China's Terracotta Warriors Part I

On Saturday (5-18-13), San Francisco hosted the Asian-American Heritage Street Fair (a blog on that will be coming) in Civic Center Area of San Francisco. One of the cool things was that the Asian-American Art Museum (that is two blogs-super cool place) opened its doors for free. For the special exhibit of China's Terracotta Warriors it was a mere $10 to see it. It was the bargain of the decade. It was just too cool.

A little history: China's Terracotta Warriors were discovered by local farmers in 1974. They date back to the first Emperor of China-the Qin Empire (221-206 B.C.). The Terracotta army was funerary art and was buried with him to protect him in the after-life.  Current estimates are that in the three pits containing the Terracotta Army there were over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses, the majority of which are still buried in the pits near by Qin Shi Huang's mausoleum. The majority are still buried in the pits. There were some items in the exhibit that are older. I am going to do this in two parts, I hope my pics did to them justice:

Cavalry Man

Standing Archer

Armored kneeling archer

Armored infantryman

Armored General

Horse

A pentagon-shaped drainpipe that was installed in the first Emperors burial complex

A suit of armor (non battle as it is made of stone and too heavy to wear) from the Qin  Empire

The next four pics are bronze waterbirds that were found 3km northeast of the first Emperor's tomb and are from the same period 221-206 BC:

Will do Part II, tomorrow. I promise.