The Terracotta Army & The Loch Ness Monster | A History Daily Special

SPEAKER_00 0:00 Imagine being out in your farm, the farm you've worked for decades, when your shovel suddenly strikes something hard. Little do you know you've just stumbled upon one of the most important archaeological finds in history. Little do you know this discovery would feel more like a curse than a blessing. This is what we did before.

SPEAKER_01 0:22 I'm Oli. And I'm Matt, and in this special episode, we're sharing a couple of fantastic episodes from our friends over at History Daily, which we think you'll love.

SPEAKER_00 0:33 Yeah, uh, the one we're leading with today starts with an ordinary farmer digging a well in rural China, only to find the first pieces of China's terracotta army. And um the second is their look at the first photo ever taken of the Loch Ness monster.

SPEAKER_01 0:49 If you've not heard History Daily before, every weekday host Lindsay Graham takes you back in time to explore a remarkable event that happened on that day in history.

SPEAKER_00 1:00 Yeah, it could be the Wright brothers' first flight, it could be the moon landing. Um, History Daily tells you the stories behind the moments that shaped our world.

SPEAKER_01 1:09 And I love it because each episode is only about 15 minutes long, so you can fit an episode or two into your commute or your lunch break or just wherever you happen to be.

SPEAKER_00 1:20 Yeah, and just like us with what we did before, um, they focus on the overlooked and often forgotten human stories behind these huge events. Uh, plus there's a broad mix of history for whatever you like, so you know, famous battles to fashion firsts and everything in between.

SPEAKER_01 1:37 And, you know, if even if you think you know a story, there's there's always amazing facts in there that you've just never heard before.

SPEAKER_00 1:45 So if you enjoy what you hear today, just search for History Daily wherever you're listening and give them a follow. And let's get into the first episode. This is the discovery of China's terracotta army.

