Altai State University archaeologists interpret materials of a unique rock burial excavated by Mongolian scientists

“The rock burial of Urd Ulaan Unaet was discovered by local residents in Myangad somon of the Kobdos aimak (Western Mongolia), at an altitude of 1327 m above sea level. In 2015, researchers from Ulan Bator, under the leadership of J. Bayarsayhan, studied the monument and subsequently published about it in several articles. Unfortunately, these materials were presented only in Mongolian and remained practically unknown to specialists from other countries. Meanwhile, the complex is unique not only because of a high degree of preservation of findings (wooden dishes, horse harness, clothes, etc.), but also that it belongs to the practically unstudied period of the existence of the Zhuzhansky Khaganate in the territory of Mongolia (IV – V centuries AD). Due to the fact that the materials from this monument were presented at the exhibition in the National Museum of Mongolia in 2017, we managed to get acquainted with them" said Nikolai Seregin, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Deputy Vice-Rector for Scientific and Innovative Development of AltSU. “The published article presents the possibilities of a cultural-chronological interpretation of this object in the context of the already existing extensive archaeological sources of the Syanbi-Juan-Juan era and the early Middle Ages, formed during excavations in various parts of the Central Asian region”.

According to the authors of the article, the findings discovered in the rock burial of the Urd Ulaan Unet reflect really extensive contacts of the population of Mongolia in the Juan-Juan time in various directions (Altai-Sayan region, Transbaikalia, Manchuria, East Turkestan, Central Asia). In addition, “western” ties are clearly distinguished, obviously demonstrating the complex migration processes of the era of the Great Migration of Peoples.

This article was prepared as part of the joint Russian-Mongolian project “Historical, Cultural and Ethnogenetic Processes in Mongolia during the Great Migration and the Early Middle Ages: An Interdisciplinary Analysis of Archaeological and Written Sources”, supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and the Ministry of Culture, Education, Science and Sports of Mongolia. The leader of this project is Nikolai Seregin. On the part of Mongolia, the project is supervised by Tsagaan Turbat, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Head of the Department of the Bronze and Early Iron Age, Institute of Archeology, Mongolian Academy of Sciences.