Terra Cotta Warriors

The Bower's Museum of Cultural Art (Santa Ana. California)
May 18 - Oct. 12

The man who unified China in the 3rd century B.C. conquered six other feudal states to do it, built the first version of the Great Wall and in a fit of pique may have buried hundreds of scholars alive. (There's some dispute about that alive part.) When it came time for his own burial — certifiably dead in his case — China's First Emperor had himself interred in a city-sized mausoleum. All around him was a retinue of more than 7,000 terra cotta soldiers, plus assorted horses, chariots, acrobats and musicians. The figures were rediscovered in 1974 and in this Olympics year China is touring 15 of them. The Bowers Museum is the first of four U.S. venues for a show of the mesmerizing figures themselves and dozens of other period objects. The army marches on from there to Atlanta, Houston and Washington, D.C.