Эртний шавар баримлууд дээр үлдсэн хурууны хээнд хийсэн статистик шинжилгээ нь эзэн хаан Цинь Ши Хуандигийн армийг бүтээхэд зөвхөн эрчүүд бус, илүү өргөн хүрээний хөдөлмөрийн хүч оролцсоныг гэрчилж байна.
Emperor Qinshihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum-ийн судлаач Сяоши Ли тэргүүтэй баг Journal of Cultural Heritage сэтгүүлд нийтлүүлсэн судалгаандаа анх удаа Байесийн холимог загварыг ашиглан хурууны хээний тархалтыг шинжилжээ. Малтлагын 1-р нүхний T23 хэсгээс олдсон 36 цэргийн баримал дээрх 79 тод хурууны хээг судлахад тэдгээрийн 45 орчим хувь нь насанд хүрсэн эрэгтэйчүүд, 32.7 хувь нь эмэгтэйчүүд, 22.3 хувь нь 15-аас доош насны өсвөр үеийнхэнд хамаарч байв. Судлаачид хурууны хээний зураасын хоорондох зайг хэмжих замаар энэхүү дүгнэлтэд хүрсэн бөгөөд энэ нь хүний биеийн өсөлттэй шууд хамааралтай үзүүлэлт юм.
Энэхүү олдвор нь эртний нийгмийн хөдөлмөрийн бүтэц, тэр дундаа эртний урлагийн бүтээлийг бүтээхэд гэр бүлийн гишүүд эсвэл дагалдан суралцагчид оролцдог байсан гэх таамаглалыг баталгаажуулж байна. Венийн их сургуулийн Азийн урлагийн түүхийн профессор Лукас Никелийн тэмдэглэснээр, лак эдлэлийн бичээсүүдэд эрэгтэй, эмэгтэй дархчууд болон хүүхдүүдийн нэрс олонтоо дурдагддаг нь үүнийг дэмжих баримт болж байна.
Гэсэн хэдий ч судалгааны багийнхан тодорхой хязгаарлалтууд байгааг хүлээн зөвшөөрч байна. Нэг хүн олон хээ үлдээсэн байх эсвэл нэг баримал дээр хэд хэдэн хүн ажилласан байх магадлалтай тул хурууны хээгээр тухайн хувь хүнийг бүрэн тодорхойлох боломжгүй юм. Мөн судалгаанд ашигласан лавлагаа өгөгдөл нь орчин үеийн Европын хүн амд суурилсан, шавар хатах явцад агших зэрэг хүчин зүйлс нь үр дүнд нөлөөлж болзошгүйг судлаачид онцолжээ.
Археологич Жон Кантнер энэхүү судалгааг эртний нийгмийн хүйсийн хөдөлмөрийн талаарх хуучин ойлголтыг өөрчлөх чухал алхам хэмээн үнэлэв. Тэрээр өөрийн хийсэн судалгаагаар эртний Пуэбло иргэншил болон Израил дахь хүрэл зэвсгийн үеийн суурингуудад ч эмэгтэйчүүд, өсвөр насныхан шавар эдлэл урлах ажилд идэвхтэй оролцдог байсныг тогтоож байжээ. Энэхүү шинэлэг аргачлал нь эртний түүхийн олон олдвор дээрх нууцыг тайлахад цаашид үнэтэй хувь нэмэр оруулах боломжтой юм.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
A new analysis of 79 fingerprints preserved on 36 terracotta warriors suggests that the workforce behind China’s famous army may have included women and teenagers, not only adult men. A statistical model attributed roughly a third of the impressions to adult women and more than one in five to people younger than 15.
More than 2,200 years ago, someone pressed a finger into wet clay, perhaps to attach an arm, adjust a piece of armor or smooth an imperfection. That tiny mark survived for millennia and is now helping archaeologists tackle a surprisingly difficult question: who actually built the Terracotta Army?
The army was made for Qin Shi Huang, who unified China in 221 BCE and became its first emperor. Archaeologists have long studied how the figures were manufactured, but the identities of the people who shaped the clay have remained largely elusive.
What the Fingerprints Reveal?
In the study, published in the Journal of Cultural Heritage, researchers led by Xiaoxi Li, from the Emperor Qinshihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum, examined figures from an excavation area known as Unit T23 in Pit 1. They identified 79 sufficiently clear impressions on 36 soldiers, some on heads and arms, others in armor decorations.
The team did not try to match prints to individuals, as modern forensics does. Instead, they looked at the spacing between fingerprint ridges. That spacing generally increases as the body grows, and adult men tend to have wider ridges than adult women, although the groups overlap substantially.
Because of that overlap, the researchers used a Bayesian mixture model, which estimates the proportions of different populations across the whole collection rather than labeling each print. The model attributed approximately 45% of the impressions to adult men, 32.7% to adult women and 22.3% to teenagers younger than 15.
What Remains Unclear?
The caveats are significant. A single person could have left several marks while another left none, and a print cannot show whether its owner sculpted an entire warrior or handled one stage of production. The researchers also acknowledge that their reference data came from a modern European population, and that uncertainty about clay shrinkage during firing could affect the estimates.
Outside experts were not startled. As reported by Lukas Nickel, a professor of Asian art history at the University of Vienna who was not involved in the study, inscriptions on lacquer utensils frequently mention male and female artisans as well as boys and girls among the workforce. He added that whole families of artisans, or apprentices, may have taken part in making the warriors too.
Nickel was more puzzled by two other things. One was logistics: how could artisans finish seven thousand sculptures in little more than ten years, when each figure had to dry for several months and be fired for at least a week? The other was the small number of prints, only one to five per figure, when he would have expected lots, especially inside the torsos.
A Wider Shift in Archaeology
John Kantner, an archaeologist who has studied ancient fingerprints on pottery in the American Southwest, sees the work as part of a renaissance in the field. He told ZME Science that Li and colleagues appear to be the first to apply Bayesian modeling to an archaeological dataset, and that he finds the results compelling.
Kantner‘s own 2019 PNAS study of nearly 1,000 ceramic fragments from an Ancestral Puebloan community in what is now New Mexico found that both men and women were substantially involved in pottery production. He also noted the persistent ambiguity: large juvenile males and small adult females are likely to have similarly sized prints.
The pattern appears elsewhere too. At the Bronze Age site of Tell eṣ-Ṣâfi/Gath in present-day Israel, researchers identified fingerprints associated with adults and younger workers on pottery.
“Importantly, this work is disrupting age-old assumptions about gendered labor, which is really exciting to see since it has further implications for understanding ancient social structures,” as reported Kantner.
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