"This is over 2,000 years old!" he whispers. "This could be the find of the century!"

It's March 1974, and the six Yang brothers from the village of Xiyang, China, are talking.

"It's been a terrible spring," begins Yang Peiyan, the oldest.

"We need water," agrees Yang Quanyi. "Time to dig another well!"

"Over there," answers Yang Peiyan, pointing to a spot near Mount Li.

Armed with spades, they begin. Everything is going well until they come to a layer of very hard, red earth.

"It's impossible to dig through!" complains Yang Xinam.

"Let's keep going," replies Yang Peiyan.

Yang Zhifa's spade suddenly makes a loud clunk. He pushes away some more earth and gives a yell of surprise. Below them is a man's head!

The Silent Soldier

"It's only clay,"  Yang Peiyan says reassuringly. Digging further, they uncover pieces of a six-foot-tall clay soldier.

"We should tell Zhao Kangmin. He's in charge of the local museum," says Yang Peiyan.

Zhao races to the digging site. "This is over 2,000 years old!" he whispers. "This could be the find of the century!"

When he gets in touch with archaeologists, they're puzzled. Why was this soldier in a farmer's field? Are other soldiers nearby? The nearest ancient site — the tomb, or burial place, of the First Emperor of China — is almost a mile away. Is it connected?

"No one knew how big this discovery would be," said Robert Jacobsen of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.