# Terracotta Army by Maker unknown Canonical article: https://www.artifact-archive.com/archive/terracotta-army-maker-unknown - **Painting:** Terracotta Army - **Artist:** Maker unknown - **Medium:** Terracotta figures; excavated pit with rammed earth, brick paving, timber ceiling, reed mats and clay sealing layers - **Dimensions:** Pit 1: 230 metres (750 ft) long, 62 metres (203 ft) wide; 11 corridors, most more than 3 metres (9.8 ft) wide - **Culture:** China A guide to Pit 1 of the Terracotta Army, where more than six thousand buried figures stand in eleven corridors beneath a sealed timber roof, and where the architecture of the tomb matters as much as the soldiers it held. ## High-resolution image [Terracotta Army by Maker unknown | High-resolution image](https://www.artifact-archive.com/print-assets/835db85a388d9b8df4257030765a8c9c3974edff7d4d9e6e3007ff06e1801957.png) Available image: 3,840 × 2,560 pixels. ## Artwork presentation record Artwork accent colour: #77706D. Original-image hero position: 50% horizontal, 50% vertical. Decorative crops use the original artwork image; they are not technical examination images. ## Details to notice ### Rammed earth corridor partitions Detail ID: rammed_earth_corridor_partitions. The parallel rammed-earth baulk walls separating the excavation corridors in the middle distance, the archaeological structure that organized the buried army and now fixes where each figure stood. Original-image crop (%): x 24, y 42, width 42, height 20. ### Chariot horse team Detail ID: chariot_horse_team. The team of terracotta horses with harness and chariot fittings at the bottom center foreground, a key artifact group showing animal anatomy and the army's chariot component. Original-image crop (%): x 34, y 90, width 22, height 10. ### Right trench armored ranks Detail ID: right_trench_armored_ranks. The right-hand trench where rows of figures in modeled armor stand shoulder to shoulder, useful for examining armor plates, belted waists, and the repetition of sculpted forms. Original-image crop (%): x 57.99999999999999, y 60, width 18, height 36. ## The story What you are looking at is a buried army. Pit 1 holds the main force of more than six thousand terracotta figures. They stand in eleven corridors, most of them wider than three metres, and the whole pit measures two hundred and thirty metres long by sixty-two metres wide. Evidence: documented. Source references: source-1. Notice that this is not simply a crowd of statues. The figures are arranged along corridor lines, so the army reads as ranks drawn up inside a built interior. The corridors were paved with small bricks and roofed with timber carried on large beams and posts, which gives the composition a repeating rhythm of open lanes beneath a ceiling. Evidence: observation. Source references: source-1. The corridor-and-roof plan was not unique to this pit. The same design was used for the tombs of nobles. When it was built, the structure would have resembled palace hallways. That comparison matters, because it frames the army as something housed and honoured, not just hidden. Evidence: documented. Source references: source-1. Above the wooden ceilings came reed mats, then layers of clay laid down for waterproofing. Once sealed, the whole structure was mounded with more soil, raising it about two to three metres above the surrounding ground when completed. Evidence: documented. Source references: source-1. So the visible soldiers are only part of the design. The corridors, brick paving, timber roof, reed mats and clay layers all belonged to one buried architecture. Reading the pit this way separates two things that are easy to merge: the terracotta figures as sculpture, and the pit itself as a constructed, sealed space. The supplied record supports the second as much as the first. Evidence: interpretation. Source references: source-1. Taken together, Pit 1 represents an army arranged inside corridors that imitated palace hallways, then sealed under mats, clay and soil. That is the understanding to carry away. The subject is a buried military force, and its meaning lies partly in the scale of the arrangement and partly in the care taken to roof it, waterproof it and close it over. Evidence: documented. Source references: source-1. ## About the makers ### Maker unknown Individual life dates unrecorded Biographical details and a verified portrait have not yet been recorded for this attribution. ## Research and reference record ### Structured catalogue record #### Title Field ID: title. Terracotta Army Source IDs: none linked in the published record. #### Artist or attribution Field ID: artist. Maker unknown Source IDs: none linked in the published record. #### Medium and support Field ID: medium. Terracotta figures; excavated pit with rammed earth, brick paving, timber ceiling, reed mats and clay sealing layers Source IDs: none linked in the published