On 18 May, 2021, equipped with museum grade display cases professionally customized by WANGDA SHOWCASES, the Bronze Chariot and Horse Museum of the Mausoleum of the first emperor of Qin Dynasty opened to the public.
The museum is located in the southwest corner of mausoleum Qin Dynasty. Based on the elevation difference of the existing terrain, it is designed as a fully covered underground building. The top surface of the building is covered with soil for greening, and the entrance and the whole building are hidden in the shade of the forest. The original land form is basically unchanged in the visual landscape. The total construction area of the museum is about 8000 square meters. The building plane is spread around the central core exhibition hall, from the downward ramp paving to the upward earth sealing landscape path ending, from the architectural appearance to the square layers of the inner exhibition hall, and the central axis (east-west direction, east-west direction), According to the location of the original pit of bronze chariots and horses), the distribution of the core space to the side ear Hall (decomposition image series of bronze chariots and horses), and then to the peripheral theme exhibition hall (preface hall of sand table model in cemetery, original pit restoration exhibition hall, Qin road and world ancient chariots and horses hall, exhibition hall of copper chariots and horses related devices, youth education exhibition hall, lecture hall, etc.), and even the upper and lower layers of the core exhibition hall are connected with the display cabinets, They repeatedly suggest, strengthen and contrast the supreme status of the world-class treasure “crown of bronze”.
In 1980, two large painted bronze chariots and horses were unearthed 20 meters to the west of Qin Shihuang’s Mausoleum and 7.8 meters deep from the earth’s surface. When they were unearthed, the two chariots were crushed into more than 3000 pieces by decaying coffin wood. It took eight years for the experts to complete the restoration and display them in the museum of terracotta warriors and horses. They are the world’s largest bronze artifacts. The two bronze chariots are composed of more than 3500 parts, among which there are more than 1700 bronze parts, more than 700 gold parts and more than 900 silver parts, which are half size of real objects of carts and horses. After more than 2000 years, the wheels can still rotate flexibly and the casting technology of bronze carts and horses is amazing. It uses more than ten kinds of technologies, such as casting, welding, riveting, inlaying, stud, red sleeve and so on. With its huge bronze shape, it has created a miracle in the history of ancient metallurgy and casting.
The exhibits of bronze chariots and horses in the mausoleum have attracted worldwide attention since they were unearthed. Known as the “crown of bronze”, it not only reproduces the elegant demeanor of emperor carraige for of Emperor Qin Shihuang, but also shows the ancient chariots and horses’ tie-in and driving relationship and the ancient craft work skills, and their historical value, scientific and technological value that is immeasurable.
As the bronze objects of chariots and horses are quite precious and extremely sensitive to the exhibition environment, WANGDA SHOWCASES conscientiously selected the best museum grade materials, or inert materials or 100% eco-friendly materials to ensure to no damageable VOC contents within display space and created air exchange rate less than 0.1 per 24 hours to prevent external air pollutant from entering into display spaces even though the display space is quite large.All the museum display cases are customized by WANGDA SHOWCASES with UV-filtering 8+1.52+8mm anti-reflective glass with reflectivity less than 1%, light transmittance over 97%, CRI more than 99.5%. Meanwhile the museum display cases are equipped with intelligent active micro-climate control & monitoring system as well as PSA nitrogen generator to prevent external environment from bringing negative influence on internal environment of display space so as to ensure the air purity, temperature and humidity in the display space can reach a right and stable level. Protective fiber optic lighting system with discrete and cold light source is equipped in order to completely eradicate possible damage on objects by usual lighting systems. For easy and safe exhibition setting, WANGDA SHOWCASES creatively designed unique opening system with 100% access via wireless remote control system for the large pull&slide glass panel doors of the large freestanding display cases.
In order to ensure the absolute safety of bronze chariots and horses with 1.25 tons of self weight, one set of anti-seismic & protection system with world-class technology level to support 7.2 tons weight is installed at the bottom of the museum display case with 4.5 tons of self weight. The anti-seismic system at the bottom of the museum display case is composed of six groups of vibration-isolating units. Such an anti-seismic system is able to resist Ms 9.0 strong earthquake and get the seismic response on artifacts reduced to 1/12 so it’s competent to effectively protect the safety of “bronze crown” in the event of a heavy earthquake. The anti-seismic & protection system requires very strict working conditions, and the ground level drop should be kept within 2mm. In this way, all parts of the museum display case must be of high precision so as to ensure that the ground, anti-vibration system and display cases form a stable whole to ensure the safety of the bronze chariots and horses.
