Tomb Essay

In 1922 Tutankhamun’s tomb (KV62) was excavated in the Valley of the Kings by the archaeologist Howard Carter. Despite having been looted years before the archaeological dig, Carter was delighted to discover that the tomb was nearly intact with a plethora of objects that could be used to comprehend Ancient Egypt and its people . Amongst the many riches found, located passed the antechamber - within the burial chamber, Carter and his team found a three-layered shrine under which lay three anthropoid coffins . The final, innermost, coffin was made of solid gold with the king’s arms crossed like the first two coffins in the Osirian manner, its dimensions were 51 cm by 187.5 cm by 51.3 cm (height, length, and width respectively) . When weighed

From an ancient unknown writer, we have learnt that the labourers made the tomb of bronze, with its floor being a map of China and rivers of mercury, which, as long as they flowed, Qin would live forever in his underground world. The workers continued construction on the tomb until the emperor’s death in 209BC. The mound was a scale model of the palace, the empire and the world. The labourers installed automatically triggered weapons in the mausoleum to safeguard the treasures and ward off tomb robbers. Most of the workmen who were working on the tomb when the Emperor died were buried alive with Qin to serve him in the afterlife. The warriors were constructed by the 700, 000 employed workers of Qin Shi Huangdi to prepare him for his afterlife journey.

Despite being the shortest ruling dynasty at fifteen years, the Qin dynasty served a vital role in the development of China’s civilization (51). The Qin dynasty was prefaced by a period of instability caused by an ineffective political system and war between several regions all vying to overtake the others. After the Qin kingdom rose as the victor, King Cheng established for himself the title of Shi huangdi, or emperor, and looked to create a political system that would prevent the empire from fragmenting again. To achieve such a centralized government, Shi Huangdi sacrificed his people’s intellectual freedom and lives and produced a connected and standardized China, whose efficiency and strength still impacts the vision

Qin Shi Huangdi, the first Qin emperor, was a proactive and ambitious emperor who implemented a central bureaucratic system that oversaw the evolution and unification of China at the cost of public sentiment. The Qin Dynasty is considered among the most influential dynasties as it laid the foundation for the massive cultural and economic development of China that took place during the Han Dynasty, but it also failed to achieve many of its pro-commoner ideological goals. In fact, socioeconomic disparity was not alleviated and despite the notion of enriching the lives of the common people, it was under Qin rule in which public resentment of the authoritarian government peaked as there were countless peasant revolts against the iron-handed bureaucratic rule of China. Because a paranoid emperor alone wielded political clout and influence, the tumultuous few years of Qin reign was rife with paranoia and suspicion among the masses. Although the Qin Dynasty is seldom thought as possessing the same glaring discrepancy between ideology and state that the Communist regime in post-World War II China had despite the similarities, the failure of the flawless egalitarian state models in socioeconomic and political aspects during the Qin Dynasty mirrored the developments in early Communist China.

Qin Shi Haung Di was the first emperor of the Qin Empire in China during the 3rd century BCE. Born in 261 BCE, Haung inherited the throne from his father at the early age of 13 and showcased his ambitious spirit by unifying China and creating his empire (Swart 1984). While he is known mostly for building the Great Wall of China, he also left quite a legacy when it comes to his elaborate burial grounds. In 246 BCE, thirty-six years before his death in 210 BCE, Emperor Qin started planning the construction of his extravagant final resting place (Swart 1984). The Emperor’s mausoleum was essentially a small, underground city showcasing Qin’s power and influence using different artistic mediums.

Ara Pacis and Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor are two monuments from different ancient civilizations. Ara Pacis Augustae means the altar of Augustus peace in English. Augustus is also known as Octavian, he started to use the name Augustus after he was in power of Rome. Although Augustus was an elected consul after Actium war, he is literally a dictator according to actions he took during the period he was in power of Rome. He destroyed the republic Rome, and become the first emperor in Roman history. The Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor is the mausoleum of Ying Zheng, the first emperor ever in Chinese History. Zheng, like Augutus, is also primus inter pares in many people before him. He was the king of Qin, a vassal state, before he declared to be an emperor of Qin dynasty. Under his leadership, Qin conquered the other six vassal states, unified China. Soon after that, Zheng declared himself to be Shi Huang Di, which means the first emperor of the unified China. Ara Pacis Augustae and Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor share the similar meanings of showing their power and embedding themselves into history as well as minds of people who live in and after that time period.

A peasant found a life size army of soldiers in 1974. The person found this when he was digging a well by the city of Xian in Shaanxi province China. The soldiers that were found were Terracotta soldiers. Emperor Qin Shi Huang who was the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty was created with a series of public work project that included The Great Wall. It was more than 8,000 Terracotta soldiers found.

