Online Museum Review American Journal of Archaeology Vol. 113, no. 3 (July 2009)

The First Emperor: China’s Terracotta Army focuses on Emperor Qin Shihuang and the grand empire he created during his rule from 221 to 210 B.C.E. The exhibition at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, originally shown in a larger version at the British Museum in 2007/2008, displays about 100 objects, primarily from the Qin dynasty (221–206 B.C.E.), and examines them within their historical and archaeological contexts to reassess the legacy of China’s First Emperor and investigate the life and thought of his time.1 About half of the loans are from the Museum of the Terracotta Warriors2 in Lintong County, Shaanxi Province, which was built at the site of the First Emperor’s tomb in 1979. The remaining loans are from nine other museums in Shaanxi Province and the British Museum. This is not the first time that terracotta warriors have been shown in the United States;3 however, the current exhibition is the first one completely devoted to the First Emperor and the Qin dynasty. The exhibition is accompanied by a handsomely produced catalogue with contributions by leading western scholars and prominent Chinese curators who have been involved with these works since their discovery.4 Before the 1970s, our knowledge of the Qin dynasty was mostly derived from historical texts, many of which are incomplete, biased, or even altered. The spectacular works of the Qin dynasty, recovered by means of archaeological excavations during the last 35 years at Lintong, a county about 40 km east of Xi’an in Shaanxi Province, constitute a reliable new source that fundamentally transforms our understanding of this critical phase of early China.