Fingerprints reveal women and children built Terracotta Army

Archaeologists in China examined fingerprints on 2,200-year-old Terracotta Army statues to determine who constructed the massive collection of life-sized figures. Researchers at Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum analyzed 79 fingerprints from 36 warriors, discovering evidence that both men and women, as well as children, contributed to the army’s creation.

For years, scholars believed adult men alone built the army intended to guard the tomb of Emperor Qin Shihuang.

The new study challenges this idea, providing the first biological evidence of a more diverse workforce. The Terracotta Army was first discovered in 1974 by farmers digging a well near the emperor’s tomb. Excavations have revealed around 8,000 warriors, 130 chariots, and 150 horses, but much of the necropolis remains unexplored. Prior research focused on how the statues were made, not who made them, leaving the composition of the workforce largely unknown.

Xiaoxi Li and colleagues used fingerprint ridge breadth, the distance between lines on a fingerprint, to estimate the age and sex of the artisans. Their analysis suggests that only 45 percent of the fingerprints likely came from adult men, with 32.7 percent from adult women and 22.3 percent from children under 15. Historical records from the Qin dynasty support the idea that both women and children participated in state-supervised workshops, including apprenticeships where young people learned crafts.

While the study is limited by a relatively small sample size and the possibility that inexperienced workers left more prints, it offers new insight into the creation of this ancient wonder.