Parmak izleri, Toprak Askerler’in yapımında kadın ve çocukların da çalışmış olabileceğine işaret ediyor

In 1974 farmers digging a well came upon the Terracotta Army, some 8,000 clay soldiers with varied faces and hairstyles about a mile from the 2,200-year-old burial place of Emperor Qin Shihuangdi. Researchers examined 36 warriors from a single pit and identified 91 fingerprints in the clay. After setting aside 12 prints that seemed to repeat the same individuals, the researchers kept 79; most were made while the figures were moulded and assembled, typically on heads and arms, while six were left during decoration. Because the spacing between fingerprint ridges offers clues to a person’s age and sex, the team applied a mathematical model to estimate the makers. Men were credited with about 45 percent of the prints, women with 32 percent and children under 15 with 22 percent; the young may have been apprentices, as Qin Dynasty records describe. Xiaoxi Li of the mausoleum museum says this challenges the view that adult men did all the work.