4 For further details on the study of the inscriptions, including the technical aspects discussed in the next section, see X.J. Li, M. Martinón-Torres, N.D. Meeks, Y. Xia and K. Zhao (2011), ‘Inscriptions, filing, grinding and polishing marks on the bronze weapons from the Qin Terracotta Army in China’, Journal of Archaeological Science 38, 492–501, DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.1016/j.jas.2010.09.012.