SPEAKER_03 2:05 It's March 29th, 1974, in Lintong, a village near the city of Qian, China. 41-year-old farmer Yang Zifa wipes his brow and takes up his shovel again. It's a hot day, but there's little time for rest. Zifa and his five brothers all work on the same collective farm, and today they're digging a new well to water their crops, which have been suffering in a drought. This is their third day of digging, they still haven't hit water. Zifa raises his shovel yet again, but this time he hits something that's more than just dirt. Zipha kneels to take a closer look. Using his shovel, he clears away clods of earth to reveal what looks like an oddly shaped jar. Zifa gets his fingers under the edge and pulls it loose. He's disappointed to see that it's broken. If the jar had been in one piece, he could have taken it home and used it. Instead, he tosses it aside and warily picks up his shovel again. But it's not long before Zifa hits Terracotta again. All around him, his brothers are finding pieces too. Zifa starts piling up the scraps. These discoveries soon draw the attention of other villagers who are suspicious about removing these items from the ground. They complain that Zifa could spoil the natural feng shui of the land or wake evil spirits by disturbing these items. Zifa could bring disaster to the village. But Zifa keeps digging. And soon he notices that the terracotta straps look more and more like the parts of a body. Here is a clay pair of shoulders, there a leg, and most recently he's dug up a torso. Zifa then digs out the first fragment he found, the one he tossed aside. And looking more closely at it now, Zifa realizes it's not a jar or a bowl, it's a terracotta head. The first incomplete terracotta figure found by Yang Zi Fa and his brothers is just the beginning. Chinese archaeologists will soon descend on the site and excavate more than a thousand similar statues, each featuring incredible detail and exquisite craftsmanship. The buried statues will become known as the Terracotta Army and will change scholars' understanding of ancient China forever. But the army may never have come to light without the swing of a farmer's shovel on March 29th, 1974. The discovery of China's terracotta army. It's 246 BCE in the Qin Kingdom of what is now China, 2,220 years before the discovery of the Terracotta warriors. In a grand chamber deep within the royal palace, 13-year-old Yung Sung swings his legs on his father's throne. The seat's too big and uncomfortable for the boy, and his legs don't even touch the floor, but that won't stop him from being crowned the new king of Qin. In the third century BCE, China is a jigsaw puzzle of seven different kingdoms, all differing in size and military strength. But Qin is the strongest, thanks to Zung's great-grandfather, King Zhongxiang. Zhongxiang created a strong centralized government and won several wars against his neighbors to enlarge his territory. Since then, his descendants have secured supremacy in the region. Now Yang Tsung is to be the latest ruler of the kingdom, and even at his tender age, he's determined to live up to his illustrious ancestor. After his coronation ceremonies are complete, one of Tsung's first acts as king is to order the construction of a royal tomb, and his advisors hurry to put his edict into effect. But as Tsung grows up, the tomb building program is soon overshadowed by his military aspirations. Sixteen years after being crowned king, Tsung is no longer a boy. Now he's an ambitious 29-year-old, and he launches an offensive to capture more territory. Tsung's armies invade neighboring kingdoms, winning one bloody battle after another. And after nine years of campaigning, Sung accepts the surrender of his final opponent and unifies all of China under one government for the first time in history. No longer satisfied with the title king, Sung invents a new word to describe his position of ultimate power. From now on, Sung will be known as Qinse Wan, the first emperor of China. Just as his great-grandfather united his kingdom under a centralized government, the new emperor applies the same principle to a much larger territory. Under the emperor's leadership, the government standardizes China's written language, implements a new currency, and applies strict new legal codes. And the emperor doesn't just leave the work to his loyal servants, he's involved in every decision, even enacting laws regulating the width of cartwheels to aid faster transportation of troops and goods. And aside from building a strong bureaucracy, the new government also orders the collection of new taxes to pay for large-scale construction projects. The Great Wall of China is strengthened to protect the northern frontier, and the ongoing work on the royal tomb complex grows larger and more ornate. Subjects from across the empire dig the mausoleum into the side of a mountain. Its layout is designed to reflect the emperor's palace and includes everything the emperor might need in the afterlife. But despite the expansion of his royal tomb, the emperor has no intention of dying. As he gets older, he becomes obsessed with finding a magical elixir, one that will grant him immortality, but he never does. The emperor dies at the age of 49 while traveling through China on an inspection tour. His death was possibly the result of drinking mercury in the mistaken belief that the toxic element would help him live forever. But the emperor's death while traveling so far from the capital leaves his empire vulnerable. To ensure a smooth succession, his aides keep his death a secret. His carriage returns home with the blinds lowered, but meals and messages are delivered as if the emperor was still alive. And when the decomposing body starts to smell, officials order a cart of fish to join the imperial entourage to mask the odor. Finally, the emperor's body is buried in the vast mausoleum he spent his reign building. To pay respect to the first ruler of a unified China, the emperor's family and loyal servants bury him with all sorts of treasures. After commanding his armies to so many victories in real life, the emperor is buried with a life-size terracotta army, thousands of soldiers carrying real weapons, including infantry, archers, generals, and even cavalrymen riding terracotta horses. The emperor is buried in the ultimate glory, but the unified Chinese nation that he created will not last long. Within just four years, his empire will fracture into smaller kingdoms once again, and the exact location of the first emperor's tomb will then be forgotten for more than 2,000 years until a group of farmers digging a well will stumble across it and change history. Kang Min is an archaeologist working for a local museum, and he's excited to see this new discovery that's been reported by the village's leaders. But when Kang Min arrives at the village, he's shocked to see how casually the Yang brothers