Precious stones such as pearls are said to represent ... to the military poses of the famous terra-cotta soldiers. But further excavations of the tomb itself are on hold, at least for now.

In 1974, farmers in Shaanxi, China, uncovered the terracotta army guarding Qin Shi Huang’s tomb—a burial site of China’s first emperor, hidden for 2,200 years. Though archaeologists have ...