Deer Stones Research Articles

Оленный камень на кургане с «усами» в долине Койшокы в Центральном Казахстане

Оленный камень на кургане с «усами» в долине Койшокы в Центральном Казахстане

Customs, rites, and sacrifices relating to a mortuary complex in Late Bronze Age Mongolia (Tsatsyn Ereg, Arkhangai)

Deer stone and khirigsuur complexes are monuments that are characteristic of the Late Bronze Age (1200-700 BC) of the steppes of central and northern Mongolia. The khirigsuurs are made up of a large central mound around which are distributed peripheral structures: mounds and circles of stones. The peripheral mounds cover heads, vertebrae and phalanges of horses. At the centre of the circles of stones, the deposits consist of the burnt bones of caprines. This article discusses the ingredients that will allow us to better understand the gestures performed as part of the activities around the ritual monuments at Tsatsyn Ereg (Mongolia). The presence in certain mounds of a cranium and mandibles belonging to two different individuals reveals that the explanation for the horse deposits is more complicated than a simple action of in situ sacrifice. Analysis of age at death reveals that elderly animals are numerous. Males form a strong majority. The analysis of the almost 12 000 calcined remains recovered from the circles reveals that teeth and feet of caprines are disproportionately represented. The paper links the circles of stones that delimit the fireplaces with the action of purification. For the khirigsuur B10, the analysis of the alignment of the mounds and the stone circles and the orientation of the horses gives the impression of a herd of horses taking or pulling the deceased towards the rising sun. The communal aspect of the activities conducted around these large tombs is evident. We perceive all of the complexity of the deer stone and khirigsuur (DSK) phenomenon, which is simultaneously social and religious.

High-precision dating of ceremonial activity around a large ritual complex in Late Bronze Age Mongolia

Abstract

Historical and geographical research of the Turkic toponym «Otukan»

The Otukan Mountain was a Mecca for the Turks serving as both geopolitical and spiritual center during their brief moment of unification from 552 to 840. Scholars have been discussing the exact location of the Otukan from 19th century on. We have collected 22 Orkhon Turkic records mentioning the Otukan. Through comparison, we found they are sufficient enough to testify a single knowledge that ancient Otukan was the whole Khangai Mountains. There are also more than eighty Chinese records mentioning the Otukan. Obviously, this important conclu-sion will play a significant role in discussing the history and society of the Orkhon Turks as well as the surrounding area. In fact, three centuries of Turkic period were only a ten percent period of this three thousand years old great Altaic capital. Khangai particularity its Orkhon Valley had been at least six times of the Rome for the Hun, Awar, Turk, Uyghur, Khitan and Mongols. Re-maining as is, other than expeditioners photographing some inscription, deer stone, balbal and sunken walls on the surface, the area has been largely forgotten by us and by archaeologists.

The first excavations of bronze and iron age monuments in the middle Orkhon Valley, Central Mongolia: results from rescue investigations in 2006 and 2007

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 Khoshoo 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.

Documenting carved stones by 3D modelling – Example of Mongolian deer stones

Rock art studies are facing major technical challenges for extensive documentation. Nowadays, recording is essentially obtained from time-consuming tracing and rubbing, techniques that also require a high level of expertise. Recent advances in 3D modelling of natural objects and computational treatment of the modelled surfaces may provide an alternative, and reduce the current documentation bottleneck. The aim of this study is to examine the extent to which such treatments can be applied. The case study presented here concerns the famous deer stones erected by ancient Mongolian nomad populations. The 3D acquisition workflow is based on structure-from-motion, a versatile photogrammetric technique, well adapted to various field conditions. From the 3D geometry of objects of interest, elevation raster maps are produced by projection on four sides of the stela. These digital elevation models are then tested using algorithms based on differential geometry, sky visibility and local morphology, the general principles of which are briefly exposed. All these approaches may be appropriate with essentially planar surfaces. However, in the case of irregular carved surfaces, such as those of deer stones, the most efficient algorithm appears to be positive openness. In favourable cases, the incisions can be automatically delineated, facilitating the final drawing. Results obtained at the end of the process are comparable to the best drawings available in the literature, and can also include archaeological information about rock surface conditions. The procedure considerably accelerates the workflow in comparison with traditional techniques, reduces the level of expertise required, and provides 3D models, which can easily be shared, or further analysed by morphometric methods, for instance. (C) 2018 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Антропоморфные элементы на оленных камнях Тувы и Монголии

Антропоморфные элементы на оленных камнях Тувы и Монголии

The excavation of the Huahaizi No. 3 Site in Qinghe County, Xinjiang

AbstractThe main body of the site of Huahaizi No. 3 in Qinghe (Qinggil) County, Xinjiang, is a stone cairn surrounded by a stone circle with cross-shaped spokes. Around it, stone circles and stone cairns for sacrifices are located. In addition to two deer stones, shield-shaped stones, a simple wooden frame structure and fragments of human bones and sheep teeth used as sacrifices were found. The scientific data and the style of the deer stones show that this site was in use from around the 9th century BCE. The archaeological remains and artifacts show that this site and similar remains are for sacrificial activities, which might be related to the worship of sun, the moon and other celestial bodies or phenomena. The Sandaohaizi Site and similar remains found nearby as well as at the Arzhan kurgans in Tuva, Southern Siberia would have been left by the same people; Sandaohaizi was the summer ritual center of this early nomadic society and Arzhan was its royal necropolis.

