TERRACOTTA TAKEOVER
The history of terracotta
Terracotta has long been a global material because it is so simple to make. Often it is a workhorse, used to cater to fundamental human needs – tiles for shelter, vessels for food and water – but it has also served as a medium for creativity and ingenuity. The earliest known examples of terracotta are some small figures from Greece dating from the early Bronze Age, around 3,000BC. Human statuettes made of the stuff were common all over the ancient world, cropping up in Cyprus, Minoan Crete, Greece, Asia Minor, Pakistan and China. And of course it was the material used to create the 8,000-strong Terracotta Army, that marvel of funerary art made for Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China in the late third century BC.