For a long time it was believed that the terracotta army of Qin Shi Huang was the work exclusively of adult male artisans working to strict standards. A new study of fingerprints on the warrior figures overturns this picture and shows that women and teenagers also took part in their creation.
Researchers from the Museum of the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang and the School of Archaeology at Shandong University examined 79 fingerprints from 23 warriors in the first pit. They applied a Bayesian model to estimate age and sex from the fingerprints. The results: adult men — about 45 %, adult women — 32,7 %, teenagers under 15 years old — 22,3 %. The fingerprints were most often found on the heads, armour and hands, which corresponds to the known technique of assembly from separate parts.
Previously, historians relied on written sources and assumed that mass production was carried out only by skilled men. Now biological traces provide direct evidence: women and young assistants also worked in the workshops. The teenage fingerprints are consistent with the practice of apprenticeship in ancient China, when children helped adult masters.
The distribution of fingerprints across the parts of the figures confirms modular assembly: some workers moulded the heads, others the armour, and still others the hands. Women and teenagers, it appears, took part at various stages — from moulding to final assembly and transport. This changes the understanding of the social organisation of labour in the Qin Empire.
The discovery not only refines the demographic composition of the artisans but also reminds us that the great projects of antiquity were created through the joint efforts of all of society. Women and children contributed to what is today perceived as a symbol of masculine strength and military might.
The study is published in the Journal of Cultural Heritage and is based on an analysis of actual fingerprints left on wet clay more than two thousand years ago. Such data are hard to dispute: they have been preserved on the figures themselves.
Every fingerprint is not merely a trace but a reminder that history is made by the hands of many, not only by those who are customarily considered its main heroes.
