifetime, so I've just always thought like, oh, I'm sure that we've known about this for years, and so when I realized that, I thought, oh, wow. It does make you excited for it seems like. Well, anything could be under there. We could discover anything too. 

Speaker 2 (00:52:24):
Absolutely. 

Speaker 1 (00:52:25):
I 

Speaker 2 (00:52:25):
Mean, these were found when I was teaching, so I was well aware of finding them. We're standing in front of the stone armor now, this never would've been worn. It's way too heavy. It's made out of limestone, and each tiny piece is a different shape so that it is molded as if it were the armor that you see on the terracotta warriors themselves, and it's attached with, well, it had to be reattached. Those are new copper wires. 

Speaker 1 (00:52:51):
It 

Speaker 2 (00:52:51):
Was found in this pile, which was quite a chore to figure out what piece went where. 

Speaker 1 (00:52:58):
I can imagine 

Speaker 2 (00:52:59):
I don't envy probably the team that was working on that and trying to figure out how things went. Look at the helmet. Isn't it almost the same shape as that helmet mask that we saw that was, well, now 5,000 years old. 

Speaker 1 (00:53:13):
Yeah, it's really similar. It's, it's a little more rounded on the 

Speaker 2 (00:53:18):
Top, 

Speaker 1 (00:53:18):
But otherwise, yeah, same base kind of bell shape 

Speaker 2 (00:53:22):
Flares out 

Speaker 1 (00:53:23):
Over 

Speaker 2 (00:53:23):
The shoulder, 

Speaker 1 (00:53:24):
And 

Speaker 2 (00:53:24):
This one though doesn't have eyes and mouth. It just has the opening for the eyes and mouth, but it's pretty spectacular. This would've been strictly a burial good. It would not have ever been worn, so it would've been especially created probably for the emperor. Yeah. This was found in 1999. 

Speaker 1 (00:53:47):
Oh, wow. 

Speaker 2 (00:53:47):
So as I said, things are still 

Speaker 1 (00:53:48):
Being pretty recent. 

Speaker 2 (00:53:51):
Then as we come down and rank, we now are coming to the archers and there's a standing archer and a kneeling archer, because that is how their battle formations would be. So while the kneeling ERs might be shooting, the standing archers are getting their bows ready when they shoot, the kneeling ERs are getting those bows ready. You can have this tornado or hurricane of arrows coming at you because of that. Again, you can check out the armor and the platelets because it's right next to that stone armor, and it's exactly how that was created. These probably were leather, 

Speaker 1 (00:54:32):
Very 

Speaker 2 (00:54:32):
Hardened leather that was used for that one, 

Speaker 1 (00:54:38):
And our standing archer doesn't have any armor. 

Speaker 2 (00:54:40):
I know. We were wondering about that too. 

Speaker 1 (00:54:42):
It's like, yeah, I wonder if this guy would be maybe a little bit closer to battle or something, or up on the front lines maybe, whereas he could be a little farther back, so 

Speaker 2 (00:54:54):
Could be 

Speaker 1 (00:54:54):
He doesn't get to have the safety of the armor. 

Speaker 2 (00:54:58):
Well, he's got some pretty heavily padded clothing on. 

Speaker 1 (00:55:00):
Yeah, yeah. But he doesn't get the plate armor there. 

Speaker 2 (00:55:03):
You've got more hope going there than things that are doing. The last of the large figures is our armored chariot tear. His hands are out as if he's got the reins in his hand for his horses, and this relates directly to the model that's downstairs of the chariot tear that is there. Again, his head is very different from his body, and you can actually see on the one side of his right shoulder the clay, there is a whole different color. That could be what's called wood ash from the fires 

Speaker 1 (00:55:39):
That 

Speaker 2 (00:55:40):
Would come. These were all wood-fired kilns. I sometimes wonder how many hills they had deforested 

Speaker 1 (00:55:45):
Just to fire all of these, 

Speaker 2 (00:55:46):
Just to fire these kilns. You're talking figures. Now, granted, they were fired in pieces, 

Speaker 1 (00:55:52):
But 

Speaker 2 (00:55:53):
They are six feet tall and taller than that. They're quite bulky, and it would take tremendous amounts of wood to the fire, the kiln fire, to get the kilns up to the temperature that would need it to do this. They must've had an army of people just to dig the kiln out. I mean, dig the clay out 

Speaker 1 (00:56:15):
And 

Speaker 2 (00:56:16):
Build the kilns on that one. 

Speaker 1 (00:56:18):
Just turning around now and seeing the bottom of the kneeling archer's foot is also great to see the tread on his shoes. That's so great. Oh, I'm sorry. 

Speaker 2 (00:56:27):
Also, you'll notice there's a number, well, one number's crossed down. The number is below. There are a few of the warriors that have their excavation numbers still on them because of course, all of these things needed to be cataloged very carefully when they were uncovered, and I think he's got one of the coolest hairdos in the hole. 

Speaker 1 (00:56:47):
He does. He's 

Speaker 2 (00:56:48):
Got all that braiding 

Speaker 1 (00:56:49):
Right 

Speaker 2 (00:56:50):
There and then up to the top knot. 