have treated the pieces of the terracotta figure they found. These ancient artifacts have been piled up haphazardly in the back of a cart. Some are broken, others have been thrown away. Kang Min even finds some village children tossing a terracotta finger back and forth between them in a game of catch. Kang Min takes the finger from the children and gathers all the other pieces he can find. Treating them as delicately as possible, he returns to his office at the Lingtong Museum. Kang Min's place of work is quiet, doesn't attract many visitors, exactly what Kang Min needs to reconstruct the terracotta figure in peace. And as he puts it together, he soon realizes that the figure is that of a soldier. Inspired by his reconstruction, Kang Min returns to the village to conduct test excavations, and immediately he discovers more terracotta warriors. He also digs up metal arrowheads and spear points, but they're all missing the wooden shafts they were once attached to. They must have all rotted away in the soil. And that's interesting to Kang Min because it suggests that these artifacts are extremely old. And Kang Min soon concludes that they were buried more than 2,000 years ago as part of the lost mausoleum of Qin Chewan, China's first emperor. But even though this discovery has the potential to transform historians' understanding of China's past, Kang Min doesn't report his findings to other archaeologists. He feels like he can't make this knowledge public without putting the statues in danger. In 1974, the Cultural Revolution is in full swing in China. China's leader Mao Zhe Dong wants to strengthen the Communist Party's grip by eliminating any opposition to his rule. And that includes erasing aspects of Chinese history that do not live up to the Communist Party's ideals. Under Chairman Mao's influence, many ancient artworks have been vandalized or destroyed by groups who believe that China's imperial past should be forgotten. In this volatile political climate, Kang Min fears that the terracotta army he's found won't be safe. So he keeps the discovery quiet to protect it from destruction. The secret leaks, though, when a journalist gets a tip and writes about the archaeological find in a newspaper. Although Kang Min is at first alarmed, the scale and mystery of the Terracotta Army enchants the people of China, and even the communists don't dare destroy them. In fact, communist authorities soon pledge to protect the Terracotta Army. An enormous building the size of an airplane hangar is erected over the entire area. Using ground penetrating radar, archaeologists discover the warriors are buried in precise lines as if they were on parade. Then they painstakingly dig away the earth surrounding the statues, trying as best they can to keep each warrior intact. Over time, they excavate around 1,500 statues while leaving thousands of others untouched beneath the ground to preserve them for future investigation. Microscopic analysis of these statues shows they were once painted different colors. Thousands of years buried in the soil has dissolved the paint, but what's left behind is still impressive. Experts are amazed by the skill of the Terracotta army's creators. These ancient artisans created the warriors' torsos out of a single hollow piece of clay. Hands, arms, legs, and faces were added later, and the craftsmen paid such attention to detail that no two soldiers are exactly alike. They have individual heights, hairstyles, even facial expressions. These warriors even have different ruffle patterns on their sleeves and at least twelve different individually styled hooks for their belts. In 1979, a new state-of-the-art museum dedicated solely to the Terracotta Army opens at the site, transforming the area into a tourist hotspot. A few years later, the Terracotta Army gains international attention as well when some of the figures are exhibited outside of China for the first time in Melbourne, Australia. As these terracotta warriors become famous around the world, Zhao Kang Min will be celebrated as the archaeologist who excavated the first statues and cleverly ensured their survival during the Cultural Revolution. But the role of the farmer who had the first glimpse of terracotta pieces while digging a well will long be overlooked. For years, discovering the terracotta army will seem more like a curse to young Zi Fa. But times will eventually change. China will open up to the world, and a visit from the most powerful man on the planet will finally give Zi Fa his moment in the sun. Zifa is now 65 years old and he's no longer a farmer. Instead, he works at the museum built around the Terracotta Army. Today he sits at the gift shop, as usual, ready to sign his autograph in the books and pamphlets purchased by museum visitors. In the early years after the discovery of the first terracotta warrior, Zifa's life was made complicated. When archaeologists realized the importance of the ancient statues, the Chinese Ministry of Culture evicted Zifa's whole village. Some of Zifa's more superstitious neighbors had warned him not to dig up the terracotta warriors and they blamed him for being relocated from their ancestral land. For a time, Zifa was ostracized from his community. But he made peace with his discovery and his neighbors when the influx of tourists visiting the new museum brought a new source of revenue to the region. And today there's a special guest that Zifah has been told to set aside some time for. The gift shop door opens, and American President Bill Clinton walks in with his family. President Clinton shakes Zifa's hand, and the two men have a short, halting conversation through translators. It's a small but important token of recognition for a man who unearthed one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of all time. The excavation and study of the terracotta army is still ongoing. Although archaeologists have dug up parts of Emperor Qin Shiwang's sprawling mausoleum, the actual tomb containing his body remains unopened. The Chinese Ministry of Culture believes it's impossible to excavate the tomb without destroying what lies inside. So for the foreseeable future, the first emperor of China will remain at rest, his eternal sleep protected by thousands of ornately decorated soldiers, a terracotta army, a triumph of ancient art that was discovered on March 29, 1974. Next on History Daily, April 1st, 1997, the Hale Bop comet reaches the closest point to the sun on its long loop through space, presenting a magnificent spectacle to stargazers on Earth. From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham. Audio editing by Mohammed Shazi. Sound design by Gabriel Gould. Music by Thrum. This episode is written and researched by Jack O'Brien. Edited by Scott Reeves. Managing producer Emily Burke. Executive producer are William Simpson for Airship and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.