It also supported how important the army was in Chinese culture, and Qin Shi Huangdi transported these values with him to the afterlife, manifesting that the tomb brought to life Qin Shi Huangdi’s power in strength that he held throughout his empire. After the warriors were built, the workers placed them purposefully inside the tomb. They placed them, “facing east, most likely to guard against some of Shi Huangdi's former adversaries among the Han, Wei, and Qi. Organized into divisions and units much like soldiers in actual battle, the army stands in groups of archers, infantry, and charioteers. (Jim Tschen Emmons, “The Tomb of Shi Huangdi”). Having Qin Shi Huangdi put so much effort into the order of the warriors and the way they face shows his power. He arranged these as if they we his own army helping him in the afterlife. This helped make the whole image of his tomb more powerful and impactful. To conclude, the terra-cotta warriors were sculptures that showed what Qin Shi Huangdi wished to have with him in the afterlife. They portrayed his power through the image of art, and strengthened the overall picture of his

Usually when people think about the Great Wall of China, they are thinking about just the wall itself, or the side of it that China is in. What they don’t usually think about are the people on the other side of it. The Xiongnu, who have a very interesting and barbaric history lived on that side for a time, specifically between the Qin and Han dynasties when China was weak. Because China was weak at the time, and the Xiongnu luckily had a strong leader, they were able to execute a big part of history. That is shown through our reading from Genghis Khan and Mongol Rule, from our reading from Sima Qian’s history, and also from your PowerPoints. People back in the time of the Xiongnu had very different values, seemed much more violent, and had strong military strategies.

The Qin dynasty approximately started on 256 BC but the unification did not start until 221 BC. The Qin was ruled by Ying Zheng, a 13-year-old boy, starting from 246 BC. Because of the very young age, Zheng was being helped and counselled by number of adviser, on was Li Su, one of the founders of Legalism. Then newly administered government under the Qin implemented a number of reforms that improved agriculture and infrastructure. They also introduced a currency that is to be used by all states and they also consolidated existing systems of writings and laws. Corrupt officials were sentenced to death as strict laws were implemented, specifically in the government. In 213 BC, as ordered by Zheng, all private libraries and books were burned that

The shrine of Tutankhamun uncovers the burial customs of the New Kingdom Egyptians. The Canopic Shrine positioned on the east wall of the Treasury holds Tutankhamun's embalmed internal organs. A gold chest held four Canopic jars containing the dead pharaoh's internal organs in each jar. Undoubtedly, through the process of mummification, the embalmers must have removed the internal organs and preserved them in the Canopic jars, perhaps to be taken with the pharaoh to the next world. The third and innermost of three coffins of Tutankhamun is made of solid gold and is inset with semiprecious stones and coloured glass. It is covered with carved decorations and inscriptions inside and outside. It bears the names and epitaph of the deceased king and also protective texts. From this we discover the significance of the importance of the decoration of the mummy was, and the power the coffin was believed to hold. Originally, mummification was so expensive that it was a privilege enjoyed only by the Pharaoh and few nobles. Everybody else was given a simple grave burial in one of the vast cemeteries or "necropolises" of the time. But the promise of eternal life was so appealing that it wasn't long before other classes of Egyptians began signing up for mummification, too.

The visiting to a cemetery is very airy. The visiting of Montefiore Cemetery was odd, due to the stories of this particular cemetery. The well-known story about Lubavitcher Rebbe Jewish Rabbi being buried there and of how the houses around the cemetery were being bought up by some Jewish families, these were reasons for having interest in this particular cemetery. Wishing there were an undertaker around who would have more of an historical history to tell about Montefiore Cemetery.

Before the Qin Dynasty, China was composed of a network of city states that were loyal to the Chinese king. The seven Warring States had their own institutions that were run by aristocrats. The Qin Dynasty took initiative to expand their territory and to unite the Chinese empire together. Through their ruthless military techniques the Qin Dynasty was able to conquer the city states in China. The Qin Dynasty ruled from 221 BCE – 206 BCE; during their regime, Emperor Qin’s primary goal was to unify the Chinese people. Even though the Qin Dynasty was a short-lived empire, it played a major role in unifying the Chinese empire and provided a foundation for succeeding regimes through a centralized government, standardized systems, and through infrastructure.

The Great Wall of China is one of the largest building projects ever carried out. It stretches about 1,500 miles from Bo Hai off the Yellow Sea in the East to the Gansu province in the West. It is so large it can be seen from space. A majority of the wall was built between 500-3000 years ago. It is believed to be the largest graveyard in history because bones of the workers that died during construction were utilized along with the material to build the wall. “The wall served to mark the boundary between the agricultural civilization of China and the civilization of the nomadic tribes of the north and northwest”

The cemetery I chose to visit and explore was the Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. On the way to the cemetery I couldn’t help but feel anxious. When I began to drive past the cemetery to its entrance, all I could see were miles and miles of headstones. It was eerie to say the least. As a kid, whenever my family would drive by a cemetery, my siblings and I would hold our breath until we passed so as to not breathe in the wandering, lost souls. Actually going into a cemetery to look around seemed counterintuitive, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to hold my breath for that long. It didn’t help that right when I entered those black gates that separated the living from the dead, clouds of smoke and ash permeated the air around me due to bodies being cremated on site.