Speaker 1 (00:56:52):
Yeah, super intricate and a lot of detail in the hair too. Kind of showing you all the, 

Speaker 2 (00:56:57):
You can practically see the comb marks for the individual hairs, and then we come to our little stable boy, the poor deer, he wasn't of any high rank at all. He was just there to clean up the poop and feed 

Speaker 1 (00:57:13):
The horses 

Speaker 2 (00:57:14):
On that. But he's a dignified little character, don't 

Speaker 1 (00:57:17):
You think? Yeah. He seems almost kind of religious in a way, just by the kneeling pose and the robe. If I saw this figure just anywhere else, I would not think stable boy. Right. I would go 

Speaker 2 (00:57:31):
Somewhere, I would think a monk, 

Speaker 1 (00:57:32):
Right? Yeah. I would go somewhere more holy with him, a 

Speaker 2 (00:57:35):
Novice monk or something like that. He looks thinking of my grandchildren. He looks about 10, 11 years old 

Speaker 1 (00:57:42):
At 

Speaker 2 (00:57:42):
This point, which it was not unusual to have children begin working 

Speaker 1 (00:57:46):
That 

Speaker 2 (00:57:47):
Young, and they had a lot of horses. They used the horses for their calvary. They used it for their transportation, and they would've needed a lot of stable boys like that. He's very sweet, and I think that is one of the unique aspects of this particular grouping of the terracotta warriors over ones that have been in other places in the United States, in that we have this huge range of ranking and gives a really better idea of the vastness of the ensemble. That you could have that many figures be such a testament to the emperor's power to his organization and to his military strength. 

Speaker 1 (00:58:37):
Yeah. Yeah. It's great to be able to examine them up close like this too, to just be able to see all those details of the faces and the difference, and it helps you kind of understand the vastness of the whole project when you see how individualized they are, and then you kind of multiply that out and you see the images we have here of these pits filled with them. You go, oh my gosh. It's really, really awesome, 

Speaker 2 (00:58:59):
Especially considering that there were 8,000 warriors, then there were over a hundred chariots, hundreds and hundreds of horses. 

Speaker 1 (00:59:10):
Then 

Speaker 2 (00:59:10):
The little stable attendants in the grooms. It's going to be interesting as they continue excavations and uncovering more or maybe uncovering more things that go, yep. Okay. That proves that theory on that one. 

Speaker 1 (00:59:26):
Yeah. Yeah. 

Speaker 2 (00:59:28):
All of these figures, of course, were excavated from the first emperors tombs, and those were built over a course of 38 years, but tombs like this were not unusual, and items in the exhibit are from the eighth century BC up to this time, so it's a long tradition of tomb burials and bearing things with them. The emperor sort of went over the top with 

Speaker 1 (00:59:56):
That 

Speaker 2 (00:59:56):
Many warriors, but it was a longstanding tradition among them. 

Speaker 1 (01:00:02):
Oh, okay. So when you said present time, you mean present time of the show. 

Speaker 2 (01:00:05):
Of the show, 

Speaker 1 (01:00:06):
Right. Of these works. That's why I was like, what are you talking about today? Nobody does this today. That's insane. 

Speaker 2 (01:00:13):
And to wrap things up this, the terracotta warriors, necropolis the tomb, and all the treasures that have been found were all the emperor's quest for immortality. He wanted to live forever, but if he didn't, he was going to have everything he needed to rule his empire from the necropolis. So he's got the army, he's got the weaponry, he's got the armor, he's got what he thinks he's going to need. 

Speaker 1 (01:00:41):
Unfortunately, 

Speaker 2 (01:00:41):
He didn't last that long. 

Speaker 1 (01:00:43):
Yeah, you said, how old was he when he died? 

Speaker 2 (01:00:45):
He was barely 40 years old. 

Speaker 1 (01:00:47):
Okay. 

Speaker 2 (01:00:48):
A little over 40 years old. Yeah, pretty young. Probably outlived a lot of the peasants at the time, 

Speaker 1 (01:00:53):
I'm sure. Sure. Or 

Speaker 2 (01:00:54):
Someone of his ranking up the food chain. 

Speaker 1 (01:00:59):
Alright, well, thank you so much for showing me the exhibition, Helen. 

Speaker 2 (01:01:03):
Sure. Glad to help. 

Speaker 1 (01:01:15):
Thank you for listening to Art Palace. We hope you'll be inspired to come visit the Cincinnati Art Museum and have conversations about the art yourself. General admission to the museum is always free, and we also offer free parking. The special exhibitions on view right now are William KenRidge, more Sweetly Play The Dance, Ragnar Denson, the Visitors and scenes from Western culture, and of course Terracotta Army Legacy of the First Emperor of China Museum. Members receive free tickets to Terracotta Army. So this is the perfect time to join. For membership information tickets, program reservations, and more information, visit cincinnati art museum.org. You can follow the museum on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and also join our Art Palace Facebook group. Our theme song is Fra iCal by Lau. It's been a while since I came up with a clever way to beg you to leave a review on iTunes. Nah, still don't have anything clever. I'm Russell Iig and this has been Art Palace produced by the Cincinnati Art Museum.