SPEAKER_00 17:36 So that was the remarkable story of how the Terracotta Army was first discovered.

SPEAKER_01 18:42 And we've got one more History Daily episode for you now. And this time we're heading from ancient China to the Scottish Highlands for the story behind one of the most famous photographs ever taken.

SPEAKER_00 18:56 Yeah, here's History Daily with the Loch Ness photograph.

SPEAKER_03 19:13 Audie Mackay sits in the passenger seat as her husband drives along a quiet country road. Audie rolls down the window to let in the afternoon breeze, poking her head out to look in the dark water of the lake next to them. She begins to turn her head back to the road, but something catches her eye, a mysterious movement on the lake. Audie looks across the water, which has been completely still until just seconds ago. Now she watches as it church. She traces the waves back to their source and lets out a gasp. Audi cries for her husband to stop the car. As the car screeches to a halt, Audi shouts for him to look at the lake, and with a shaking hand, she points to a shape rising out of the lake's depths. Audi's stomach sinks as she watches an enormous, black, whale-like creature emerging from the water and then crashing back down below. Audi watches as waves big enough to have been caused by a steamship reverberate through the lake before disappearing in a mass of foam. Audi and her husband stare in shock as the lake grows still once more. They wait on the roadside for half an hour, but the creature never reappears. Audi's account of these events will soon be published by the Inverness Courier. Her story of a monster lurking in the depths of Loch Ness will send reporters and sightseers flocking to the lake in hopes of spotting the infamous Loch Ness monster for themselves. And as sightings continue, the legend of Loch Ness will continue to grow. But evidence of the creature's existence will be scarce until the newspaper The Daily Mail sparks an international sensation when it publishes an alleged photo of the Loch Ness monster on April 21st, 1934. From Noiser and Airship, I'm Lindsay Graham, and this is History Daily. On this podcast, every day, we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world. Today is April 21st, 1934. The Loch Ness Photograph. It's the afternoon of July 22nd, 1933, near Loch Ness, three months after Audi Mackay's alleged sighting of a monster in the lake. A gentleman named George Spicer hums a tune as he drives down a hill toward Loch Ness, his wife in the passenger seat next to him. George turns on the road that runs alongside the lake, ready to begin the long drive back to their home in London. Between the trees, George catches glimpses of the glistening surface of Loch Ness. Staring at the inky water, George briefly wonders if the rumors around town of a mysterious monster are true. Though Audie Mackay's account of a creature in the lake sent shockwaves through the community, she was not the first to allege that a monster lurked in Loch Ness. Stories of a mysterious aquatic animal in the loch are rooted in Scottish folklore, with accounts dating back over a thousand years. But Audie's story reignited local fascination with the lake. But today, mythical monsters feels like an outlandish notion to George. Loch Ness is just another beautiful Scottish lake to be enjoyed on a scenic drive during summer weather. But an exclamation from his wife interrupts his reverie. George, what on earth is that? George turns his eyes back to the road. In the distance, George can make out a large grey lump stretching across the entire width of the road. He squints harder, and as he gets closer to the mysterious object, he realizes it's not an object at all. George slams on the brakes, his eyes glued on an animal, taking in its long, thin neck and enormous, limbless body. George watches as the creature jerks left and right, sliding across the road toward the lake. In a matter of seconds, the creature arrives at the water's edge, and George stares as the animal descends into the lake and out of sight. On August 4, 1933, George Spicer's account will be published by the Inverness Courier and soon picked up by major papers throughout the country. Spicer's story of a prehistoric abomination with a three-arched neck and a body four feet high will spark a new level of public interest in the mysterious Loch Ness monster. London newspapers will send correspondence to the lake. Updates on the latest news from Loch Ness will frequently interrupt radio programs. And soon boats will fill the lake with outdoorsmen and Boy Scouts scouring the depths. Deck chairs will adorn the lake shores as sightseers wait for the monster to reappear. Traffic jams will fill the roadways. A circus will even put up a reward for the beast's capture. But all evidence of a monster will remain anecdotal. It's December 1933, four months after