Did Ancient Greeks Help Build The Chinese Army?

First Posted: Oct 14, 2016 03:40 AM EDT

For most of history, it has been believed that Marco Polo was the first European to travel Asia in 1300 AD. However, it seems that their estimate may be off by over 1,500 years because Greek sculptors may have helped carve the terracotta warriors that have watched over the tomb of Qin Shi Huang for over 2,000 years.

Historians and archaeologists excavating the tomb of China's first emperor examined the statues, concluding that they were unusual for their time period - and that it had been influenced by Greek sculpture. The Guardian noted that this suggests that the East and Wet actually much earlier than anyone previously thought.

These Terracotta warriors were first discovered by a farmer in 1974 by a farmer from Xian, one of the oldest cities in China. The warriors, which were buried underground, were presumed to keep their emperor safe even in death - a tradition most associated with Egypt's King Tut, whose grave was also adorned with life-size statues. However, there had been no evidence of such burial rituals in China - either before or after Qin Shi Huang.

BBC reported that the statues, which are also incredibly detailed with decorative hairstyles and armor were lovely to look at, but Chinese statues of the same era were typically simpler, and stand only 8 inches tall.

A separate study also noted that there have been European-specific mitochondrial DNA found at some sites of the westernmost Xinjiang Province, suggesting that westerners may have settled there during the reign of the emperor. Professor Lukas Nickel from the University of Vienna noted that he believed the First Emperor may even be influenced by the arrival of the Greek statues in Central Asia following the death of Alexander the Great, who died in 323 BC.

More of the new discoveries will be outlined in a BBC documentary called "The Greatest Tomb," a joint effort by the British company and National Geographic, to air on BBC Two on October 16.