Qin Shihuang’s Terracotta Warriors and Horses, what is the mound between the two rows of warriors for? Why not excavate it?

Before visiting the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shihuang, some tour guides will kindly remind tourists: watch your mobile phone carefully, be careful that it will become a "cultural relic." Everyone felt baffled and thought the tour guide was just reminding them to pay attention to thieves and be careful around them. However, when I saw the Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses, I was immediately shocked by the neat and majestic sight of this procession.

However, a very disharmonious scene appeared, filling their eyes with curiosity: it turned out that they saw a mobile phone on the mound between the two rows of servants. It was covered with dust, and it had obviously been there for a while.

This mobile phone looks out of place in the entire Terracotta Warriors and Horses burial pit. It also breaks the tranquility of this ancient, historical and cultural heritage. At this time, the tour guide will introduce it and say, have you seen that mobile phone? I probably won't be able to get this phone back. Because the mounds of soil between the warriors and warriors are also national level three cultural relics, even if the mobile phone is only contaminated with a little soil, it will be very difficult for the staff to retrieve it.

The tour guide seems to be talking about a common thing, but tourists’ eyes will be attracted by these mounds, because when mixed with the Terracotta Warriors and Horses, the mounds are indeed a bit eye-catching. In fact, they mainly have two Functions:

1. Mounds of soil serve as load-bearing walls to prevent landslides

We all know that in modern society, one of the most feared things when digging tunnels and building infrastructure is landslides, especially It’s the tragedy of coal mine collapse that we often heard about in the past few years. The Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang covers an area of ??more than 100,000 square meters and is tens of meters high. When the level of science and technology is far from reaching the current level, a huge project that was built more than 2,000 years ago is simply an unsolvable black technology. The way it prevents collapse is by relying on the mounds of soil between these soldiers.

Strictly speaking, these mounds are very tightly pressed rammed earth walls, very hard, no worse or even better than the current bricks. It is no exaggeration to say that these mounds are worthy of Than the current load-bearing walls. Countless terracotta warriors and horses will also be displayed in the middle of these load-bearing walls. Finally, hard wood will be covered between the load-bearing walls, then a layer of mat will be covered on the wood, and finally filled with rammed earth.

So these mounds have become the protectors of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses, ensuring that the Terracotta Warriors and Horses remain stable under severe geological shaking. The mausoleum is stable and plays an indispensable role.

2. The mounds can also be used as a reference for burial objects

Of course, the fact that the mounds mentioned here can serve as a reference is just a guess based on people’s daily habits and behaviors. . When we need to manage transactions of a larger magnitude, we are accustomed to using special code names to distinguish them. For example, as large as a country's military units are distinguished by numbers, and as small as companies are distinguished by departments, different functions are distinguished.

So when Prime Minister Li Si built the Mausoleum of the First Emperor, he arranged the terracotta warriors and horses in an orderly manner. The infantry, chariots, and cavalry squares were arranged along the load-bearing walls. Moreover, what is placed in each burial pit and what types of soldiers can be distinguished by the mounds of soil. The three known pits of terracotta warriors and horses can also confirm that the mounds still serve as reference marks: more than 6,000 warrior warriors were unearthed in pit No. 1; pits 2 contained images of the Qin Empire’s conquests Various armies on all sides, including infantry, chariots, cavalry, crossbowmen, etc., formed a huge formation. In Pit No. 3, it can be called the military command center of the empire, with many chariots, guards, and many bronze weapons and equipment.

Since the role of the mound is so great, it naturally cannot be excavated. In addition, these mounds have important reference value for studying the Qin Dynasty's troop formations. To put it bluntly, now that the Terracotta Warriors and Horses have been rediscovered, the load-bearing role of the mounds is not very great. Why not dig one or two to see what is in the mounds?

The existence of the mound is of greater significance

In fact, no matter what is in the mound, according to the current means of protecting cultural relics, it is estimated that once excavated, it will cause irreversible losses.

Speaking of this, I have to mention the excavation of Dingling, the tomb of Emperor Wanli of the Ming Dynasty. It was really a tragedy and disaster in the history of archaeology. Because after the Dingling Mausoleum was opened, a large number of Ming Dynasty silk brocades were destroyed. At the same time, due to the lack of scientific protection measures, many cultural relics "died" and lost their color once unearthed. Some It even causes rot, which is very regrettable.

So these mounds cannot be excavated, because we don’t know whether there are cultural relics in these mounds. It is unknown whether there may be some paranormal activity in these mounds. For example, people with an open mind will say: After the mound is dug, the formations of the soldiers on both sides will be disordered and there is no standard; or what should I do if the soldiers on both sides look at each other and fight? These are all antiques. We just listen to these imaginative thoughts as a joke and cannot take them seriously.

Speaking of the mounds, they are also considered antiquities here, because they are preserved together with the Terracotta Warriors and Horses, and they have a certain significance in history. They are also a witness to the Terracotta Warriors and Horses. Therefore, since it is impossible to ensure 100% protection measures for the cultural relics that may exist in the mound, it is better to protect them as they are and not to dig them out, so as not to let the tragedy of Dingling happen again.

The Terracotta Warriors and Horses have now become a golden business card of the glorious civilization of ancient China. But here I want to make a hypothesis. After Qin Shihuang unified China, if he spent his main energy on restoring the economy and consolidating his political power, instead of building these terracotta warriors and horses and seeking immortality that wasted money and people, maybe the Qin Dynasty would rule for a longer time, and the country would also Be more powerful.