Excavating the ‘love chariot’ in the mausoleum complex of Qin Shi Huang

 08/11/2023  11:39  1023
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At the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, China’s first emperor, archaeologists have unearthed a group of chariots – including the rare “six sheep” chariot.

Sheep carts only appear rarely in Chinese history and legend, and are believed to be a form of “love carriage” for the king. (Source: SCMP/Shutterstock/CCTV)
Archaeologists in China have unearthed a group of chariots – including the rare “six sheep” chariot – in the “western tomb” of the mausoleum of  Qin Shi Huang , China’s first emperor, in northwestern China’s Shaanxi province.
With the sheep arranged in neat rows, archaeologists believe they may have been buried in ancient Chinese burial rituals.
While the main body of the chariot may have rotted, traces of the tools used to pull the chariot remain on the sheep bones.
Jiang Wenxiao, head of the archaeological excavation project, said in an official announcement that the discovery was “particularly rare” in Chinese archaeology.
Horse-drawn chariots and ox-drawn carts were so common in ancient China that archaeologists often find them during excavations.
However, historical records of  sheep-drawn carts  are rare, so finding evidence of their existence is a breakthrough.
This chariot is also much older than the first appearance of the six sheep chariot in historical records.
They appear only sparingly in Chinese history and legend, and are believed to have been a form of “love chariot” for the king.
Prior to the above discovery, the oldest historical record of a six-sheep chariot was associated with Emperor Wu of Jin, who was described as using the chariot to “circle the palace.”
Legend has it that the founder of the Western Jin Dynasty rode a sheep cart every night in the harem and would sleep wherever the sheep stopped.
At the current site, archaeologists also unearthed a separate, well-preserved wooden chariot with an ornate wooden parasol. It is believed to be the oldest known chariot of its kind.

The area is filled with horses and chariots that appear to be associated with burial traditions from the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC). There are many types of  chariots  in the surrounding area, and the number of horses per chariot varies from site to site.
This discovery will provide extremely valuable information for scientists studying ancient Chinese burial customs.
The tomb does not belong to Qin Shi Huang and scientists are currently analyzing it to determine who it belongs to.
The six-sheep chariot is not the first rare artifact discovered in this particular tomb.
In 2020, researchers announced that they had found an ancient silver camel figurine at the same site, the earliest known example of camel ornamentation in China. The camel artifact is important because it shows that China was trading with West Asia during the Qin Dynasty.
Scientists have yet to discover Qin Shi Huang’s actual burial chamber at the mausoleum in Xi’an.
 
“Terracotta Army” at the mausoleum complex of Qin Shi Huang. (Source: Shutterstock)
In 2021, the Chinese government funded a project to determine whether cosmic rays could be used to help archaeologists  pinpoint  the secret chamber that held Qin Shi Huang’s remains and treasures.
According to Han Dynasty historian Sima Qian, Qin Shi Huang’s mausoleum in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, was built by hundreds of thousands of workers over nearly four decades and completed around 208 BC.
The mausoleum lies beneath a 76-meter-high burial mound shaped roughly like a pyramid. Its layout is modeled after the Qin Dynasty capital of Xianyang, divided into inner and outer city areas.
With a total area 70 times larger than the Forbidden City, this is the largest mausoleum ever built for an individual in the world./.