A tedious job!

About 4 years after the Emperor Qin Shihuang died, his enemies did find these buried warriors and smashed them and set fires to destroy them. So this is pretty much what it looks like as they have unearthed each of the pits. Because the destruction was smashing and knocking the pottery figures over, most of the broken pieces and shards were scattered but close by so as they have excavated they have been able to put the pieces back together just like a HUGE puzzle

Here is an area where they have been reassembling the warriors and horses. You can see missing pieces and cracked lines all over the figures. This must just be the most tedious work ever! I'm afraid I'd lose my mind if I had to deal with that for 8 hours a day, 7 days a week!

Here are more repaired warriors ready to be moved back into the pits. Here is a quote from a book we bought in the Visitors Center there. "Ever since the terra-cotta warriors and horses were discovered in 1974, only one third of the restoration work has been finished although work on discovering and restoring is persistent. Meding broken figures becomes a painstaking work for archeological workers."