Camp and audience scenes in late iron age rock drawings from Khawtsgait, Mongolia

Several khirigsuurs, slab graves, and other stone structures were excavated during rescue excavations in the Middle Orkhon Valley in 2006 and 2007. The information from these excavations provides the most extensive data—including the first large series of radiocarbon dates—on the Bronze Age and Early Iron Ages from central Mongolia. Contrary to what some have asserted, it becomes clear that khirigsuurs always served as graves for one individual also in this part of the country. Our discussion of slab graves highlights the particular custom of animal scapula depositions in specific graves as well as the removal of the head/skull, both, in our view, ritual practices. The investigation of three structures along the Khöshöö Tsaĭdam road revealed a much greater diversity of monument types in the Bronze and Early Iron Ages than had previously been recorded and illustrates the growing complexity of those periods beyond the traditional narratives centering around the monument types of khirigsuurs, slab graves, and deer stones. The full text is only available at Springer doi.org/10.1007/s41826-018-0001-8

The Life of Two Valleys in the Bronze Age. Rock Art in the Altai Mountains of Mongolia, 2019

The rock art of Mongolia's Altai Mountains preserves vital documentation of prehistoric life in its transition from a hunting–foraging economy to pastoralism and, finally, to full mounted nomadism. This pictorial record is most abundant within two long river valleys, those of Tsagaan Gol and Baga Oigor Gol. Their location in the high Altai marks the nexus between North and Central Asia, taiga and steppe, and the center of fundamental economic and social changes from the end of the Ice Age through the Bronze And early Iron Ages. The author and her colleagues were the first to identify, record, and map these valleys and their image archives. By situating this pictorial record within a shifting paleoenvironment and by analyzing in detail subject matter and style, the author has been able to recreate the ancient transformation of Bronze Age culture in a remote and magnificent land.

2024

This article presents the fi rst results of a detailed study of a key rock art site with the earliest petroglyphs in the Mongolian Altai-Baga-Oigur-5 (Right Bank). Basic data on its location, the surrounding environment, etc. are provided. The main groups of petroglyphs are characterized and attributed. The most numerous group, that of the "Kalguty" style, is examined in detail. This style was previously attributed by the current authors to the Final Upper Paleolithic. Bronze Age and medieval petroglyphs are also present at the site. The most informative panels show single horses, bulls, sheep, and deer rendered in the "Kalguty" style, as well as compositions including these animals. Among the earliest local rock art, for the fi rst time, a nonfi gurative sign has been found, resembling a grid, connected with the fi gure of a horse in a manner that is typical of prehistoric art. The analysis of a multilayered composition-one of the most important-confi rms the hypothesis that "Kalguty" style petroglyphs predate the Bronze Age. The unusual natural context of Baga-Oigur-5 (Right Bank) is addressed in detail: a restricted area with available fl at rock surfaces standing out against a background landscape with convex boulders. The arrangement of rock carvings within the site is unusual: animal fi gures on various surfaces combine in a nearly compositional manner. A tentative conclusion is made that the site was a sanctuary.

Man sieht nur, was man weiß. Man weiß nur, was man sieht. Globalhistorische Perspektiven auf interkulturelle Phänomene der Mobilität. Festschrift für Hermann Parzinger zum 65. Geburtstag. Prähistorische Archäologie in Südosteuropa 33 , 2024

This study approaches four cemeteries in Central Mongolia, examines their internal organization, classifies the different graves, and arrives at a solid chronological division into three phases. We propose a new dating framework for the Bronze and Iron Ages in Central Mongolia.

