This thesis proposed a method for the value-based identification of the site’s character-defining features. I contribute to solving a common problem at large heritage sites, which is how to present a sense of the whole site when only small pieces are visible and have been excavated. As a case study, I focus on the First Qin Emperor’s Mausoleum constructed from 247-208 BC, because if reflects this tension between the entire heritage site and the excavated fragments. The Terra-Cotta Army Museum is known around the world, but it is only a small portion of the entire mausoleum site, the first in-situ museum as built in 1979 to exhibit the pits of terra-cotta figures, and it is an astounding 1.5 km east of the core mausoleum area. To fix the problem, and present a more complete site interpretation, the Shaanxi Cultural Relics Bureau constructed the mausoleum site park in 2009. However, it failed to solve the problem. The official tourist investigation survey done between 2012 and 2014 revealed that the Terra-Cotta Army Museum was still eclipsing the rest of the site. My thesis shows that in order to better understand the whole site, its major character-defining features must be presented to the public in a visible, physical way. Through my value-based method, I identified the axial paths and perimeter walls as the character-defining features that although primary in the hierarchy of importance, are not sufficiently visible to the public and therefore go by un-noticed. Because what is most important is not visible, I conclude by arguing for a partial reconstruction of the perimeter wall next to the remaining wall fragment and on the ancient foundation.

It has been years since the first emperor of China’s death. But, apart from being the first emperor of China, he would have been forgotten if it wasn’t for the hidden legacy he left behind. Now unearthed, his legacy is now for the entire world to bear witness to his vast army of Terracotta Warriors. An army made out of the very earth they were encased in, they remain standing for the emperor, even in death. But perhaps they stand for a reason? Perhaps they stand for a cause? Men of Clay; an Exploration of the Terracotta Army, explores the mystery behind the resurfaced Terracotta Army and its science and significance.

S40.oo /landing guard around the tomb or Qin Shihuangdi, the ranks of a terracotta army bear silent witness to the vast power of the First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty, who unified China in m bce. Six thousand warriors and horses make up the army, while chariots, a military ...

Early Chinese tombs contain great quantities of anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines as well as architectural models. Both kinds of miniatures are generally regarded as part of a single trajectory that ultimately substituted human sacrifices. The purpose of it all was to create ‘underground homes’ so that the deceased could enjoy the amenities of their former lives in the hereafter. This understanding is largely based on received literature and scattered archaeological finds. Through a detailed analysis of the earliest instances of funerary sculptures, this paper seeks to demonstrate that figurines and models at first represented two different rationales. Later on, these converged into a new view of the afterlife, one that not only symbolized ‘underground homes,’ but entire estates of an ever increasing number of landowners. Early Chinese tomb miniatures were thus instrumental in the formation of personalized, subterranean microcosms, or private ‘little empires.’