I found the documentary The Emperor’s Ghost Army very fascinating. The documentary is about an epic discovery in 1974. During a drought that year, a local farmer in China began to dig a well. As he dug several feet down he began to find broken pieces of pottery that was shaped like human body parts. Since then this has become the eighth wonder of the world, and the biggest archeological find of the century!

Over the last 40 years there has been five ongoing archeological sites uncovering an astounding number of Chinese soldiers, horses, chariots, and other objects. To date, according to the video there exists 8000 terracotta soldiers. These soldiers are lined up in columns and rows. When they were first discovered the soldiers had broken in to pieces over the last 2,200 years. The teams have spent the last 40 years reconstructing them, studying them, and analyzing their weapons. After much study the scientist have come to the conclusion that the terracotta soldiers were created by 91craftsman. The craftsmen were in charge of a team of 10 workers. Together they worked for 37 grueling years, in fear of their lives, to make the soldiers. Each soldier is unique. Some scientist think that they are portraits of real people that lived in that day and served the Emperor. They have studied the ears and other body parts. No two are the same. They have different facial features, hair styles, skin tones, and head dresses. The paint found stuck to some parts of the figures suggests that they were once very colorful.

The big question that the video asks is, why? Why would anyone undertake such a monumental task in such large proportion? According to history the first Emperor of Qin Shi Huang Di was a cruel and harsh leader that feared the after-life. He was attributed to have unified what is now China by making laws and government, one written language, and one type of currency. However, he is also responsible for working his people to death in the elaborate mausoleum that he built to protect him in death. He had the army built in hopes it would protect him in the after-life. This was at the expense of his people that were forced into hard labor, and found in mass graves.

The video also discusses in detail the invention of the Chinese crossbow. This weapon was centuries above the European crossbow in technology. The terracotta soldiers were outfitted with brand new state of the art lethal weapons that were never used. At the time of the discovery all that was found was the brass portions. The wood had long rotted away.

I really enjoyed this video. I love learning new things about history and lost civilizations. I would like to present this video in my fourth-grade class as a lesson in ancient weapons and art. I think this video would be interesting and entertaining for many ages. My granddaughter watched it all the way through without stopping. She is in first grade! She said it was spooky. It really is in a sad fascinating way.