record. #### Dimensions Field ID: dimensions. Pit 1: 230 metres (750 ft) long, 62 metres (203 ft) wide; 11 corridors, most more than 3 metres (9.8 ft) wide Source IDs: source-1. - [Jean-Marie Hullot, 2015](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terracotta_Army,_View_of_Pit_1.jpg) [source-1] #### Country or culture Field ID: culture. China Source IDs: none linked in the published record. #### Depicted subject Field ID: subject-summary. A buried army of more than 6,000 terracotta figures arranged in Pit 1, set within eleven corridors roofed and sealed in a structure resembling palace hallways. Source IDs: source-1. - [Jean-Marie Hullot, 2015](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terracotta_Army,_View_of_Pit_1.jpg) [source-1] #### Title variants Field ID: title-variants. Terracotta Army, View of Pit 1 Source IDs: none linked in the published record. #### Date Field ID: date. Not recorded in supplied sources Source IDs: none linked in the published record. #### Period Field ID: period. Not recorded in supplied sources Source IDs: none linked in the published record. ### Identity and catalogue Research section ID: catalogue. #### The pit as described in the supplied record Claim ID: archive-dca6acae0bcca4584837. Evidence: documented. The pit itself is recorded in the source as 230 metres long and 62 metres wide, containing the main army of more than 6,000 terracotta figures. The scale is therefore not that of a single sculptural group but of a large built interior, and the figure count is given as a threshold of more than six thousand rather than an exact enumeration. The same evidence describes the internal organisation of that interior: Pit 1 has eleven corridors, most of which are more than 3 metres wide. The corridor count and the corridor widths are the features through which the record defines the arrangement of the figures, since the army is presented as occupying these defined lanes rather than being distributed uniformly across the whole footprint. Source IDs: source-1. - [Jean-Marie Hullot, 2015](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terracotta_Army,_View_of_Pit_1.jpg) [source-1]. Locator: Description Claim ID: archive-dca6acae0bcca4584837-2. Evidence: documented. The construction of the pit is described in some detail. The corridors were paved with small bricks and roofed with timber supported by large beams and posts. Above the wooden ceilings came reed mats and then layers of clay, laid down for waterproofing. After the structure was sealed, it was mounded with more soil, raising it about 2 to 3 metres above the surrounding ground level when completed. These specifications describe a single buried architecture in which paving, carpentry, matting, clay and mounding formed successive stages. The record treats them as one system rather than as separate finds, and the visible terracotta figures are only part of that system. Source IDs: source-1. - [Jean-Marie Hullot, 2015](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terracotta_Army,_View_of_Pit_1.jpg) [source-1]. Locator: Description #### Comparisons and framing Claim ID: archive-39e6f9b9f21df728a086. Evidence: interpretation. Between the photographic record and the site description there is a useful separation of kinds of evidence. The photograph establishes what a viewer in 2015 could see and from where, while the written record supplies dimensions, counts, materials and construction sequence that no single photograph could establish. Reading the two together makes clear why the pit matters in a history of material culture: it is not only a body of sculpture but a designed and sealed space, and the care taken to pave, roof, waterproof and mound it is as much a part of the object as the figures themselves. The catalogue should therefore treat the terracotta figures and the constructed pit as distinct but inseparable aspects of one record. Source IDs: source-1. - [Jean-Marie Hullot, 2015](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terracotta_Army,_View_of_Pit_1.jpg) [source-1]. Locator: Summary / Details; Description Claim ID: legacy-reference-identity-1. Evidence: identity. Pit 1 contains the main army of more than 6,000 terracotta figures. Source IDs: source-1. - [Jean-Marie Hullot, 2015](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terracotta_Army,_View_of_Pit_1.jpg) [source-1] ### Subject and iconography Research section ID: subject. #### The scale and layout of the pit Claim ID: pit1-dimensions. Evidence: observation. Pit 1 of the Terracotta Army measures 230 metres long and 62 metres wide, dimensions recorded in the supplied Wikimedia Commons file record for the site. This scale is the baseline for any account of what a viewer sees in the pit photograph: the visible ranks of figures occupy only a portion of a much larger engineered floor plan, so the photograph documents a fragment of a very