Meanwhile the land has already shifted back from archaeological time to the ageless rhythms of the countryside. Local peasants have planted pomegranate trees on the site, and the fruit is coming into season 20 feet (6 meters) above the unknown treasures. The archaeologists have already moved on. They have opened a third experimental pit, in which they found 12 life-size statues. It's another breakthrough: the nonmilitary figures wear hats and long robes; their hands are crossed at their waists. Perhaps they are government officials. And so the puzzle expands, piece by piece emerging from the red Shaanxi soil.

Twenty-five miles (40 kilometers) west of the Terra-cotta Warriors Museum, I find a harvest of a different sort: carefully arranged rows of terra-cotta pigs, sheep, goats, and dogs excavated from the tomb complex of Han Jing Di. This site is one of Xian's newest tourist attractions, open to visitors since the end of 1999. It too is an excavation in progress—as I can see from the animal pit, where some of the sheep are still half-uncovered, wading in dust up to their fattened flanks.

"In the first level we've found more than 400 terra-cotta dogs, 200 sheep, and we're still not sure how many pigs," says archaeologist Ma Yongying. "They were put in the tomb to feed the emperor."

Perhaps this is to be expected from a dynasty whose founder, Liu Bang, rose to power with the assistance of military supporters who had been dog butchers. Despite its humble beginnings, the Han has always been seen as one of China's most successful dynasties, ruling through a combination of pragmatism and precise organization. Indeed these characteristics are reflected in the relics that are emerging from the tomb complex, which is known as Han Yangling. Since 1990, when a construction project accidentally came across a pit of terra-cotta soldiers, archaeologists have excavated a large collection of burial items that say more about everyday life than war: animals, chariots, spades, saws, adzes, chisels, plowshares, miniature granaries, ladles, stoves, steamers, and measuring devices. Considering that Han Jing Di came to power only 53 years after the burial of Qin Shi Huang Di and his terra-cotta army, these preliminary discoveries seem to indicate a change in philosophy—and, quite possibly, a reaction against the earlier dynasty.

"Qin Shi Huang was a tyrant. Whatever he wanted, he got," says Liu Qingzhu, director of the Chinese Institute of Archaeology in Beijing. "His tomb didn't have to follow a system, so you might have certain figures over here and different ones somewhere else. But what we've found at Han Yangling is very orderly—each pit contains certain objects arranged in a certain way; it's all very regular."

Over the course of a 17-year reign that ended in 141 b.c., Han Jing Di governed by the most unpretentious of slogans: "Wu wei er zhi," a Taoist saying that means "Do nothing in order to govern," or, essentially, rule as unobtrusively as possible. Historians claim that whereas peasants paid half their crops in taxes under Qin Shi Huang Di, Han Jing Di levied only 3 percent. Mandatory corvée was dramatically reduced. There were no major building projects on the scale of the Great Wall. And the empire, according to historical texts, flourished.