Buried treasure
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The State Administration of Cultural Heritage's (SACH) reiteration on Wednesday that royal mausoleums should not be excavated without its approval reflects the dilemma between the protection of cultural heritage in tombs and some local governments' eagerness to use such excavations to stimulate their economies.
On the same day, authorities in Henan province announced that the central television station would broadcast live the excavation of Cao Cao's tomb. Of course, this excavation has SACH's approval. Cao Cao (155-220) was the founder of the Wei kingdom during the Three Kingdoms period (220-280).
A debate has been going on for some years now on whether the mausoleum of the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) should be excavated.
Promoters argue that they should, so that the cultural relics buried can be unearthed and some mysteries solved. Yet the majority of archaeologists believe that it is better to let them stay buried in the mausoleums, because even today's state-of-the-art technology would not be able to prevent some of the unearthed relics from eroding.
In the 1950s, when the tomb of a Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) emperor was excavated, the unearthed textiles and some other relics had become so brittle that they disintegrated into pieces. Even the color of the terra cotta warriors is not as fresh as it was when they were unearthed.
The SACH is right in ordering that royal mausoleums should not be excavated unless our technology becomes good enough to protect unearthed relics. The development of local economies, by attracting more tourists, cannot justify such excavations.
