New Discoveries Expected

Archaeologists hoped they might find a clay figure that appeared to be "in command" of the huge underground army, said Liu Zhancheng, head of the archeological team under the terracotta museum.

"We're hoping to find a clay figure that represented a high-ranking army officer, for example," he told Xinhua earlier.

Photo taken on June 13, 2009 shows the excavation site of No. 1 pit of the Terra-cotta Warriors and Horses of Emperor Qin Shihuang, in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province. [Xinhua]

Liu and his colleagues are also hoping to ascertain the success of decades of preservation efforts to keep the undiscovered terracotta figures intact and retain their original colors.

Most experts believe the pit houses a rectangular army of archers, infantrymen and charioteers that the emperor hoped would help him rule in the afterlife.

But Liu Jiusheng, a Chinese historian in Xi'an, claims it was an army of servants and bodyguards rather than warriors. His argument is still not widely accepted by other terracotta experts.

The army is still known to most Chinese people as the "terracotta warriors and horses."

The army was one of the greatest archeological finds of modern times. It was discovered in Lintong county, 35 km east of Xi'an, in 1974 by peasants who were digging a well.

The first formal excavation of the site lasted for six years from 1978 to 1984 and produced 1,087 clay figures. A second excavation, in 1985, lasted a year and was cut short for technical reasons.

The discovery, listed as a world heritage site by UNESCO in December 1987, has turned Xi'an into one of China's major tourist attractions.

(Xinhua News Agency June 14, 2009)