IMAGINE THIS: YOU’RE DIGGING A WELL, AND INSTEAD OF HITTING WATER, YOU UNEARTH A HEADLESS HUMAN TORSO MADE OF POTTERY. This actually happened to farmers in Shaanxi province in central China in 1974. Zhao Kangmin, a local archaeologist, heard of the find and biked over to investigate. He realized that the figure had come from an elaborate tomb built over 2,000 years ago for China’s first emperor, Qin Shihuang. Archaeologists eventually discovered three separate pits filled with 8,000 life-sized statues of archers, infantry, cavalry, charioteers, and generals, along with their weapons and horses, all made from terracotta—a type of fired clay.
About a mile away (1.5 km) from these pits, there’s a large mound. Archaeologists know that this is the main part of Qin Shihuang’s tomb, but they have never…