extensive buried installation rather than the whole of it. Because the recorded dimensions come from a descriptive caption rather than from an archaeological excavation report, they establish the overall footprint as reported by that source, and they should be treated as the source's figures rather than as independently re-measured survey data. Source IDs: source-1. - [Jean-Marie Hullot, 2015](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terracotta_Army,_View_of_Pit_1.jpg) [source-1]. Locator: Description #### What the photograph can and cannot show Claim ID: archive-659ddff0d6f9f1bd3f37. Evidence: interpretation. Reading the evidence together, the pit separates into two things that are easy to merge: the terracotta figures as sculpture, and the pit as a constructed, sealed space. The supplied record supports the second as fully as the first, since it documents dimensions, corridor count and width, brick paving, timber roofing, reed and clay waterproofing, and the final soil mound. The photograph that anchors this section was taken by Jean-Marie Hullot (user Jmhullot) on 19 April 2015, at a recorded camera location of 34 degrees 23 minutes 04.61 seconds north, 109 degrees 16 minutes 22.6 seconds east, at an altitude of 383.7 metres above sea level in Shaanxi Sheng, China, and the image is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported. These metadata establish the conditions under which the visual evidence was produced: a twenty-first-century photograph of an excavated and publicly presented site, not a record of the pit as it appeared when sealed. Source IDs: source-1. - [Jean-Marie Hullot, 2015](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terracotta_Army,_View_of_Pit_1.jpg) [source-1]. Locator: Description; Licensing Claim ID: legacy-reference-visual-evidence-1. Evidence: visual_observation. Pit 1 of the Terracotta Army is 230 metres long and 62 metres wide. Source IDs: source-1. - [Jean-Marie Hullot, 2015](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terracotta_Army,_View_of_Pit_1.jpg) [source-1] ### Historical context Research section ID: context. #### The pit as architecture Claim ID: archive-afab58d1187ca30c815c. Evidence: observation. The supplied record for Pit 1 treats the pit first as a built structure of extraordinary scale rather than only as a group of sculptures. The pit is 230 metres long and 62 wide, and it holds the main army of more than 6,000 terracotta figures. Its internal organisation is architectural: eleven corridors run through the pit, most of them more than three metres wide. Those corridor widths matter for how the space was experienced and used, since they are not narrow slots between figures but lanes on the scale of a building's passages. Any account of the pit's meaning therefore has to hold together two orders of evidence: the sculptural presence of the figures and the constructed, roofed, sealed interior that contains them. Source IDs: source-1. - [Jean-Marie Hullot, 2015](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terracotta_Army,_View_of_Pit_1.jpg) [source-1]. Locator: Description Claim ID: archive-e99e27c3e94797d7ae95. Evidence: documented. The pit's construction sequence is documented in some detail. The corridors were paved with small bricks, and the space was roofed with timber carried on large beams and posts. Above the wooden ceilings came reed mats, then layers of clay laid down for waterproofing. After the sealing, the whole structure was mounded with more soil, raising it about 2 to 3 metres above the surrounding ground level when completed. Read as a single programme, these elements describe a designed environment that was finished, closed and covered rather than a simple open trench filled with figures; the flooring, roofing, matting, clay and mounding belong to the pit as much as the terracotta army does. Source IDs: source-1. - [Jean-Marie Hullot, 2015](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terracotta_Army,_View_of_Pit_1.jpg) [source-1]. Locator: Description #### Design, rank and social setting Claim ID: gallery-design-comparison. Evidence: interpretation. The corridor-and-roof design is explicitly connected, in the supplied record, to a wider building tradition: the same design was used for the tombs of nobles, and when built the structure would have resembled palace hallways. This comparison is important for the object's social world. It frames the army as something housed and honoured in a manner shared with elite tomb architecture, rather than simply hidden underground. The comparison also sets a limit on what can be claimed from this source alone: the record establishes the resemblance and the reuse of the design, but it does not name the patron, the architects or the officials responsible, nor does it document a commissioning decree. The identification of the pit as an army in palace-like corridors is firm; the chain