Qin Imperial Iron, Tomb M1 and the First Emperor's Mausoleum: Character, Context and Consequence

This AHRC-funded research project will pioneer the systematic study of iron objects found in the Qin First Emperor's mausoleum.

The monumental complex of Qin Shihuang is famous worldwide and often evoked as an expression of the workings of the Qin Empire in microcosm. Its Terracotta Army was equipped with thousands of functional bronze weapons, while in contrast it remains curious that iron implements are not more prominent in the complex by this stage of the 1st millennium BCE.

However, newly-excavated finds of iron swords and a suit of iron armour from tomb M1 at the mausoleum site now provide a privileged new analytical vantage point and prompt us to consider the hundreds of other iron implements from the objects are in fact a very important but often-forgotten category of evidence in the Qin story, one that can provide significant new insight on changes of industrial scale and scope in an ‘Axial Age’ of imperial transformation across Europe and Asia.

Related outputs

Quinn, P; Ying, Y; Xia, Y; Li, X; Ma, S; Wilke, D; Zhang, S; (2021) Geochemical evidence for the manufacture, logistics and supply‐chain management of Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Terracotta Army, China. Archaeometry , 63 (1) pp. 40-52. 10.1111/arcm.12613.
Xiuzhen Li (2020),Bronze Weapons of the Qin Terracotta Warriors: Standardisation, craft specialisation and labour organisation. BAR Publishing, S2992, ISBN 9781407316901 (paper), https://doi.org/10.30861/9781407316901
Martinon-Torres, M; Li, X; Xia, Y; Benzonelli, A; Bevan, A; Ma, S; Huang, J; … Rehren, T; + view all (2019) Surface chromium on Terracotta Army bronze weapons is neither an ancient anti-rust treatment nor the reason for their good preservation. Scientific Reports , 9 , Article 5289. 10.1038/s41598-019-40613-7.
Bevan, A; Li, X; Zhao, Z; Huang, J; Laidlaw, S; Xi, N; Xia, Y; … Martinon-Torres, M; + view all (2018) Ink marks, bronze crossbows and their implications for the Qin Terracotta Army. Heritage Science , 6 , Article 75. 10.1186/s40494-018-0239-5.
Li, X; Bevan, A; Martinón-Torres, M; Xia, Y; Zhao, K; (2016) Marking practices and the making of the Qin Terracotta Army. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology , 42 pp. 169-183. 10.1016/j.jaa.2016.04.002.