Terracotta Army fingerprints suggest women and children were part of workforce

A new archaeological study published in the Journal of Cultural Heritage suggests that the production of China’s Terracotta Army may have involved women and children, challenging the long-held assumption that the project relied almost exclusively on adult male laborers.

Led by archaeologist Xiaoxi Li from the Emperor Qinshihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum, the research analyzed 79 fingerprints found on 36 warriors from a single excavation unit in Pit 1. By measuring the mean ridge breadth—the average distance between fingerprint ridges—the team used statistical modeling to estimate the demographic composition of the workers.

The analysis estimated that approximately 45% of the prints belonged to adult men, 32.7% to adult women, and 22.3% to children under the age of 15. These findings provide biological evidence that the workforce used to create the thousands of life-sized statues for Emperor Qin Shi Huang's mausoleum was more diverse than previously believed.