Mongolian Deer Stones, European Menhirs, and Canadian Arctic Inuksuit: Collective Memory and the Function of Northern Monument Traditions

Northern peoples and those living in the Arctic and environments with broad vistas created cultural landscapes with distinctive monument traditions that supported their cultural and political systems. This paper explores three societies in different geographic regions and time periods during the past 10,000 years that used stone monuments to humanize their landscapes and invoke or honor gods or spirits, mythological ancestors, or deceased leaders. Canadian and Greenland Inuit and their predecessors of the past thousand years marked their lands with abstract human figures known as Inuksuit; Neolithic and Bronze Age Europeans built megaliths, henges, and passage graves; and Mongolian Bronze Age nomadic pastoralists populated the central Asian steppe with burial mounds (khirigsuurs) and anthropomorphic deer stone monuments. Each tradition contributed in different ways to shape and perpetuate the society’s values by invoking spirits, ancestors, or heroic leaders. The enduring presence of these creations reinforced cultural or ethnic identity through ritual, group ceremonialism, landscape values, communal enterprise and labor, and collective memory. This paper identifies commonalities and differences between these traditions and how they functioned. We also see how successive societies perpetuate, change, reinterpret, or invent new uses and meanings for ancient monuments and their landscape settings to create new ethnicities and histories for their own times.

DEPICTION OF THE DEER IN TAGAR WEAPON DECORATION

The paper is devoted to the depiction of deer in the decoration of Tagar weapons. Such images are not numerous, much fewer than the deer images on other types of Tagar inventory. However, in terms of expression and diversity the deer images in the decoration of Tagar weapons are not inferior and even superior to those in other extant categories of items. The paper presents the experience of systematizing animal style decoration of Tagar weapons based on such features as the type of weapon, animal posture and image style. The authors revealed the stylistic traditions of images dating back to Arjan-Mayemir traditions, images on deer stones of the Sayan-Altai and Mongolian-Trans-Baikal type, as well as the impact of the Scythian art from Tuva and Altai. Styles of deer depiction in knife decoration were correlated with blade types. It was possible to determine that some of the images with depictive signs of the early Scythian tradition were performed on items related to the later stages of Tagar culture, indicating the duration of the early Scythian traditions along with new versions of images.

Steppes Deer Stones

The paper presents the data of all the known deer stones found in the territory of Kazakhstanbeginning from the middle of the XIX century till date. The characters of the stones and their location ...

Horse demography and use in Bronze Age Mongolia

Abstract This paper presents new archaeozoological evidence for horse pastoralism and transport in Mongolia's Deer Stone–Khirigsuur (DSK) Complex (circa 1300–700 BCE). As both livestock and transport, the domestic horse fundamentally altered life in the dry steppe of eastern Eurasia. However, the timing and process of mobile pastoralism's adoption in Mongolia and Northeast Asia remains poorly understood. To evaluate previous suggestions of late Bronze Age horse herding in the DSK complex, I produced age and sex estimates for archaeological horse crania from DSK sites across Mongolia. This sample yielded a high proportion of juvenile animals and an elderly female specimen, consistent with the culling practices of contemporary equine pastoralists. However, the sample also contained a significant proportion of ‘prime age’ adult male animals. This finding is seemingly inconsistent with the practical requirements of pastoral herd management, but comparable with other archaeological assemblages of ritually-sacrificed transport horses. Spatial comparison suggests that these adult males were buried in specific ritual contexts, along the eastern edge of stone mounds known as khirigsuurs , while osteological features of the premaxilla point to harnessing or heavy exertion. Together, these data provide compelling evidence that adult male DSK horses were used for chariotry or mounted riding. Results support the interpretation of DSK people as early mobile pastoralists, and suggest an important role for horse transport in late Bronze Age social dynamics and the development of herding societies in Northeast Asia.