of patronage and the intentions behind it are not settled by this evidence. Source IDs: source-1. - [Jean-Marie Hullot, 2015](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terracotta_Army,_View_of_Pit_1.jpg) [source-1]. Locator: Description Claim ID: legacy-reference-context-1. Evidence: historical_context. Pit 1 has eleven corridors, most of which are more than 3 metres wide. Source IDs: source-1. - [Jean-Marie Hullot, 2015](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terracotta_Army,_View_of_Pit_1.jpg) [source-1] Claim ID: legacy-reference-context-2. Evidence: historical_context. The pit's corridor-and-roof design was also used for the tombs of nobles and would have resembled palace hallways when built. Source IDs: source-1. - [Jean-Marie Hullot, 2015](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terracotta_Army,_View_of_Pit_1.jpg) [source-1] ### Materials and technique Research section ID: materials. #### The pit as built architecture Claim ID: archive-384be30b23444484b6b0. Evidence: observation. The construction record for Pit 1 describes a built interior rather than an open field: the corridors were paved with small bricks and roofed with timber supported by large beams and posts. Read alongside the recorded plan, in which the pit holds more than six thousand terracotta figures in eleven corridors, most of them wider than three metres, and measures 230 metres long by 62 metres wide, these materials indicate that the army was housed within a repeating structural rhythm of lanes beneath a ceiling. The paving is a documented material element of the installation, not merely a visual impression conveyed by the present-day excavated and reconstructed viewing conditions, and it belongs to the same building programme as the beam-and-post roof. Source IDs: source-1. - [Jean-Marie Hullot, 2015](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terracotta_Army,_View_of_Pit_1.jpg) [source-1]. Locator: Description Claim ID: waterproofing-layers. Evidence: documented. Above the timber ceilings, the structure carried reed mats and then layers of clay laid down for waterproofing. This sequence establishes a deliberately layered covering system: an organic matting layer over the wood, and an inorganic clay layer whose stated function in the record is to exclude water. The evidence therefore supports a reading of the pit as a sealed construction, in which the ceiling assembly had a protective as well as a structural role, and it distinguishes the documented materials from any inference that might be drawn only from the appearance of the corridors today. Source IDs: source-1. - [Jean-Marie Hullot, 2015](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terracotta_Army,_View_of_Pit_1.jpg) [source-1]. Locator: Description Claim ID: soil-mound. Evidence: documented. After sealing, the structure was mounded with further soil, so that when completed it stood about two to three metres above the surrounding ground level. The completed object thus comprised the terracotta figures, the brick-paved and timber-roofed corridors, the reed-and-clay covering and, finally, an earth mound over the whole. Because this evidence concerns the finished built form and its sealing, it supports treating the pit as a constructed, closed space whose design cannot be reduced to the sculpture it contains; the mound is part of the documented making sequence rather than a later accretion. Source IDs: source-1. - [Jean-Marie Hullot, 2015](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terracotta_Army,_View_of_Pit_1.jpg) [source-1]. Locator: Description Claim ID: legacy-reference-materials-technique-1. Evidence: materials_technique. The corridors were paved with small bricks and roofed with timber supported by large beams and posts. Source IDs: source-1. - [Jean-Marie Hullot, 2015](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terracotta_Army,_View_of_Pit_1.jpg) [source-1] Claim ID: legacy-reference-materials-technique-2. Evidence: materials_technique. The wooden ceilings were covered with reed mats and layers of clay for waterproofing. Source IDs: source-1. - [Jean-Marie Hullot, 2015](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terracotta_Army,_View_of_Pit_1.jpg) [source-1] Claim ID: legacy-reference-materials-technique-3. Evidence: materials_technique. After sealing, the structure was mounded with more soil, raising it about 2 to 3 metres above the surrounding ground level when completed. Source IDs: source-1. - [Jean-Marie Hullot, 2015](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terracotta_Army,_View_of_Pit_1.jpg) [source-1] ### Provenance and ownership Research section ID: provenance. #### Provenance of the Photograph Claim ID: archive-fed6318fe13ecdac104f. Evidence: provenance. The documented provenance of the photograph at the centre of this record is short and complete on its face. The image of Pit 1 was