George Spicer's monster sighting. Marmaduke Weatherell paces the lake's rocky shore, intently looking out over the water and inspecting the ground beneath him for any evidence of the fabled Loch Ness monster. In recent weeks, excitement over the beast has reached a fever pitch. Eager to capitalize on the moment, the Daily Mail commissioned Weatherill, a well-known actor and big game hunter, to track down the creature. For the past several days, Weatherill has been at Loch Ness, hunting for any evidence of the beast's existence. So far he's come up empty-handed, but today Weatherill hopes that will change. Weatherill ventures farther from the water's edge, walking toward the grassy banks. As he does, something catches his eye. Just a few yards from where he stands, Weatherill sees an indentation in the ground. Weatherill approaches the strange pattern, careful not to step on what looks like a series of animal prints. Weatherall's heart soars as he inspects them closer. To his experienced eye, the prints appear big enough to have come from a very powerful, soft-footed animal twenty feet long. Weatherall follows the prints that lead him right to the water. He smiles, knowing that this is the evidence he's been looking for. Weatherall rushes to find a phone and report his discovery to the Daily Mail, which publishes Weatherall's report with the headline reading, Monster of Loch Ness is not legend, but a fact. Weatherall claims the prints are foolproof evidence of the Loch Ness monster's existence. But at the Daily Mail's request, Weatherall agrees to send casts of the footprints to London's Natural History Museum for analysis. Weatherall waits in anticipation for the museum's conclusion. But when the results come in, Weatherill is devastated. The prints he so meticulously casted belong to a hippopotamus. Obviously, Weatherall knows there's no hippo living in the lock. It's clear someone is pulling a prank, and indeed the prints were man-made, likely by a hippo foot converted into an umbrella stand or ashtray, a popular taxidermy choice of the day. Against Weatherall's wishes, the Daily Mail will publish the museum's findings, turning Weatherall into a subject of ridicule, and his misidentification will sully the investigation of the Loch Ness monster. Sightings will be viewed with skepticism and quickly dismissed as hoaxes or optical illusions. Before long, Weatherall will return to London in disgrace, and utterly humiliated, he will retreat from public view. But Weatherall won't give up his search for a Loch Ness monster. Instead, he will hatch a new plan and put into motion a plot to prove the existence of a Loch Ness monster once and for all. They're plotting the best way to make this toy look like the Loch Ness monster in a staged photograph. Weatherall stares at the small toy and smiles, reveling in the absurdity of his plan and the thrill of possible revenge. The hippo foot fiasco left an indelible stain upon Weatherall's reputation as a big game hunter. After the Daily Mail published his embarrassing mistake, Weatherall's resentment toward the publication grew into a thirst for revenge. Now the time has come for Weatherall to exact it. Weatherall watches as his son Ian begins layering wood over the toy submarine's tower. Slowly, Weatherall recognizes the shape of a neck beginning to take form. Weatherall nods approving before helping his stepson Christian attach strips of lead to the submarine's base. Weatherall finds a paintbrush and opens a can of gray paint, ready to put the finishing touches on their creation. Weatherall stands back to examine their handiwork and smiles at their 12-inch tall model of the fabled Loch Ness monster. Weatherall turns to his sons and sneers, they want a monster? We'll give them their monster. Soon Weatherall returns to Loch Ness with his son Ian and their newly crafted creature. He finds a quiet bay and then lays the makeshift monster on its surface, making sure to include the scenery of Loch Ness in the background. Satisfied with its position, Weatherall sets up a camera and snaps a photo of the monster. Weatherall prepares to take another photo, but the sound of nearby footsteps deters him. Quickly, Weatherill sinks his model into the water and rushes back to his car. As he drives back to London, Weatherall ponders how to get his photo developed and out onto the front page of the Daily Mail. He knows he can't do it himself, not after the hippo foot fiasco. He needs someone else, someone respectable and credible. It's the morning of April 21st, 1934, at the Daily Mail's headquarters in London. At his desk, a reporter inspects the front page of the day's paper. Taking up most of the page is an image of a long, serpent-like neck jutting out of the water of a lake underneath a headline that screams, London Surgeon's Photo of the Monster. The reporter smiles, knowing sales will be good