New campaigns for terracotta army

By Ma Lie (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-16 08:48

XI'AN: The public will get to see even more history uncovered in the next three years as additional excavations for terracotta warriors and other artifacts are opened and made public, the Qin Shihuang Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum has revealed.

"There are more than 600 burial pit ruins around the Mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shihuang and we plan to open some ruins - such as a pit with civil official figurines, a pit with opera acting figurines, a pit with bronze chariots and horses, a pit with water bird figurines and a pit with stone armor in the next three years," said Tian Jing, deputy director of the museum.

The excavations mentioned had been partially explored but reburied to protect the artifacts until they could be properly unearthed and opened to the public after technology had improved, said Tian.

In December 1980, two bronze full-size chariots with four horses each were unearthed 20 m from the emperor's tomb but because of poor protection technology, the chariots and horses were removed from the site and exhibited in a display hall.

"The chariots and horses will be moved back to the pit where they were unearthed," Tian said.

The new ruins are all located in the Qin Shihuang Mausoleum Ruins Park, which is under construction and will be opened to the public in 2011.

An archaeological team has been formed to conduct additional surveying close to the mausoleum and, after the third excavation on Pit No 1 started on Saturday, further excavation of Pit No 2 and Pit No 3 will be carried out, said Liu Zhancheng, director of the museum's archaeological excavation team.

"We will conduct survey drillings on burial pits and the mausoleum of Qin Shihuang, but we have no plan to open the emperor's tomb as present technology may not adequately protect the relics unearthed from the underground palace in the mausoleum," said Tian.

The third phase of excavations of Pit No 1 started on Saturday and will involve 200 sq m within the first year. Archaeologists will gradually enlarge the excavation to around 2,000 sq m during the following four years.

Ultimately, the excavation will connect the eastern portion of the site with the west side, said Cao Wei, deputy director of the museum.

During the past three days, archaeologists have found important and colorful relics including pottery figurines and horses, bronze arrowheads, a painted pottery warrior and a painted wooden ring, according to Xu Weihong, the researcher in charge of the excavation.

Zhou Tie, chief engineer of the museum, said that during the excavation process, the unearthed lacquers, organic matters and painted relics will be protected thanks to technology developed by Chinese and German experts in the past 20 years.

The terracotta warriors and horses at the site were found by accident on March 29, 1974, after farmers drilled a well hole in Xiyang village in Lintong, an eastern suburb of Xi'an.

More than one thousand human-size figurines were found and the museum was built to cover the relics on location. It opened to the public on Oct 1, 1979.

During the excavation of Pit No 1, the smaller No 2 and No 3 pits were found.

The three pits are located some 1.5 km east of the mausoleum of Qin Shihuang, first emperor of China's feudal dynasty (221-206 BC). The pottery figurines were funerary objects honoring the emperor.

The first excavation of Pit No 1 was carried from 1978 to 1984. The second was started in 1985 and suddenly stopped one year later when it was realized that protection technology at the time was not adequately preserving the items.