Archaeologists have discovered the remains of what appears to be an ancient chariot pulled by sheep near the famous Terracotta Army in northwestern China. China Daily, the English-language website of the Chinese Communist Party, said the remains were found in the “western tomb” in the area of ​​Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi’s mausoleum, a few kilometers northeast of the city of Xi’an. In Shaanxi Province.

Jiang Wenxiao, the archaeologist responsible for excavating the tomb. aforementioned China Daily, It turned out that the main structure of the car had rotted after being in the ground for more than 2000 years. However, Wenxiao said the team found a row of six sheep skeletons along with accessories used to pull the cart, and concluded that it was a cart pulled by sheep.

painted with sheep

Horse-drawn chariots and ox carts were common in ancient China, but the sheep-drawn chariot was an extremely rare find, Wenxiao said. However, they appear in Chinese history and Chinese traditions. Emperor Wu (or Sima Yan), the founder of the Western Jin Dynasty, who reigned from 266 to 290 AD, is said to have driven a sheep-drawn chariot around his palace complex every night and slept where the sheep stayed.

His practice may be the source of the modern Chinese phrase “seeking luck in a sheep cart”; The emperor is said to have a harem of 10,000 wives, and this seems to be Sim Yang’s way of choosing among them.

Wenxiao presented his discovery at the Fourth Congress of Chinese Archaeology in Xi’an in October. government website ECNS.cn. The team hopes that ongoing laboratory analysis of the western tomb’s burial chamber will help them determine who is buried there, the report said.

chinese chariots

In addition to the chariot containing six sheep, archaeologists found a four-wheeled wooden chariot, probably pulled by horses, equipped with an ornate rectangular umbrella. According to Wenxiao, this is the oldest thing found.

They also found numerous copper artifacts related to chariots and horses, as well as iron tools and copper weapons, providing new insight into the period when iron tools first appeared.

The mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi, who reigned from 221 to 210 BC and is considered the first emperor of unified China, covers an area of ​​approximately 10 square miles (26 square kilometers) and took 38 years to build. Three large pits in the mausoleum’s floor contain more than 8,000 life-size statues depicting the emperor’s soldiers and horses, called the Terracotta Army. Source