Terracotta Warrior Pit 2

On April 23, 1976, archaeologists found another Terracotta Warriors Pit at the south part of the east end of the Pit 1, and named it Terracotta Warrior Pit 2. The Pit 2 is in bevel gauge shape northeast to Pit 1 and east to Pit 3. It is 96 m long from east to west and 84 m wide from south to north. The total area is about 6000 square meters. It is similar to the Pit one, but battle formation here is more complicated with more complete arms of forces such as chariots, cavalry and infantry (including crossbowmen). It has the most grand battle formation of the 3 pits. There is an exhibition hall of Pit 2 covering 17000 square meters which is the largest and most fully-featured modernization exhibition hall of sites in China at present.

 

There are more than 1300 terracotta warriors and horses, over 80 chariots and thousands of bronze weapons. Among them, the terracotta general, terracotta side horse, terracotta kneeling position crossbowmen were first found. The are 4 slope doorways at both east and west side, 2 slope doorways at north side and the front gate is on the east end. There are 4 units of the layout of pit 2. The first unit located at the east part of the pit. The corridors around the unit stand 60 crossbowmen and 160 kneeling-position crossbowmen in the center. The second unit located at the right part of the pit consists of 64 chariots in 8 lines with 8 chariots in each line. The third unit is in the center of the pit including 19 chariots, 264 infantries and 8 knights in 3 lines. Each horse has knights standing in front of it with one hand holding bridle rein and another hand drawing a bow. Besides the 3 soldiers after the chariot, there are other 8 to 36 infantries. The fourth unit is located at the left part. There are 108 knights and 180 horses. They form an 11 lines rectangular cavalrymen formation. In front each horse; there is one knight in Hu (the northern barbarian tribes in ancient China) costumes. The 108 terracotta knights were the first discovered image of knights in archaeological history. Its costume and heights were strictly imitated the image of the ancient knights. Different form other warriors, they wears round hat, tight sleeves, cross collar coat and ankle boots. The clothes of them are short and light.

Bronze chariots and horse’s discovery stuns people. Its workmanship is so complicate and exquisite which is so amazing. The No.2 bronze chariots is a luxury tent-cover chariots. It just likes a car which is wide, comfortable and luxury. People feel like on a soft sleeper in the chariots.

It consist of 3462 castings including 1742 bronze ones, 737 gold ones and 983 silver ones, weighting for 1231 kg. The over 5000 parts including the 2 square meters’ tent cover, canopy, bronze horse or bronze warriors are molding at just one casting .

 

The discovery in Pit 2 firstly shows the crossbowmen and knights’ origin looks in ancient times. It has very important significance on the research of ancient military history.