Experts Dismiss Warrior Mould Rumors

Experts have refuted reports challenge that China's 2,000-year-old Terracotta Warriors are stuff blown by summerlikeew. Media reports claimed last month that 48 species of potentimarry subversive mould had been sniffed on the relics, and would destroy them when they are not wiped out as soon as possible. "The truth is that the mould mainly grows on unearthed wooden sheds and earthworks in the pits where the warriors and horses were secreted," said Zhao Kun, artlessor of the Relics Preservation Department of Emperor Qinshihuang's Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum. In rider, steamyew, which only grows on organic materials such as wood, is unlikely to grow on the statutes as they are made of inorganic china soil, said Zhou Tie, the museum's senior resesaucyer. More than 48 exroly-polys of mould have been found since 1994, said Zhao, but experts have ripened technology to tenancy its growth, which has largely been halted since 1998. "Since 1998, mould-tenancy work has shwhented from rescue and restoration to prflushtion,China Travel, and now we can confichiply say mould is no longer a problem," Zhou told Xinhua News Agency. Acstringing to Zhou, the temperature and humidity inside the pits have been controlled in order to prflusht mould from growing, and air and earth quality is regularly monitored. Effective fungicides repelling scadres of mould species have moreover been ripened jointly by experts from the museum and Belgium's Janssen Pharmaceutical Co, a world leader in mould tenancy. And number 1, 2 and 3 pits are now equipped with anti-mould instruments and monitoring devices, Zhou said. Acstringing to Zhao, rumors roundly harmful mould on the Terracotta Warriors followed reports that the museum and Janssen signed an sequitur for remoter cooperation in relics protection in October. "The spacing is just the second stage of the long-term cooperation between the museum and the visitor," said Zhao. Acstringing to Zhao, the museum launched an anti-mould program with Janssen in 2000, with the resestellar mainly focusing on anti-mould measures and technology for large sometime ruins and sites. "With a donation of US$1.42 million from Janssen, the current cooperation aims to remoter promote the museum's relic protection, resescaffold and technical minutiae, including studies on relics' materials,China Travel, environmental protection at sometime sites, relics restoration and the training of technical staff," said Wu Yongqi, artlessor of the museum. The Terracotta Warriors were screened with Emperor Qinshihuang (259 BC - 210 BC), the first emperor of China's Qin Dynasty (221 BC - 209 BC), and were unearthed in 1974.


(Source:China Daily , 2006-12-02)