today. The photo came to the Daily Mail from Dr. Robert Wilson, a highly respected London surgeon. Wilson claimed to have been driving along the northern shore of Loch Ness when he spotted something moving in the water. With a camera, luckily on hand, Wilson stopped his car to snap a photo of the mysterious animal. The reporter picks up the paper again, closely inspecting the dark silhouette of the mysterious creature. He knows this photo corroborates the description of the monster given by the many alleged witnesses over the years. But after the hippofoot incident, doubt still lingers in his head. Still, the reporter knows they did their due diligence early this time. The Daily Mail already had Scottish experts examine the photograph yesterday. None believed the creature to be any marine animal or fish known to inhabit British waters. In fact, they couldn't even hazard a guess as to what the animal could be. Plus, Dr. Wilson, a respected surgeon, hardly seems like a man to be party to some elaborate hoax. Still, the reporter does not know the answer to the question in the story's subheading: Does monster really exist? For many, the surgeon's photograph, as it will come to be known, is irrefutable evidence of the Loch Ness monster's existence. The photo will even launch the popular theory that the creature in Loch Ness is actually a plesiosaur, a prehistoric marine reptile that has been extinct for over 65 million years. And for decades the photo will be considered the best evidence of the Loch Ness monster. But then, in 1994, 60 years after the photo's first publication, a man named Alistair Boyd will unveil the truth, revealing the photograph as nothing more than another hoax. On the couch in his living room, Alistair Boyd sits and examines an old newspaper clipping. Boyd begins to read the article, a little-known 1975 interview with Marmaduke Weatherall's son, Ian. Soon Boyd pauses in disbelief as he reads Ian's claim that the iconic surgeon's photograph was simply part of an elaborate plot to dupe the Daily Mail. Boyd is a retired art teacher, but has researched Loch Ness ever since he spotted the large animal in the lake 15 years ago. For years, Boyd has sought evidence to corroborate what he thinks he saw that day. And for years, the surgeon's photograph was the most convincing evidence that Boyd and others were not just imagining things. Though Ian's interview, rebutting the validity of the photograph, was released almost two decades prior, the article never gained much traction. But as Boyd reads and rereads Ian Weatherill's claims, he's struck by the feeling that the media missed a major story, that the famous photograph may indeed be fraudulent. Boyd decides to investigate further. Ian Weatherill is deceased, so Boyd tracks down Ian's stepbrother, Christian Sperling, and drives down to the south of England to meet him. Now 93 years old and near death, Christian confesses his stepdad's elaborate ploy to get revenge on the Daily Mail. And during their interview, Boyd makes one more discovery: a suspicious Weatherill family heirloom, an ashtray, with a stuffed hippo foot at its base. Whether Marmaduke Weatherill made the prince at Loch Ness himself is unclear. But a few months after meeting with Christian Sperling, Boyd will reveal to the media that the surgeon's photograph was a hoax. But far from becoming one of the legend's biggest detractors, Alistair Boyd will remain a stalwart supporter of the existence of the Loch Ness monster, and he will not be alone in his conviction. Marmaduke Weatherall's deception will not spell the end for the legend of the Loch Ness Monster. The mythology of the monster, as well as the hunt for its existence, will endure captivating audiences long after the Daily Mail first captured the world's attention with its infamous photograph, published on April 21st, 1934. Next on History Daily, April 22nd, 1993, while waiting for a bus, 18-year-old Stephen Lawrence is murdered in a racially motivated attack that changes Britain forever. From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily. Hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsey Graham. Audio editing and sound design by Molly Bonn. Music by Lindsey Graham. This episode is written and researched by Alexandra Curry Buckner. Executive producers are Steven Walters for Airship and Pascal Hughes from Noiser.

SPEAKER_01 34:19 We hope you enjoyed these stories from History Daily. And if you did, you can find new episodes every weekday, each exploring a remarkable event that happened on that particular day in history.

SPEAKER_00 34:31 From ancient empires and scientific breakthroughs to mysteries like the Lot Ness Monster, there is always something fascinating to discover. So just search for History Daily wherever you're listening and give them a follow. And we will be back soon with another episode of what we did before.