Qin dynasty crossbow found at China’s Terracotta Army site may reveal secret of emperor’s success

A 2,200-year old crossbow believed to have had a range of perhaps twice that of a modern assault rifle has been found by archaeologists during excavations at the site of China’s Terracotta Army.

The large bow, measuring about 1.3 metres in length, could possibly have fired arrows at distances of up to 800 metres, said archaeologists at the Emperor Qinshihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum in Xian, in Shaanxi province.

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Shen Maosheng, the lead scientist working on the excavation work, told Chinese Business View that the discovery of the “sophisticated” weapon at the burial site was very exciting.

The type of crossbow used during the Qin dynasty (221-207BC) is of huge interest to archaeologists and historians because it could finally reveal the secret of Emperor Qin’s success in battle.

His legendary army conquered all the different neighbouring kingdoms to establish the first empire in China.

Previous crossbows found buried at the site had been badly damaged, causing researchers difficulty in estimating the effectiveness and power of the weapon, Shen said.

However, the newly uncovered crossbow remained well preserved and had almost all of its parts intact.

The ancient weapon contained some rare parts that researchers had only read about in historical documents, he said.