These school children were absorbed by a presentation from a leading archaeology professor from University College of London about China’s Terracotta Army on Tuesday.

Ilford Recorder: UCL professor Mr Marcos Martinon-Torres's talk on China's Terracotta Army captivated his young audience.UCL professor Mr Marcos Martinon-Torres's talk on China's Terracotta Army captivated his young audience. (Image: Archant)

Professor Marcos Martinon-Torres spoke to pupils at St Augustine’s Catholic Primary School, in Cranbrook Road, Gants Hill, for nearly an hour about excavating the Terracotta Army near the city of Xi’an in China.

Bruna Ranjan, the school’s inclusion manager, said: “The interesting thing about these warriors is each one had different facial expressions and ears when they were created.

“They made them all different.

“We were extremely fortunate to have a visit from the professor.

“The pupils were fascinated by some of the amazing facts.”

The Terracotta Army is a collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China.

It is a form of funerary art buried with the emperor in 210–209 BC and whose purpose was to protect the emperor in his afterlife.

Professor Martinon-Torres told the pupils that he decided, at the age of 13, to become an archaeologist and he still enjoys his job visiting lots of different excavation sites around the world including Uganda, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Thailand and Colombia.