Terracotta Warriors could be mainly built by women and children, batch fingerprints show

Some 5 metres underground near one of China’s oldest cities lies the life-size army of thousands of terracotta warriors. The purpose of the army, located 35km northeast of historic Xian, was to protect China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, in the afterlife. The Terracotta Army was buried with him after his death in 210BC. Now, a new study shows that a portion of the terracotta warriors was largely made by adult women and minors, not solely by men as previously thought. “These findings challenge...