The Greeks May Have Influenced Qin Shi Huang’s Terracotta Army

When farmers discovered Qin Shi Huang’s terracotta army in the 1970s, it was considered the most significant archaeological find from the Han dynasty. Still, many questions arose from the discovery that baffled historians for years. Before Qin Shi Huang’s rule, there was no evidence of life-sized sculptures; previously excavated statues were smaller in size, each less than a foot tall. Such a disparity in size indicates an outside influence.

The historians and archaeologists studying the ancient terracotta army now believe that ancient Greek sculptures inspired the massive warrior sculptures, which would confirm that contact between the East and the West began much earlier than the opening of the Silk Road. The Greek influence found in China by the third century BCE isn’t surprising. Alexander the Great’s campaigns into the East in the fourth century BCE led to Hellenistic culture, one that spoke Greek and imitated Greek traditions in religion, art, and politics. When the Han dynasty opened the trade routes between central and eastern Asia, Greek artistic influences could have reached China.

The research team studying the Terracotta army takes the theory a step further, indicating that a Greek sculptor may have traveled to China to train local artists in how to make the life-sized sculptures. A separate study into the biology of remains from in the Xinjiang province from the third century BCE found mitochondrial DNA that is only found in those of European descent, proving that Europeans had settled the area at the time of Huang’s reign and intermarried with the local population. The significant change in art and the presence of European DNA both point to a connection between Europe and Asia that predated the Silk Road.