СОСТАВ И КОМПОЗИЦИЯ СООРУЖЕНИЙ РИТУАЛЬНОГО КОМПЛЕКСА С ОЛЕННЫМИ КАМНЯМИ УШКИЙН-УВЭР (ПО РЕЗУЛЬТАТАМ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЙ 2013 ГОДА)

Composition and construction history of a ritual complex with deer stones at Uushigiin uvur, Hovsgol aimag, Mongolia, are inferred from fi ndings of large-scale excavations in 2013. The earliest elements of the complex were six catacombs fi lled with stones, and ritual pits. Possible placement of known deer stones was discovered, and lower parts of fi ve new ones were found in situ. The excavated part of the complex included two ensembles similar in composition and consisting of rows of deer stones. Each ensemble rested on two stone platforms, one curved (oriented in a north-south direction), the other rectangular (oriented in an east-west direction and accompanied by stone stelae). Deer stones were placed along the western edge of the curved platforms. East, north, and south of the ensembles, altars with buried horse bones were discovered. These objects did not overlap one another, which suggests a single compositional structure of the work. Further north, two more rows of deer stones were situated. On the eastern side of those, there were similar altars, and on the western side, stone rings with fragments of calcined animal bones. In terms of structure and composition, all ensembles (platforms with stelae, an arc of altars with horse remains from the east, stone rings with calcined animal bones from the west) are similar to ritual constructions around funerary mounds—the khereksurs of Central Mongolia, supporting the idea that deer stones had replaced actual burials.

Sacred Imagery and Ritual Landscape: New Discoveries at the Biluut Petroglyph Complex in the Mongolian Altai

Altaian rock art is increasingly seen as essential to our grasp of the character and movements of ancient cultures throughout Inner Asia. Rock art imagery often provides our only pictorial information about a preliterate society. But while surface study by itself yields valuable information, joining the examination of rock art with dirt archaeology, geology, and paleoecology provides greater opportunities for advances in our understanding of key developments in the region’s dynamic prehistory: horse domestication and associated technologies, the birth of mobile pastoralism, the incursion of charioteers, the making and spread of deer stones, and the advent of metallurgy, to name but a few. This paper focuses on the Biluut Petroglyph Complex, a prehistoric ceremonial center at Khoton Lake in far-western Mongolia’s High Altai, which contains an array of archaeological sites associated with an unusually dense concentration of petroglyphs spanning the past 8–10,000 years. In presenting results of recent research carried out by his team at Khoton Lake, the author demonstrates the value of integrating rock art studies with other disciplines. The investigation of ritual landscape is crucial. Together with their pictorial details, the chronological distribution and spatial organization of petroglyph figure-types and stone monuments yield important clues concerning the lifeways of ancient peoples and the transmission of arts, ideas, and technologies throughout this culturally formative mountain zone. The focus and approach can serve as models globally.

Also on the typology of bow-shaped objects and relevant issues

AbstractThe bow-shaped object emerged in the Shang-Zhou Period of China and was used as rein holder for charioteers and riders to free their hands. It can be classified into two types: the narrow-backed and the wide-backed. Samples of the narrow-backed type were found at the waist of human skeletons or depicted on Mongolian deer stones, at the waist of human images in association with bow and bow case figures. It suggests that this type of bow-shaped object was tied to or hung on waist belts. On the other hand, wide-backed ones were usually brought to light from chariot boxes in chariot-and-horse burial pits and, in Mongolia and Central Asia, were seen in chariot images of deer stones, with the reins shown tied to or hung on chariot boxes. Judged from these discoveries, at least a part of wide-backed bow-shaped objects were used as rein holders tied to the front edge of chariot boxes.

Biocolonization of Stone: Control and Preventive Methods: Proceeedings from the MCI Workshop Series

The Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute Workshop on Biocolonization of Stone was the second workshop in a series and was dedicated to research on removal and control of biocolonization in stone objects. Twelve presentations were made, and the workshop ended with a roundtable discussion open to the 71 attendees. The goal was to provide a discussion forum for biologists, material scientists, and conservators interested in stone biodeterioration. Seven papers were presented, ranging from microbiological laboratory studies to combination of on-site testing and laboratory evaluation for World Heritage Sites such as Angkor Wat, to a literature overview. Five case studies were also presented, covering control of biodeterioration at Veterans Affairs cemeteries, experience gathered from the installation of zinc strips at the Stanford Mausoleum in San Francisco, the red staining found on the marble of the Memorial Amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery, problems posed by deer stones in Mongolia, and the site test installed at San Ignacio Miní Jesuit mission in Misiones, Argentina. The roundtable and discussions drew attention to the importance of exploring new methods to prevent microbial colonization of stone. Finally, in a closed session, suggestions were offered for developing criteria to evaluate microbial growth and determine when treatment is necessary. It was recommended that a database be prepared on stone biocolonization and its control.

Stone Shamans and Flying Deer of Northern Mongolia: Deer Goddess of Siberia or Chimera of the Steppe?

Mongolia’s Bronze Age deer stones are one of the most striking expressions of early monumental art in Central Asia, yet their age, origins, relationships, and meaning remain obscure. Speculation about Scythian connections has stimulated recent research in Mongolia that has begun to peel away their mysteries and reveals connections to Scytho-Siberian and northern art. Radiocarbon-dated horse skulls indicate pre-Scythian ages of “classic Mongolian” deer stones as well as firm association with the Late Bronze Age khirigsuur [kurgan] burial mound complex.