taken by Jean-Marie Hullot, credited under the user name Jmhullot, on 19 April 2015, and is self-published work released under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported. The camera stood at 34° 23′ 04.61″ N, 109° 16′ 22.6″ E, at an altitude of 383.7 metres above sea level, in Shaanxi Sheng, China. Those coordinates place the exposure inside the site itself rather than at a distance from it, so the photograph is a record made at the location, not a reproduction of another image. Because the upload is self-published and the only named author is the photographer, the chain from maker to licence to repository rests on a single credited act of authorship rather than on a sequence of institutional transfers. Source IDs: source-1. - [Jean-Marie Hullot, 2015](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terracotta_Army,_View_of_Pit_1.jpg) [source-1]. Locator: Summary / Details; Details / Coordinates Claim ID: archive-ec90fc318fbc4afd031f. Evidence: interpretation. What this provenance does not supply is just as important for an accumulating account. No earlier owner, dealer, auction, accession number or repository transfer is recorded for the image before its self-publication, and the evidence establishes no interval of ownership between the making of the photograph in April 2015 and the licence under which it circulates. That gap is an unrecorded interval, not a proven change of hands, and it should be treated as such: the absence of a documented owner is not evidence of an undocumented one. Similarly, the coordinates and date identify where and when a camera recorded the pit, not where or when the pit was made, sealed or excavated. The photograph's provenance and the monument's history run on different timelines, and merging them would convert a modern image record into a false continuous chain of custody for the archaeological site. Source IDs: source-1. - [Jean-Marie Hullot, 2015](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terracotta_Army,_View_of_Pit_1.jpg) [source-1]. Locator: Summary / Details; Details / Coordinates; Licensing Claim ID: legacy-reference-provenance-1. Evidence: provenance. The photograph of Pit 1 was taken by Jean-Marie Hullot (user Jmhullot) on 19 April 2015. Source IDs: source-1. - [Jean-Marie Hullot, 2015](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terracotta_Army,_View_of_Pit_1.jpg) [source-1] Claim ID: legacy-reference-provenance-2. Evidence: provenance. The photograph's camera location is 34° 23′ 04.61″ N, 109° 16′ 22.6″ E, altitude 383.7 metres above sea level, in Shaanxi Sheng, China. Source IDs: source-1. - [Jean-Marie Hullot, 2015](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terracotta_Army,_View_of_Pit_1.jpg) [source-1] #### Ownership and movement timeline **19 April 2015:** A photograph of Pit 1 is taken by Jean-Marie Hullot, credited as user Jmhullot, at a camera location recorded as 34° 23′ 04.61″ N, 109° 16′ 22.6″ E at an altitude of 383.7 metres above sea level in Shaanxi Sheng, China. Timeline event ID: timeline-ef6b92504e8baebc4403. Source IDs: source-1. - [Jean-Marie Hullot, 2015](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terracotta_Army,_View_of_Pit_1.jpg) [source-1]. Locator: Summary / Details; Details / Coordinates ### Reception and literature Research section ID: reception. #### Licensing and circulation of the view Claim ID: license. Evidence: documented. The single evidence unit supplied for this stage of the object's history is a rights statement rather than an account of viewing: the photograph of Pit 1 is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported. This matters for how the buried army is encountered today, because the image circulates under a licence that permits reuse provided attribution is given, so the photograph can be reproduced, redistributed and built upon without a permission request to the photographer. The licence is therefore part of the documented reception of the site, not a footnote to it: it defines the terms under which one widely available view of Pit 1 travels through teaching, publication, websites and other derivative uses. It also means that reception of the pit is mediated by photographer Jean-Marie Hullot, whose image was taken on 19 April 2015, and by the platform that records the file and its terms. The licence record does not, on its own, tell us how any particular viewer responded to the photograph, and it should not be read as evidence of taste, popularity or critical judgement. What it establishes is narrower and firmer: a specific, dated photograph of Pit 1 exists in the public record under a reuse licence with an attribution condition. Any later cultural role the image acquires has to be understood as passing through that permission structure. Source IDs: source-1. - [Jean-Marie Hullot, 2015](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terracotta_Army,_View_of_Pit_1.jpg) [source-1]. Locator: