Horses buried alongside the Terracotta Army demonstrate the animals’ crucial role in ancient Chinese history

Researchers analysed 24 horses that were buried in a supplementary tomb believed to represent administrative offices

They found evidence that the mausoleum’s builders ensured the horses were of a specific age and height

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Horses, both real and fake, are a significant part of the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, famous for the Terracotta Army. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 2:00pm, 15 Aug 2022Updated: 2:16pm, 15 Aug 2022

Few animals have had as significant an impact on the course of human history as the horse, playing a central role in transforming militaries, economies, transport networks and even recreation.

China was no exception, and historians have theorised that the Qin dynasty’s expertise with horses allowed the state to rise out of the Warring States Period and eventually rule what would become the first empire of a unified China (221 to 206BC).

Visitors to the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, in Shaanxi in northwest China, most famous for the Terracotta Army, should also notice that statues of horses are everywhere. Around 600 have been excavated to this point, highlighting their importance as something Emperor Qin Shi Huang (r. 221–210 BC) would value in the afterlife.

But not all of the horses in the tomb are fake, and there are ancillary burial grounds that contain real horse bones. While their role and importance to Qin society have been studied, researchers had not analysed the horses themselves, until a recent study published in Cambridge University Press over the summer did just that.

The researchers could only analyse the visible horses because they are not allowed to be moved for conservation and tourism reasons. Photo: Cambridge University Press

The study found that all of the horses were males, and large, with a mean height of 1.4 metres. They were around 10 years old when they died, which would be their prime.