Time - USA (2020-11-23)

CHINAWATCH

PRESENTED BY CHINA DAILY

Lan Desheng picked up a sand-
colored pottery shard, surveyed
the fragment and fi tted it into
the back of a Terracotta Warrior
fi gure.
The 52-year-old conservator-
restorer is part of a specialist
team piecing together and repair-
ing the Terracotta Army, which
was discovered at the mausoleum
of Emperor Qinshihuang in Xi’an,
Shaanxi province, in March 1974.
Pointing to life-sized Terracotta
Warriors wearing suits of armor
and with their hair in buns, Lan
said: “These are pieces of history
that have been vividly preserved.
More than 2,000 years have
slipped by, and you can still sense
the huge amount of talent that
went into making these fi gures.”
Lan said the team aims to
restore the relics’ original appear-
ance by applying the principle of
minimum intervention.
On-site fi rst aid is a key element
of the work. In the tomb pits
where the relics were discovered,
about 15 conservator-restorers
toil day and night. Work tables are
placed in the corners of the pits,
on which gray-uniformed restor-
ers arrange diff erent sets of tools.
The layer of varnish on newly
unearthed Terracotta Warriors
in the funerary pits warps and
shrinks within minutes of them
being found, due to sudden
changes in temperature and hu-
midity. The colorful artwork on the
fi gures also quickly peels off.
Wang Chunyan, a researcher at
Emperor Qinshihuang’s Mauso-
leum Site Museum, is responsible
for on-site emergency protection
of the cultural relics.
“The greatest eff ort we make to
safeguard the Terracotta Warriors
goes into protecting the varnish
and colorful painting,” Wang said.
Menthol is used for this work.

After heating it to form an organic

solvent, Wang said the conser-

vator-restorers sprinkle fusant, a

type of solution obtained during

this process, on fabric, which is

used to daub and reinforce the ex-

cavated fi gures. After the solution

solidifi es, the relics are taken to

what is called a recovery room.

In 1974 the Terracotta Warriors

were found by villagers in Lintong

district of Xi’an.

The fi gures, commissioned by

Emperor Qin, have undergone

three archaeological excavations,

the fi rst spanning more than six

years.

The second took place in

1985 but was halted because

there were limited ways to protect

the colorful painting on the fi gures

at the time.

The most recent excavation

started in 2009, when the Na-

tional Cultural Heritage Adminis-

tration approved the resumption

of work in a section of the No. 1 pit.

Lan, the conservator-restorer,

was one of those responsible for

the resumption, which was a turn-

ing point in his career.

Earlier, he had only repaired

one or two Terracotta Warriors

every year, treating the relics with

the utmost care and displaying

infi nite patience.

Since the excavation resumed,

he has restored pottery shards

from more than 150 fi gures and

has gradually come to know the

diff erence between each one.

“The Terracotta Warriors

feature colorful painting and even

the fi ngerprints of the artisans

who made them,” Lan said. “The

artisans’ names are etched on

them, but they can be hard to fi nd.

“If you look closely at the pot-

tery shards you can see traces of

their fi ngerprints and complete

palm prints left after they vigor-

ously slapped the clay. There are

also traces of the hairs they shed.”

All these traces are well-

Restorers require

an eye for detail

and infi nite patience

BY XIN WEN

THEY KEEP THE TERRACOTTA

WARRIORS ON THE MARCH

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