China and the West were in contact more than 1,500 years before European explorer Marco Polo arrived in China, new archaeological finds suggest. And even more impressive The famous Chinese Terracotta Warriors may have come from Ancient Greece!
Archaeologists say inspiration for the Terracotta Warriors, found at the Tomb of the First Emperor near today’s Xian, may have come from Ancient Greece.
They also say ancient Greek artisans could have been training locals there in the Third Century BC.
Polo’s 13th Century travel to China had been thought the first by a European.
“We now have evidence that close contact existed between the First Emperor’s China and the West before the formal opening of the Silk Road. This is far earlier than we formerly thought,” said Senior Archaeologist Li Xiuzhen, from the Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s Mausoleum Site Museum.
A separate study shows European-specific mitochondrial DNA has been found at sites in China’s westernmost Xinjiang Province, suggesting that Westerners may have settled, lived and died there before and during the time of the First Emperor.
There was no tradition of of building life-sized human statues in China before the tomb was created. Earlier statues were simple figurines about 20cm (7.9ins) in height.
To explain how such an enormous change in skill and style could have happened, Dr Xiuzhen believes that influences must have come from outside China.
“We now think the Terracotta Army, the Acrobats and the bronze sculptures found on site have been inspired by ancient Greek sculptures and art,” she said.
Farmers first discovered the 8,000 terracotta figures buried less than a mile from the tomb of China’s first emperor Qin Shi Huang in 1974.
This would be a fascinating example of intercultural exchange and very early global trade. It reminds me of the role of Indo-Greek kingdoms in early Buddhism. To an extent, it would suggest the arbitrariness of these concepts of East and West–with Western countries like Britain and France being non-extistent at the time of this exchange between China and Greece. Beyond silk / glass / metal trade, one wonders what else was exchanged in the ancient world, and what came west to Greece from China as well.
Did you know that around 100.000 years ago, long before modern man ever thought up the idea, Neanderthals built boats, invented / learned to navigate by the stars & sailed extensively. Indeed remains of Neanderthal were found on the Greek Islands & including Crete.
Modern man began sailing 50.000 years ago & they are the ancestors of the Australian aboriginal people. The land mass that is today Australia was first discovered by these courageous people from Africa who sailed here 50.000 years ago & not buy Captain Cook from Britain. Word travels fast, he British heard that there was an inhabited land mass in this direction & they quickly came to colonize it in the name of the king of England, for profit. The first attempt to land resulted in a shipwreck. a couple of years later they successfully landed on Australia, stole the land & enslaved the population & here we are today.