> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://thehistoriesfiles.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Fingerprints on Terracotta Army figures suggest women and children may have helped make them - URL: https://thehistoriesfiles.com/terracotta-army-fingerprints-women-children-workforce/ - Published: 2026-10-21T18:35:34.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-21T18:35:34.000Z - Description: A study of 79 fingerprints on 36 Terracotta Army figures estimates that about 45% came from adult men. The authors say the percentages are not a headcount of workers. - Author: J E Cowie - Tags: News A new study of fingerprints pressed into the clay of China's Terracotta Army suggests that adult men were not the only people who handled the figures. The analysis, published in the *Journal of Cultural Heritage*, estimates that adult women and people under 15 also left their prints. Its authors are careful to say what that does and does not show. ScienceAlert and Science.Report describe the study as led by Xiaoxi Li, and ScienceAlert places her at Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum. Arkeonews reports that the team examined 79 well-preserved fingerprints on 36 soldiers from Unit T23 in Pit 1. ## A question the army had not answered The Terracotta Army came to light in 1974 near Xi'an, when farmers were digging a well, according to La Brújula Verde. ScienceAlert puts the known extent at around 8,000 warriors, along with chariots and horses. The army guarded the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, who Arkeonews says unified China in 221 BC. ScienceAlert reports that archaeologists have traditionally assumed adult men built the army, and that earlier research focused on how the figures were made rather than who made them. Arkeonews says earlier work looked at workshops, clay composition and the marks on the pieces. Fingerprints approach the question from the clay itself. ## How the estimate works The measurement at the centre of the study is mean ridge breadth, the average distance between the ridges of a fingerprint. Science.Report says it can give population-level clues about age and sex, because ridge dimensions change as people grow. It adds that the ranges for different groups overlap, so the measure cannot identify one person's age or sex with certainty. ScienceAlert gives an example: an adolescent boy's prints can be almost indistinguishable from an adult woman's. For that reason the team did not try to label each print. According to ScienceAlert, they used an algorithm to estimate the proportions of different groups across all 79 prints. Arkeonews and Science.Report name it as a Bayesian mixture model. ScienceAlert says the team started with 91 prints and excluded 12 that seemed to come from people who had left more than one. It also reports that 73 of the 79 are surface impressions, made as artisans pressed fingers into wet clay, and six are relief impressions on armour decorations. ScienceAlert says the team adjusted its measurements for clay shrinkage during drying and firing, which La Brújula Verde puts at between 2% and 12% depending on the mix. ## What the model found Science.Report, Arkeonews and ScienceAlert give the same split. The model attributed about 45% of the prints to adult men, 32.7% to adult women and 22.3% to people under 15\. According to Science.Report, the under-15 line drew on evidence about legal responsibility in surviving Qin texts. It was not an age read from the prints. ScienceAlert quotes the researchers: "These findings challenge the long-held assumption that Terracotta Army production relied exclusively on adult male labor," they write, "providing the first quantitative biological evidence for a diverse workforce including women and children." ![Close view of a Terracotta Army warrior's head and upper armour, showing the surface of the clay](https://thehistoriesfiles.com/content/images/2026/10/shot2_close-view-of-a-terracotta-army-warrior-.jpg) Close view of a Terracotta Army warrior's head and upper armour, showing the surface of the clay ## Records that point the same way Arkeonews reports that Qin-period inscriptions on lacquerware refer to adult women (*da nüzi*), young girls (*xiao nüzi*) and young boys (*xiao nanzi*) taking part in craft production under state supervision. Arkeonews and Science.Report both note that these records concern lacquerware, not the terracotta figures. ScienceAlert adds a record of apprenticeship in Qin workshops. It quotes the Yuelu Academy Qin slips, bamboo legal manuscripts: "The master artisan teaches well; thus an apprentice completes training in one year, a new artisan in two years." The researchers suggest, according to ScienceAlert, that younger apprentices may have been given simpler jobs, such as attaching decorative details to armour. ## Why the percentages are not a headcount All the coverage stresses one limit. The figures describe fingerprints, not