The Terracotta Army was once painted in vivid purples and reds
While these ancient statues appear as earthy clay today, they were originally decorated with a vibrant palette of pinks, reds, and a rare synthetic pigment known as Han Purple.
Archaeologists discovered that each of the eight thousand soldiers was meticulously hand-painted to look lifelike when buried in 210 BCE. The artisans used egg-white based binders to apply brilliant colors, including a sophisticated artificial pigment called Han Purple that rarely occurs in nature.
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