Licensing Claim ID: legacy-reference-reception-1. Evidence: reception. The image is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported. Source IDs: source-1. - [Jean-Marie Hullot, 2015](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terracotta_Army,_View_of_Pit_1.jpg) [source-1] ### Documented values and qualified estimates Research section ID: values. #### The Object and Its Supporting Record Claim ID: valuation-calculated-insurance. Evidence: interpretation. The single object supported by the supplied evidence is Pit 1 of the Terracotta Army, described as an in-situ archaeological structure measuring 230 by 62 metres and containing more than 6,000 terracotta figures. The record further specifies eleven corridors, most of which are more than 3 metres wide, paved with small bricks and roofed with timber carried on large beams and posts. The same corridor-and-roof design is said to have been used for the tombs of nobles, and the structure is described as resembling palace hallways when built. Above the wooden ceilings were reed mats and layers of clay for waterproofing, and after sealing the whole was mounded with more soil, raising it about 2 to 3 metres above the surrounding ground when completed. These details come from a Wikimedia Commons photograph record for an image of Pit 1, itself a self-published photograph taken by Jean-Marie Hullot (user Jmhullot) on 19 April 2015, with camera location 34° 23′ 04.61″ N, 109° 16′ 22.6″ E at an altitude of 383.7 metres above sea level in Shaanxi Sheng, China, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported. The source is a photograph record rather than an excavation report or museum catalogue, so the physical and architectural specifications it carries should be read as the descriptions attached to that record, not as measurements independently verified by the supplied evidence. Source IDs: source-1. - [Jean-Marie Hullot, 2015](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terracotta_Army,_View_of_Pit_1.jpg) [source-1] Claim ID: valuation-calculated-insurance-2. Evidence: interpretation. What the evidence does not supply is as consequential as what it does. No maker, creation date, provenance, accession number, collection status, or prior sale is provided for Pit 1. This absence is explicit in the working valuation record and is consistent with the character of the underlying source, a Commons image file rather than a collections or excavation document. Because the source is a photograph record, it can establish that a photograph of this structure was taken at a recorded time and place under a stated licence, and it can carry the architectural description attached to that record, but it cannot establish attributions of authorship, dating, ownership history or market history. Any account that presents such facts would be drawing on something outside the supplied evidence, and the record here should be read as a description of an in-situ archaeological structure whose cultural status is site-based rather than object-based in the conventional art-market sense. Source IDs: source-1. - [Jean-Marie Hullot, 2015](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terracotta_Army,_View_of_Pit_1.jpg) [source-1] #### The Insurance Range and Its Limits Claim ID: valuation-calculated-insurance-3. Evidence: interpretation. The calculated working insurance estimate records a range of US$50M to US$500M, generated as a working calculation on 2026-10-16. The methodology states that the range is a deliberately wide working figure for manual review, treating the site as unique, non-market and effectively priceless in any conventional insurance sense rather than building from comparable sales, which the record states would be inappropriate here. The record adds the qualification that this is a model-generated working range for manual review only, not an official insurance value, appraisal, auction result or sale price, and that it is not suitable for policy placement, underwriting or financial reporting. It also confirms that the supplied sources are a Wikimedia Commons photograph record containing no valuation, provenance or market data. The estimate therefore does not derive from market evidence about this object, because no such evidence was supplied; it is a procedural figure produced for review, and its own documentation frames it that way. Source IDs: source-1. - [Jean-Marie Hullot, 2015](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terracotta_Army,_View_of_Pit_1.jpg) [source-1] Claim ID: valuation-calculated-insurance-4. Evidence: interpretation. Read together, the two strands of evidence describe one thing from two very different directions. The architectural description establishes scale, layout, materials and sealing: more than 6,000 figures in eleven corridors, brick paving, timber roofs on beams and posts, reed mats and