# Excavation of terracotta figures causes rapid loss of original polychromy

Date: 1974

## The fact

When pits were opened, painted surfaces on many figures decayed quickly on contact with air. Later conservation science, reported in museum and science press, documents that loss. The First Emperor did not choose 1974 methods.

## Context

A knowledge gain (seeing the army) destroyed information (colour). That trade-off is a dated excavation-science outcome. Later protocols improved; the lost paint does not return.

[Qin Shi Huang](/people/qin-shi-huang) is not the sole author of every later object, law, or museum label that uses the name. Shared work with courts, excavators, printers, spouses, officials, and later states does not erase a documented role, and it does not make an ancient person the signer of a twentieth-century statute.

## Evidence and sources

Official museum/encyclopedia/agency pages and an independent publisher independently describe this instrument.

Official or archival record: Emperor Qinshihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum (https://www.bmy.com.cn/; Emperor Qinshihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum).

## Significance

Do not blame the farmers. Do record the information loss.

Do not blame the farmers. Do record the information loss.

## What is established and what is not

Established as a dated public record of this instrument.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

## People

- Qin Shi Huang: https://factrail.ai/people/qin-shi-huang

## Drivers

- Digital Learning Access: https://factrail.ai/drivers/edu-digital-learning-access

## Sources

- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Qin-Shi-Huang
- https://www.bmy.com.cn/

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/cn-qin-polychrome-loss