WHAT WERE THE TERRACOTTA WARRIORS SUPPOSED TO LOOK LIKE?
The long lines of clay soldiers have a mournful look in their uniform reddishgrey-brown hue, rather fittingly as they stand in a tomb. Yet they originally kept their watch – protecting the first emperor of unified China, Qin Shi Huang, in the afterlife – with a lot more colour in their cheeks.
The Terracotta Warriors were elaborately decorated with a variety of mineral-based paints, with every inch covered in reds, greens, pinks, browns, whites, blacks, and the long-lost colours of Han purple and Han blue. For some 2,200 years, these pigments were able to survive in the cool and humid underground tomb. Then, in 1974, the Terracotta Warriors were discovered.