clay waterproofing, and a final mound raising the structure about 2 to 3 metres above surrounding ground level. The valuation record establishes that this same structure has no supplied maker, date, provenance, accession number, collection status or prior sale, and that its monetary figure is a wide, model-generated working range for manual review rather than an appraisal. The relationship between the two is not a contradiction but a category difference. The record treats Pit 1 as an in-situ archaeological structure rather than a market object, which is why the valuation method explicitly declines comparable sales and produces a deliberately broad range instead of a market-derived number. The large range is a consequence of the absence of market evidence, not evidence of a market value. Source IDs: source-1. - [Jean-Marie Hullot, 2015](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terracotta_Army,_View_of_Pit_1.jpg) [source-1] Claim ID: valuation-calculated-insurance-5. Evidence: interpretation. Pit 1 is described as an army arranged inside corridors that imitated palace hallways, then sealed under mats, clay and soil, with the visible figures forming only part of a larger buried architecture. That framing matters for the larger history of material culture because it separates two things that can easily be merged: the terracotta figures as sculpture, and the pit itself as a constructed, sealed space. The supplied record supports the second as much as the first, and the description of the corridor-and-roof plan as a design also used for the tombs of nobles places the pit within a broader mortuary and architectural tradition of built, roofed and sealed interiors. The recurring caution in the valuation record, that this is an in-situ structure with no maker, date, provenance, accession number, collection status or prior sale, reinforces why the site is best understood through its architecture and archaeological context rather than through the categories of authorship, provenance and market circulation that normally organise object histories. The scale of the arrangement and the care taken to roof it, waterproof it and close it over are the aspects the supplied evidence most fully documents. Source IDs: source-1. - [Jean-Marie Hullot, 2015](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terracotta_Army,_View_of_Pit_1.jpg) [source-1] Claim ID: legacy-reference-values-1. Evidence: calculated_insurance. Calculated working insurance estimate, not a sale price: Working range for review: US$50M to US$500M Recorded date: Working calculation, generated 2026-10-16. Methodology: The only supported object is Pit 1 of the Terracotta Army, an in-situ archaeological structure measuring 230 by 62 metres with more than 6,000 terracotta figures. No maker, creation date, provenance, accession number, collection status, or prior sale is supplied. The range is therefore a deliberately wide working figure for manual review, treating the site as unique, non-market, and effectively priceless in any conventional insurance sense rather than building from comparable sales, which would be inappropriate here. Qualification: This is a model-generated working range for manual review only. It is not an official insurance value, appraisal, auction result, or sale price. It is not suitable for policy placement, underwriting, or financial reporting. The supplied sources are a Wikimedia Commons photograph record and do not contain valuation, provenance, or market data. Source IDs: source-1. - [Jean-Marie Hullot, 2015](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terracotta_Army,_View_of_Pit_1.jpg) [source-1] ## Books for further reading Amazon links are paid links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. ### The terracotta army of the first emperor of China William Lindesay, 2008. Odyssey Books & Guides; Distributed by W W Norton] Title is explicitly about the terracotta army of the First Emperor of China, and recorded subjects are Tomb, Antiquities and Terra-cotta sculpture, Chinese. The subject set is tightly scoped to the named monument and its burial context, with no unrelated headings, making this a focused study of the site and its ceramic figures. Bibliography source ID: book-ol23097435m. ISBN: 9789622177963 [Find book on Amazon.co.uk](https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=9789622177963&tag=artifactarchi-21) Cover provenance: https://openlibrary.org/books/OL23097435M ### The first emperor: China's Terracotta Army Jane Portal and Hiromi Kinoshita, 2008. High Museum of Art Recorded subjects include Terra-cotta sculpture, Chinese, Tomb, Excavations (Archaeology), China antiquities, Shaanxi Sheng (China), Sculpture, and Sculpture, exhibitions, plus Qin Shi Huang. Because it names Shaanxi province, where the Terracotta Army was found, and pairs terracotta sculpture with excavation and exhibition headings, the