workers. Arkeonews says one person could have left several impressions, while others may have left no identifiable traces. Science.Report says the 79 prints cannot be treated as 79 separate people. It also says the prints do not show that everyone who touched a figure sculpted it. The reference data is a second limit. Arkeonews, Science.Report and ScienceAlert all say the model relies on modern European fingerprint data, and Arkeonews reports the researchers acknowledge this could overestimate female and juvenile shares. La Brújula Verde reports that the authors name the reference as a 2003 study by Miroslav Králík and Vladimír Novotný. La Brújula Verde reports that the authors think women and minors may be overrepresented, because inexperienced workers may have left more prints than skilled artisans. According to La Brújula Verde, experienced masters smoothed over a surface after touching it, which wiped out their marks. ScienceAlert also notes that inexperienced workers may have left more fingerprints than skilled artisans, whose handling of the clay was more practiced. The sample is small. Science.Report says it is limited to 36 figures from one area of the complex. Arkeonews says the results cannot establish the make-up of every workshop involved. La Brújula Verde reports that the authors say Unit T23 is only a fragment of Pit 1 and that the work went on for more than a decade, so the results could reflect one phase or one work group. ## Where that leaves the army's makers The fair reading is a modest one. The fingerprints give a model-based estimate that adult women and people under 15 may have been among those who handled the clay, alongside adult men. Adult men are still the largest group in the estimate. Arkeonews's headline, 'Women and Children May Have Built China's Famous Terracotta Army', leaves out those adult men, though its article says women and children may have worked alongside them. ScienceAlert says future work could expand the fingerprint database to build a larger sample. La Brújula Verde reports the authors' view that widening the sample to other pits and building a reference collection from ancient Chinese populations is the priority for sharpening the method. ## Sources Altuntaş, L. (2026) 'Women and Children May Have Built China's Famous Terracotta Army', Arkeonews, 19 October 2026, available at: [https://arkeonews.net/women-and-children-may-have-built-chinas-famous-terracotta-army/](https://arkeonews.net/women-and-children-may-have-built-chinas-famous-terracotta-army/?ref=thehistoriesfiles.com) (Accessed: 21 October 2026). Carvajal, G. (2026) 'Who Made the Terracotta Army? 2,200-Year-Old Fingerprints Point to Men, Women and Children', La Brújula Verde, 19 October 2026, available at: [https://www.labrujulaverde.com/en/2026/10/who-made-the-terracotta-army-2200-year-old-fingerprints-point-to-men-women-and-children/](https://www.labrujulaverde.com/en/2026/10/who-made-the-terracotta-army-2200-year-old-fingerprints-point-to-men-women-and-children/?ref=thehistoriesfiles.com) (Accessed: 21 October 2026). Hassett, B. (2026) 'Terracotta Army fingerprints point to a broader labor force', Science.Report, 18 October 2026, available at: [https://science.report/discover/terracotta-army-fingerprints-point-to-a-broader-labor-force-109224/](https://science.report/discover/terracotta-army-fingerprints-point-to-a-broader-labor-force-109224/?ref=thehistoriesfiles.com) (Accessed: 21 October 2026). Li, X., Shen, J., Lan, D., Wang, J., Yu, Y., Cai, J., Xia, Y. and Zhou, P. (2026) 'Who produced Emperor Qin Shihuang's Terracotta Army, China? A Bayesian mixture model approach to fingerprint age and sex determination', Journal of Cultural Heritage, 82, pp. 274–281, available at: [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.culher.2026.09.014](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.culher.2026.09.014?ref=thehistoriesfiles.com) (Accessed: 21 October 2026). Starr, M. (2026) '2,200-Year-Old Fingerprints Reveal Who Really Built China's Mysterious Terracotta Army', ScienceAlert, 17 October 2026, available at: [https://www.sciencealert.com/2200-year-old-fingerprints-reveal-who-really-built-chinas-mysterious-terracotta-army](https://www.sciencealert.com/2200-year-old-fingerprints-reveal-who-really-built-chinas-mysterious-terracotta-army?ref=thehistoriesfiles.com) (Accessed: 21 October 2026). ## Picture credits - Top picture. Image: The terracotta warriors, backed up by horses — shankar s., [CC BY 2.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/?ref=thehistoriesfiles.com), via [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The%5Fterracotta%5Fwarriors,%5Fbacked%5Fup%5Fby%5Fhorses%5F%2834846849174%29.jpg?ref=thehistoriesfiles.com) - Image: Terracotta Warrior Face — akasped, [CC BY 2.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/?ref=thehistoriesfiles.com), via Flickr ([source](https://www.flickr.com/photos/26736723@N00/11523401424?ref=thehistoriesfiles.com))