"The restoring task is arduous, as it involves complicated procedures to protect the statues' coloring, reinforcing their gold foil and joining their pieces together," He Liqun, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) said.
He said his team created a detailed restoration plan based on the original features of the statues, adding that more statues are expected to be restored using the unearthed components.
A team of archaeologists from the CASS and the Hebei Provincial Institute of Cultural Heritage had in January unearthed 2,895 Buddha statues and statue fragments in Yecheng, a 2,500-year-old ancient city located in what is now Linzhang county, according to He.
The Buddha statues, mostly made of white marble and blue stone, are believed to date back to the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi dynasties (534-577).
The archaeological finding is thought to be the largest of its kind since the founding of the People's Republic of China, state-run Xinhua news agency said.
The city of Yecheng, built during the Spring and Autumn period (770 BC-476 BC), served as the political center during the Three Kingdoms period (220-280) and the Northern Dynasty period (386-581). PTI KJV
