Terracotta army's new UK formation

By Penny Spiller
BBC News

The British Museum exhibition has been two years in the planning

Their chance discovery by farmers in 1974 stunned the world, and remains one of the most celebrated archaeological finds of all time.

Now a little bit of China's vast army of 2,000-year-old terracotta warriors - built to protect the First Emperor Qin Shihuangdi in the afterlife - has come to the British Museum in London.

And the exhibition, The First Emperor: China's Terracotta Army, looks set to become one of the most successful the museum has ever staged.

Nearly 100,000 tickets have already been sold for the six-month exhibition - and it still does not open for another week.

Exhibition curator Jane Portal says the amount of interest is "fantastic, but not surprising".

"China has become such an important country to the rest of the world. It is growing so quickly, and of course it will be holding the Olympics next year. People are interested in it," she said.

And the China we see today, she says, can trace its roots back to around 220BC, and the reign of the First Emperor.

Underground palace

Qin Shihuangdi, First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty, is credited with unifying the country, and creating what the museum calls the "oldest surviving political entity in the world".

The majority of the objects have been loaned In pictures

Although a controversial figure with a reputation for tyranny, he introduced a number of progressive changes that still live on, centuries later.

Currency, writing scripts, weights and measures were standardised and a centralised bureaucracy developed to administer the new country. The name China is thought to derive from "Qin", his home state.

The tomb of Emperor Qin, positioned on a mound near the ancient city of Xian in north-west China, had long been known about.

But when farmers accidentally dug up the head of a warrior while building a well some 2km (1.2 miles) from the tomb site, they had stumbled on something that literally changed our view of history.

More than 7,000 life-size warriors, built out of terracotta and originally brightly painted, had been buried in battle formation in three pits along with their horses, wooden chariots and weapons.

So little is known about the First Emperor outside of China and yet he is such an important figure in Chinese history Jane Portal Exhibition curator

Archaeologists believe they are the result of one of the earliest examples of mass production, with teams of labourers working on the separate parts of each warrior.

In the last decade, finds in other parts of the tomb complex have since revealed that the First Emperor not only sought military protection in his afterlife - he wanted to recreate his entire realm.

Terracotta figurines of acrobats and weightlifters as well as musicians and bronze birds are thought to have been designed to entertain him.

Stern figures of bureaucrats, with their arms folded under their long sleeves, symbolise his civilian ambitions.

Close cooperation

These figures are just some of the 120 objects that have been brought over from the Museum of the Terracotta Army in Xian to London.

It is the largest collection of artefacts ever to have been loaned abroad by a Chinese museum.

They were packed into 46 crates and sent in four batches by air, arriving two weeks ago.

Figures of civilian officials and entertainers are also on display

Li Xiuzhen, of the Xian museum who helped oversee delivery of the precious cargo, said the process involved specialist packing and lots of condition checks.

The journey by road from Xian to Beijing alone took two days, while the terracotta horses had to come on cargo flights via Amsterdam because they were so bulky, she added.

The idea for the exhibition came two years ago, while Jane Portal and the museum's director Neil MacGregor were in China as part of official efforts to boost cultural ties between the two countries.

Grand vision

Taking time out to visit the museum in Xian, Neil MacGregor was "bowled over" by what he saw and plans for a temporary exhibition were formed "pretty much there and then", Ms Portal said.

Ms Li said China was also keen on the idea, and both museums have worked closely together over the last two years to turn it into a reality.

"We hope this exhibition will promote a cultural exchange between China and Britain, and we also hope that the British people might learn more about China and Chinese history," she told the BBC News website.

Ms Portal agrees. "So little is known about the First Emperor outside of China and yet he is such an important figure in Chinese history.

"I hope that people who come to the exhibition will get a sense of the grand scale of his vision - the fact that he wanted to carry on ruling over the universe, even after his death."

The First Emperor: China's Terracotta Army runs from 13 September 2007 to 6 April 2008 at the British Museum in London.

A programme about China's Terracotta Army will also be broadcast on 15 September 2007 at 2000 BST on BBC Two.