Archaeological site – sacred space : Popular religious beliefs and archaeological heritage in present-day Mongolia

Abstract

Archaeological sites are usually discussed as places of academic research, however, there is an ever growing demand for museums and archaeological parks that present reconstructed buildings and archaeological features in a form that makes them accessible for the wider public. Sometimes these monuments have strong connections to cultural tourism and education, and have the potential to be turned into an experience-based exhibition; in other cases they are strongly embedded in local religious phenomena, popular beliefs, or even have ties to one or the other of the major religious groups, making them sacred places. In this paper we discuss the sacralization process of archaeological sites in Mongolia. The examples examined below are partly connected to the Khi-Land project, a Hungarian-Mongolian landscape archaeological endeavour, and partly to the excavations in one of the largest Xiongnu sites, Noyon Uul (Noin-Ula).