STONE ARMOR 2200 YEARS AGO: EARLY MASS PRODUCTION METHODS IN CHINA

After the discovery of the terracotta army in the 1970s, Chinese archeologists started a systematic exploration in the surroundings of the burial mound of the first Chinese Emperor. In 1998 more than 200 sets of ceremonial stone armor for soldiers and horses were discovered. The sets of armor, which were to protect the horses and the warriors' chests, each consist of at least 600 individual small limestone plates which were connected to one another with bronze wires in a highly complicated system.

The craftsmen sawed and split thousands of individual plates from unworked rock, giving the limestone a perfect shape through polishing and drilling. Discoveries of tools as well as tool-marks document this laborious undertaking. The investigations made by archaeologists, chemists, geologists and conservation scientists yielded basic information about production techniques, materials, the condition of the materials, the degradation process and its physical and chemical causes.