{"id":4402,"date":"2025-08-09T21:59:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T13:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ywo.id.au\/blog\/?p=4402"},"modified":"2025-08-09T22:07:21","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T14:07:21","slug":"terracotta-warriors-at-the-western-australian-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ywo.id.au\/blog\/2025\/08\/09\/terracotta-warriors-at-the-western-australian-museum\/","title":{"rendered":"Terracotta warriors at the Western Australian Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Western Australian Museum<\/a> is currently hosting a display of the terracotta warriors<\/a> of Ancient China, with this exhibit running from 28 June 2025 to 22 February 2026. Well known for being set in place to watch over the tomb<\/a> of the first emperor, Qin Shi Huang<\/a> (\u79e6\u59cb\u7687; 259\u2013210 BC).<\/p>\n

As with most such displays, room lighting was dim and flash photography was prohibited\u2014both measures to minimise the damage to the artefacts from exposure to light. I brought along my old Nikon D70S (which has a quiet and gentle-sounding shutter mechanism) and Nikkor AF-S 18\u201370 mm f\/3.5\u20134.5 lens. A standard zoom lens with stabilisation is a significant omission from my photographic kit, but over the last several years I mainly been shooting with other lenses anyway.<\/p>\n

The 18\u201370 mm is not stabilised, so I relied on a range of mitigating measures: (1) opening up the aperture as much as possible, though that generally meant just f\/4 or f\/4.5; (2) boosting ISO sensitivity, for which I felt ISO 800 was the best compromise between image quality and faster exposure durations; (3) stabilising myself against a wall while shooting; and (4) shooting multiple frames, so that I could pick the best frame while post-processing. All in all, the results were not too bad, but a stabilised lens would have allowed for much better results.<\/p>\n

We start with a couple of bronze swords dating back to around 475\u2013221 BC, according to the notes accompanying the display. Chinese swords of this period distinctly lack any form of crossguard, and can look somewhat odd if you are used to seeing mediaeval European swords. I first came across this design in historical Chinese movies and, to my eye, there is a certain elegance to them; they are almost like sleek, unadorned spearheads more than anything else.<\/p>\n

\"Ancient
Ancient Chinese bronze swords, July 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Next we have an ornately-crafted pendant made from grey-green jade (c. 475\u2013221 BC), a disc which is somewhat greener in tone (475\u2013221 BC), and a couple of brass doorknockers (c. 206 BC\u2013AD 9). Even though I am showing these artefacts at a low resolution and shot these images from a little distance away (and through a protective glass barrier), you can see the fine detail that the artists carefully shaped in their work.<\/p>\n

\"Ancient
Ancient Chinese jade dragon pendant, July 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ancient
Ancient Chinese jade disc, July 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ancient
Ancient Chinese bronze doorknockers, July 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The first actual portrayal of a warrior we see is this infantryman (c. 206 BC\u2013AD 9). When newly completed, this piece would have been holding a weapon, possibly a polearm of some kind, in the right hand.<\/p>\n

\"Ancient
Ancient Chinese clay infantryman statue, July 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

These bronze rabbit ornaments are estimated to have been from around 770\u2013476 BC, so are somewhat older than the previous artefacts shown above.<\/p>\n

\"Ancient
Ancient Chinese bronze rabbit ornaments, July 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The clay cavalry statues and gold flower ornament below are both estimated to be from around 206\u20139 BC. The cavalry were smaller than life-sized.<\/p>\n

\"Ancient
Ancient Chinese clay cavalry statues, July 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ancient
Ancient Chinese gold flower ornament, July 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

These two chariots (c. 221\u2013206 BC) are close to life-sized representations, showing vehicles that formed part of the imperial entourage. I believe that these may be replicas, with the original restored creations remaining in China. In any case, the craftsmanship is remarkable.<\/p>\n

\"Ancient
Ancient Chinese bronze enclosed chariot, July 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ancient
Ancient Chinese bronze escort chariot, July 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This representation of an attendant (c. 221\u2013206 BC) is the first actual terracotta creation I am showing here; terracotta is a specific type of pottery with a higher iron content and some differences in the firing process, as I understand it.<\/p>\n

\"Ancient
Ancient Chinese terracotta attendant statue, July 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the most striking pieces in the display was this bronze swan (c. 221\u2013206 BC). You can get a slight sense of the amount of detail in the craftsmanship even in this small image below, but what caught my eye when seeing it was the perfect form and proportions; rather than being some object made by human hands, it may as well have been an actual swan, frozen in time.<\/p>\n

\"Ancient
Ancient Chinese bronze swan sculpture, July 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Next is probably one of the more well known terracotta figures\u2014an archer, kneeling at the ready. I believe this figure has been featured widely in publicity materials over the years; I immediately recognised it when I came across it.<\/p>\n

\"Ancient
Ancient Chinese terracotta archer statue, July 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the most distinguished-looking items on display was this terracotta statue of a general. This artefact seemed not only slightly larger in physical size than the other terracotta warriors, but also appeared to have been made to a higher standard (unsurprisingly). Note, for example, the smoothness of the surfaces and the detail in the moustache and beard in the second photograph below. I did not see this level of refinement in the other terracotta warriors that I saw.<\/p>\n

\"Ancient
Ancient Chinese terracotta general statue, July 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ancient
Ancient Chinese terracotta general statue, July 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The terracotta horse (c. 221\u2013206 BC) below was not quite life-sized, but larger than the cavalry statues shown above.<\/p>\n

\"Ancient
Ancient Chinese terracotta horse statue, July 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Also on display was some stone armour (c. 221\u2013206 BC), with small shaped stone segments held together with bronze wire. As with the swords shown earlier, you can see this style of armour in historical movies. It bears some superficial visual similarity to some European armours, but is distinct in having square and rectangular pieces rather than scale-shaped pieces.<\/p>\n

\"Ancient
Ancient Chinese stone armour, July 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ancient
Ancient Chinese stone armour, July 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ancient
Ancient Chinese stone armour pieces, July 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We finish as we began\u2014with a sword. In this case, though, we have a much larger weapon; a two-handed bronze sword (c. 221\u2013206 BC). The overall design appears to be the same (no crossguard) as for the previous blades, but the proportions are obviously different.<\/p>\n

\"Ancient
Ancient Chinese bronze two-handed sword, July 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All in all, the exhibition is well worth a visit if you are interested in this era and place in history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Western Australian Museum is currently hosting a display of the terracotta warriors of Ancient China, with this exhibit running from 28 June 2025 to 22 February 2026. Well known for being set in place to watch over the tomb of the first emperor, Qin Shi Huang (\u79e6\u59cb\u7687; 259\u2013210 BC). As with most such displays,… Continue reading Terracotta warriors at the Western Australian Museum<\/span> →<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[464,470,472,173,161,63,469,468,467,465,471,466],"class_list":["post-4402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-china","tag-emperor","tag-horse","tag-nikkor-afs-18-70-3-5-4-5-dx","tag-nikon-d70s","tag-perth","tag-qin-shi-huang","tag-swan","tag-sword","tag-terracotta-warriors","tag-tomb","tag-wa-museum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ywo.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ywo.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ywo.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ywo.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ywo.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4402"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/www.ywo.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4438,"href":"https:\/\/www.ywo.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4402\/revisions\/4438"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ywo.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ywo.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ywo.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ywo.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}