The majestic Terracotta Army has long been thought to be the work of adult male artisans, but a new study reveals the ancient underground legion was likely built by a diverse workforce that included women and teenagers.
The Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum announced on October 21 a joint study with Shandong University that analyzed fingerprints left on the clay figures. The findings were recently published in the Journal of Cultural Heritage.
Researchers extracted 79 independent fingerprints from 23 terracotta figures in Pit 1. Using a Bayesian mixture model to estimate age and gender demographics, the team found that adult males accounted for about 45 percent of the prints. Adult females made up 32.7 percent, while teenagers under 15 accounted for 22.3 percent.
This marks the first quantitative biological evidence showing that women and youths participated in the production process, which likely involved shaping, transporting, or assembling the figures.
Most of the prints were concentrated on prefabricated parts such as heads, arms, and armor. The team identified 73 surface fingerprints formed by pressing wet clay and six relief prints created while attaching mud decorations like armor nails and belts. This distribution corroborates the known "molding and assembling" production model.
The peak age for adult male and female fingerprints was around 20. The proportion of teenage prints also aligns with historical records of the Qin dynasty's apprentice system, where youths assisted master craftsmen.
Researchers cautioned that the figures represent population-level estimates based on a limited sample from a specific area of the pit, meaning they cannot be mapped to individual craftsmen. However, the study lays the groundwork for larger-scale demographic investigations in other areas, such as Pit 2.
The discovery has sparked significant online buzz, with netizens marveling at the tangible connection to the ancient workers and praising the newfound recognition of women's contributions to Chinese history.
Staff reporter
