Ancient Greeks may have helped design China's Terracotta Army, experts say

FoxNews) - Archaeologists have unearthed evidence that ancient Greeks may have helped design the famous Terracotta Army, which could shed new light on China’s early contact with the west.

The 8,000 warriors guarding the tomb of China’s First Emperor Qin Shi Huang date back to the third century B.C. and have long fascinated historians. Experts now believe that the life-size figures may have been influenced by Greek art and that ancient Greek sculptors were even involved in their design.

The discovery of ancient European DNA in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region could force a rethink of the statues’ history, according to Li Xiuzhen, senior archaeologist at the Emperor Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum Site Museum. “We now have evidence that close contact existed between the First Emperor’s China and the west before the formal opening of the Silk Road,” she said, in a statement. “This is far earlier than we formerly thought.”

The Silk Road was officially opened for trade with the west in the second century B.C. The European DNA discovered in Xinjian province also suggests contact between China and the West around 1,500 years before Marco Polo’s famous journey to the court of Kublai Khan.

Xian, the capital of China’s Shaanxi province, is located in northwestern China.

Greek influences can also be found in terracotta acrobats and bronze figures of ducks, swans and cranes from the Emperor’s tomb. Experts also note that there was no tradition of building life-sized figures before Qin Shi Huang’s tomb was built in Xian.

Professor Lukas Nickel, chair of Asian Art history at the University of Vienna, told FoxNews.com that sculpture was little used in China when the tomb of the First Emperor was built, and realistic sculpture was not known at all. "The massive employment of sculpture in the mausoleum is totally unprecedented in Chinese tradition," he said. "This makes it likely that the skills necessary came not from China but from the outside."


Given the Terracotta Army clues, Nickel thinks that a Greek sculptor may have been at the site to train locals. He also believes that the First Emperor was influenced by the arrival of Greek statues in Central Asia with Alexander the Great during the fourth century.