HORSEPOWER
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Interactions between China, Mongolia and the steppe 2000-0 BCE
Videos
Ursula Brosseder is one of Europe’s leading specialists in the archaeology of Mongolia. She reckons that multiple excavations have meant that she’s spent more than a year of her life camping on the steppe. Here she explains the latest phase of the Horsepower project – investigating thousands of horse skulls at burial sites – and what life in a Mongolian ger, or yurt, is like.
A major focus of the Horsepower project is China. And last autumn’s celebrations of the fiftieth anniversary of the discovery of the terracotta warriors provided an opportunity to deepen ties. In this video we hear from Chris Gosden, one of the Horsepower principal investigators, and Li Gang, director of the Emperor Qinshishuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum.
In this charming and insightful video, we hear from Miranda Creswell, the Horsepower project’s artist, about her work with children in China and the UK: from the challenge of teaching someone to draw a horse to her joy at the humour and humanity of the exchanges between pupils in very distant schools.
Horse Drawn Letters is a public engagement project between Cutteslowe Primary School in Oxford,UK and Xiahe Primary school, held at the Museum of Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses in Xian, China.
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After workshops on how to draw a horse in 10 steps, involving over 100 children, decorated letters and envelopes were taken by Miranda Creswell to and from China and the UK.
Enthusiastic and curious children from both countries, read the letters aloud, learnt about their respective schools and the history of the horse in China and Mongolia. It is hoped this project will continue between a school in Mongolia and a school in Scotland in the next year.