In 1974, farmers digging a well near Xi'an, China accidentally discovered thousands of life-sized clay soldiers that had been buried over 2,000 years earlier to do what?
- Mark the boundary of the Great Wall's westernmost garrison
- Guard the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, China's first emperor
- Store grain reserves for the imperial capital in case of famine
- Commemorate a military victory over nomadic Xiongnu raiders
Why B? And why not the others?
Correct answer: B. Guard the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, China's first emperor
The buried army was part of a vast funerary complex meant to protect Qin Shi Huang, who unified China's warring states around 221 BCE, in the afterlife just as a real army protected him in life. Over 8,000 soldiers have been located so far, each with individually sculpted facial features, hairstyles, and armour, arranged alongside horses, chariots, and bronze weapons in battle formation, and archaeologists believe large sections of the wider necropolis remain unexcavated. The Great Wall is a genuinely famous Qin-era project but is an entirely separate structure with no connection to buried statues. Storing grain was handled through granaries and administrative record-keeping, not sculpture, and while the Qin state did fight the Xiongnu, the clay figures were never intended as a public war memorial — their purpose was private and funerary, sealed underground and unseen for over two millennia.
Source: Britannica: Terracotta Army; UNESCO World Heritage: Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor