the buzz log

Terracotta warriors will rise one more time... again.

After 20 years, archaeologists are back to Pit A in Xi'an, China, the 2,000-year-old graveyard for 6,000 clay soldiers (plus a few hundred chariots and horses). At least that's the estimated troop number for the lifesized figures. Only 1,000 warriors had been uncovered before the dig was stopped in the 1980s, because 20th-century oxygen was ruining the soldiers.

But since men can't leave funerary arts well enough alone, they're back with new technology that's supposed to "preserve the original colors" against the elements. Pit A, at 2,152 feet, is the largest of the digs, holding about 5,000 warriors.

Scientists have already unearthed surprises on the dig's first day (June 13), including bronze arrowheads, artifacts in brilliant color, and tandem four-horse chariots. Incidentally, the emperor himself, Qin Shi Huang, is buried in the middle of this necropolis, but he has never been excavated... despite movies to the contrary.

The subterranean return to Xi'an has provoked lots of searches on Yahoo!. Armchair archaelogists can check out the dig in detail in this photo slideshow and a CCTV video (in Mandarin). A BBC video reports on the slow, steady work to reveal the first Chinese emperor's army of the dead. Tourists can watch the dig live, but for people who won't make it to the Shaanxi province any time soon, National Geographic Museum will be bringing a few artifacts stateside in November 2009. You can check out its online exhibit here.