Terracotta army, photo source: www.qianlong.com

Claims that the priceless 2,000-year-old terracotta army in Xi'an is in danger of disintegrating due to weathering have been strongly denied by experts and bosses at the site.

Recent media reports have claimed the warriors could disappear within a century because of air pollution.

But managers have insisted that because the soldiers and their horses are under cover, snow, wind or rain cannot reach them to destroy them.

In fact a research project into exactly how much damage is being inflicted has already been launched.

The project, costing 2 million yuan (US$240,000) and involving a number of experts from home and abroad, will focus on air pollution. It is to be completed in 2007.

"We are carrying the research project for the precautionary protection, not for measures to deal with existing problems," said Wu Yongqi, director of the Museum of the Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum, yesterday.

"The preservation work in the museum is done in a proper way. Any scaremongering about the relics without any scientific foundation is ill-intentioned."

Yesterday, four relics protection experts, including the director and deputy director of the museum's Protection Department and relics protection experts in the Northwest University gave China Daily exclusive details of the protection mechanisms in place.

They said the amount of weathering they were likely to suffer was "negligible."

"The terracotta warriors and horses were made of hard pottery which could resist weathering very well, and since they were unearthed in 1974, they have been housed by special halls with proper protection facilities and measures, so the daily wind, sunlight, rain and snow can do nothing to them," said Zhao Kun, director of the museum's Protection Department.

"There was a little bit of weathering on small parts of the side wall of the pits where the relics were originally unearthed, because soil is not anti-weathering. But we have adopted effective ways for protection," said Zhou Tie, a researcher and an expert of the museum.

The experts have been focusing on the environmental effects and the museum has made efforts to improve its surroundings by planting more trees and grass and limiting commercial activities, according to Zhang Zhijun, deputy director of the museum's Protection Department.

"It is normal that mould is produced when digging up artefacts, especially on such a large scale as the terracotta army, but proper measures can easily remove it," said Zhou.

"In fact the anti-mould laboratory in our museum is the only such lab in China, and our anti-mould technology is top in the country," Wu Yongqi said.

They were treated especially for mould after being unearthed, then dried and put back in the dry pits in the protection halls, where mould cannot grow, Zhou said.

In 2001, the technological research results for protecting the colours on the army made by the museum passed State approval, solving the most difficult problem Wu said.

The Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) warriors, known as the world's Eighth Wonder, were discovered in 1974 in Lintong, an eastern district of Xi'an, which is the capital of Shaanxi Province. They were created to guard the tomb of Qin Emperor Shihuang.

Located 1 kilometre east of the emperor's tomb, more than 7,000 clay warriors and 500 horses were found in three burial pits, which are now all protected under steel and concrete halls, Wu said.

"The protection work has been successful and effective, and the scientific research results on relics protection won second prize in the State Scientific Achievement 2004 Awards this year," said Bo Rongshi, professor of Northwest University.

Editor: Wing