Scholars debate why the figures are nude--whether they were originally dressed in clothes which later rotted off, or whether nude burial represented a kind of punishment--but the reason clearly had little to do with the esthetics of the human figure.
陶俑裸露的原因不明，一般有三種猜測：其一是裸像穿衣隨葬，絲織衣物年久分解失散，只留下軀體；其二是根據「西京雜記」的記載，魏地確有裸葬之俗；其三則認為裸葬是刑罰的一種。