Series Minor 88, Wind Horses, 2019

The archaeological, historical, and sacred landscape of the Ikh Bogd Uul Mountain, located in the Gobi-Altai mountain range, has been studied as part of an Italian-Spanish-Mongolian international project that aimed to investigate this little-known area of Southern Mongolia. In this paper, the persistent features of the local Late Prehistoric (2nd and 1st millennia BC) funerary geography are illustrated in the light of the possible connection with architectonic, spatial, and cosmological elements of Old Turkic materiality and sources (1st millennium AD). Accordingly, a description of Late Prehistoric and Old Turkic archaeological sites documented on the Ikh Bogd Uul Mountain is provided and comparatively discussed. In particular, the relation of spatial proximity between Late Prehistoric mounds and Old Turkic features is explored. The archaeological record is also analysed according to the information provided by Old Turkic inscriptions, which represent the oldest written sources available in Mongolia. In this comparative perspective, an archaic correspondence between movement, funerary rituals, and certain sacred places, such as mountain heights, hilltops, and river terraces seems to emerge both for Late Prehistoric burials as well as Old Turkic funerary sites. As a result, the longue durée of the local sacred and funerary geographies is identified as a potentially essential aspect of the monumental landscape of the Ikh Bogd Uul Mountain.

"Pardon Our Dust": UCL Institute of Archaeology Postgraduate Conference, 23-24 May, 2025

Of all the things that could make a Mongolian archaeologist cringe, none would generate a greater eyeroll than “khirigsuurs are ovoos”. Except maybe, “khirigsuurs are haunted – we see the ghosts at night.” And yet, on the western Mongolian steppe, both are commonly held beliefs. This paper reflects on the reuse of khirigsuurs, Late Bronze Age cenotaphs, as ovoos (ritual cairns) in contemporary Mongolian folklore. It addresses unexplained continuity of practice, and the unthinkable leap into reframing monuments of the distant past through modern-day belief. This process is considered a common pitfall of archaeological interpretation, but it also allows us to question what is and isn’t permissible within the siloed disciplinary culture of Mongolian archaeology. What is the role of the public archaeologist in bridging the gap between folk belief and empiricist disciplinary tendencies? Is there room for “superstition” in site interpretation (or should we say “affective encounters with an archaeological landscape”)? And if we make and hold space for multivocality in archaeological interpretation – what happens?

Petroglyphs from the early Middle Ages particularly stand out among monuments of Altai rock art. Petroglyphs dated to this period were executed using the technique of engraving, with great attention being paid to fine details. These petroglyphs are an important source in cultural studies of the Altai population of the second half of the 1st millennium CE. Drawing on historical and archaeological contexts, it is suggested that the battle and hunting scenes depicted in petroglyphs are associated with memorial rites and that such scenes depict the military and hunting exploits of deceased noble warriors. Hence the semantic content of battle and hunting scenes in Turkic rock art of this period can be described as resembling the genres of eulogy and panegyric.

Paul Bahn, Natalie Franklin, Matthias Strecker (Eds.) Rock Art Studies: News of the World VI. Archaeopress, 2021

Mongolia, with more than 500 rock art sites, may be one of the richest countries in Asia – if not the whole world – in terms of rock art. This number comes from the database kept in the Institute of Archaeology of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences and the results of the National Tangible Heritage census held in 2015 in Mongolia. The intensity of rock art studies in Mongolia has been increasing consistently over time since the 1990s and we have seen the same trend in the last few years as well. Mongolian rock art studies between 2000-2014 have been covered in previous volumes (Miklashevich 2008; Jacobson-Tepfer 2012, 2016), and this time we present a brief survey of rock art studies carried out between 2015 and 2019.

Rock Art Research, 2025

This article presents a study on the petroglyphic superimpositions found at the Khuruugiin Uzuur site in the Ikhtamir soum of the Arkhangai province. The site features around three thousand petroglyphs created over several generations of ancient history. While we have previously published a monograph on the petroglyphs at this site, we have not yet conducted a thorough examination of the petroglyphic superimpositions. Therefore, in this study, we have selected sixteen superimpositions from the site in an attempt to establish the relative chronology of the incised images. While the techniques used to engrave the images at the Khuruugiin Uzuur site differ from those at other major rock art sites, the body proportions, shapes, head, neck, legs and other details of the represented animals are remarkably similar. This likeness provides evidence that these images were created during the same epoch. To establish their relative chronology, a comparison was made with images from other sites, particularly rock art sites in the Mongolian and Russian Altai Mountains.