record indicates a scholarly treatment of the burial complex and its sculptures rather than a general artist survey. Bibliography source ID: book-ol27825492m. ISBN: 9781932543261 [Find book on Amazon.co.uk](https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=9781932543261&tag=artifactarchi-21) Cover provenance: https://openlibrary.org/books/OL27825492M ## Sources and literature ### [source-1] Wikimedia Commons: Terracotta Army Jean-Marie Hullot (2015). Wikimedia Commons: Terracotta Army. File: Terracotta Army, View of Pit 1.jpg. Wikimedia Commons. Available at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terracotta_Army,_View_of_Pit_1.jpg Publisher: Wikimedia Commons. Type: secondary. URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terracotta_Army,_View_of_Pit_1.jpg Authors / editors: Jean-Marie Hullot. Publication year: 2015. Publication / journal: File: Terracotta Army, View of Pit 1.jpg Language: English Consultation status: partially_consulted. Access status: open_access. Relevance: artwork. Archive annotation: Wikimedia Commons file record and photograph of Pit 1 of the Terracotta Army, the supplied source for the site description and construction details. Photographer credited as Jmhullot; uploaded as self-published work under CC BY 3.0. ### [book-ol26939249m] Terracotta army: legacy of the first emperor of China Jian Li (2017). Terracotta army: legacy of the first emperor of China. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. ISBN: 9780300230567. Available at: https://openlibrary.org/books/OL26939249M Publisher: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Type: book. URL: https://openlibrary.org/books/OL26939249M Authors / editors: Jian Li. Publication year: 2017. ISBN: 9780300230567 Consultation status: not_yet_consulted. Archive annotation: Catalogue record lists subjects including Terra-cotta sculpture, Chinese, Tombs, Excavations (Archaeology), Exhibitions, Collections and Catalogs and Exhibitions, and Qin Shi Huang, alongside the tomb and Qin-Han dynasty periods. These recorded subjects match the Terracotta Army directly and suggest an exhibition-oriented treatment of the figures and their archaeological context. Chosen over broader surveys because the exhibition and collections subject headings point to an object-focused catalogue rather than a general history. ### [book-ol23097435m] The terracotta army of the first emperor of China William Lindesay (2008). The terracotta army of the first emperor of China. Odyssey Books & Guides; Distributed by W W Norton]. ISBN: 9789622177963. Available at: https://openlibrary.org/books/OL23097435M Publisher: Odyssey Books & Guides; Distributed by W W Norton]. Type: book. URL: https://openlibrary.org/books/OL23097435M Authors / editors: William Lindesay. Publication year: 2008. ISBN: 9789622177963 Consultation status: not_yet_consulted. Archive annotation: Title is explicitly about the terracotta army of the First Emperor of China, and recorded subjects are Tomb, Antiquities and Terra-cotta sculpture, Chinese. The subject set is tightly scoped to the named monument and its burial context, with no unrelated headings, making this a focused study of the site and its ceramic figures. ### [book-ol27825492m] The first emperor: China's Terracotta Army Jane Portal and Hiromi Kinoshita (2008). The first emperor: China's Terracotta Army. High Museum of Art. ISBN: 9781932543261. Available at: https://openlibrary.org/books/OL27825492M Publisher: High Museum of Art. Type: book. URL: https://openlibrary.org/books/OL27825492M Authors / editors: Jane Portal; Hiromi Kinoshita. Publication year: 2008. ISBN: 9781932543261 Consultation status: not_yet_consulted. Archive annotation: Recorded subjects include Terra-cotta sculpture, Chinese, Tomb, Excavations (Archaeology), China antiquities, Shaanxi Sheng (China), Sculpture, and Sculpture, exhibitions, plus Qin Shi Huang. Because it names Shaanxi province, where the Terracotta Army was found, and pairs terracotta sculpture with excavation and exhibition headings, the record indicates a scholarly treatment of the burial complex and its sculptures rather than a general artist survey. ## Editorial note Published automatically by Artifact Archive. No human editorial review. ## Coverage and revisions Recorded scope: This record brings together the supplied object-specific evidence and literature. Its citations identify the sources supporting each account. Scope updated on: 2026-10-16 Bibliography entries held: 4. Literature coverage is accumulating. Finding or cataloguing a publication does not mean it has been consulted. A missing consultation status is not recorded. The record does not claim that all literature has been found. Editorial review date: 2026-10-16. ## Product range [Browse ArtifactArchive's current product range](https://www.artifact-archive.com/shop). 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