# Farmers uncover the Terracotta Army pits near the First Emperor’s tomb

Date: 1974

## The fact

In March 1974 farmers digging a well in Lintong encountered pits of life-size terracotta warriors east of the First Emperor’s tumulus. Scientific excavation followed.

## Context

The tomb precinct had been in literature. The army had not been seen. 1974 turned a textual emperor into a workshop problem: standardised moulds, labour, polychromy now lost. That is a knowledge gain and a reminder of extractive burial.

[Qin Shi Huang](/people/qin-shi-huang) is not the sole author of every later object, law, or museum label that uses the name. Shared work with courts, excavators, printers, spouses, officials, and later states does not erase a documented role, and it does not make an ancient person the signer of a twentieth-century statute.

## Evidence and sources

The official mausoleum museum and Nature’s later science reporting independently document the find and ongoing research.

Official or archival record: Emperor Qinshihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum (https://www.bmy.com.cn/; Emperor Qinshihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum).

## Significance

Knowledge-access path. High confidence on 1974. The labour cost of the original construction is a separate worsening Fact.

A discovery is not a labour statute. Forced labour for the original pits is another row.

## What is established and what is not

Established: the pits were found in 1974. Not established: that the farmers were looking for an army, or a complete count of figures still buried.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

## People

- Qin Shi Huang: https://factrail.ai/people/qin-shi-huang

## Drivers

- Digital Learning Access: https://factrail.ai/drivers/edu-digital-learning-access

## Sources

- https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05256-0
- https://www.bmy.com.cn/

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/cn-terracotta-discovered-1974