SECRETS FROM ANCIENT CHINA
March, 1974. Orchards and fields near Xian, north-central China. In the background is a conical hill. We’re in an orchard, but the trees are bare and the grass is dusty. There’s a drought. Five peasants, the Yang brothers, are digging a well. They are two metres down, taking turns to dig while the others haul out soil in baskets. Suddenly the one in the pit, Yang Zhefa, shouts: “An earth-god!”
Sticking out of the soil is a head made of clay - it has two eyes, long hair tied in a bun and a moustache. This is bad luck, because it’s underground, where the dead live. The men toss the head aside and keep digging, but some local kids see it and throw stones at it. A few adults arrive. An old woman picks up the head, takes it home and puts it on her table. Meanwhile, the Yang brothers make other finds: bricks, bits of bronze and some arrowheads.
A month later, a 24-year-old archaeologist named Zhao Kangmin, who’s working in a local museum, hears about the finds. He gets on his bike, rides to the orchard and finds the Yangs, still busy on their well. By now there are more clay bits on their heap of rubbish: legs, arms, two more heads. He takes charge of matters and has the finds brought to his museum in nearby Lintong. He guesses they are important, as he knows the
