Altai Sample Chapter

20

Transcript of Altai Sample Chapter

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Art, Archaeology,

and Landscape

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A r c h a e o l o g y a n d L a n d s c a p e i n t h e M o n g o l i a n A l t a i18

This atlas is about the creation of cultural landscapes through the purposeful location of ancient monuments within the larger physical setting. The materials devel-

oped here are drawn from our documentation of thousands of stone structures and images found within the Altai Mountains of Mongolia. Our approach reflects our persuasion that when people long ago constructed those monuments, they did so with a conscious sense of the mountain ridges, rivers, directional-ity, and view sheds around them. Embedded in their location of standing stones, altars, burial mounds, image stones, and concentrations of rock art was a deep sense of the significance of natural elements, of a natural order in the world and in the cosmos. In order to consider this material, we need to establish a conceptual framework of interconnected and embedded con-texts—chronological, environmental, and material. The purpose of this chapter is to establish that framework by looking at the larger paleoenvironment, the chronology of relevant cultures, and the nature of monument typologies within a chronological perspective. In the last sections of the chapter we will introduce approaches to the consideration of surface monuments in the larger landscape; these will be used to guide our consideration of the cultural landscapes within each basin and within the region as a whole.

For several reasons, chronologies of ancient cultures in the Mongolian Altai remain general. There are no written docu-ments that clearly relate to cultures earlier than that of the Türks and thus no objective means of naming cultures or locating their epicenters. Scientific analyses of organic materials may help to assign dates to monuments, but they do not give us names to attach to those remains. Furthermore, across the high Altai region—including northwest Mongolia, the Altai Republic in Russia, northeastern Kazakhstan, and northern China—there is no general agreement regarding either the identity of archaeo-logically retrieved cultures or their dates. Although there are significant archaeological parallels between what we find in the Altai and in other regions of Mongolia, those parallels still sup-port little more than a general chronology, and one that lacks the assignment of cultural names.

On the other hand, archaeological excavations of monu-ments in Mongolia’s central and northern aimag are begin-ning to result in a critical mass of comparable material and in a range of dates that may help to identify similar monuments in the Altai Mountains. This material, added to that derived from published archaeological explorations in the Russian republics of Altai and Tuva and in northern China, certainly suggests a broad chronological framework for specific monument types. In addition, studies of lakebed sediments on either side of the Altai Ridge have allowed scientists to reconstruct the succession of plants and trees that dominated the region in prehistory; with its indication of habitat, this material suggests which animals could have been found in our study area and when. These objective paleoenvironmental conditions can be associated with techno-logical and economic changes that appear in rock art and are reflected in excavated finds from burials. Finally, the styles in which humans represented themselves—whether hunting ani-mals, driving carts, or riding—can be used to relate large groups of images to specific culture periods. (These relationships, set within a chronological framework, are more fully developed in

the charts in 2.3.) In these ways and many others, by working back and forth between contingent materials, it becomes possi-ble to propose a general chronology for northwestern Mongolia: one that acknowledges the variety and overlay of archaeological monuments within our study area but also respects the chrono-logical framework established in other regions with reference to monument typologies.

Because the names of prehistoric cultures in North and Central Asia refer to sites excavated outside the Mongolian Altai, their usefulness in our study area is limited. Our primary desig-nation of cultural periods will instead depend, firstly, on broad epochs defined by geological prehistory, and, secondarily, on the cultural results embedded in new technologies and their eco-nomic consequences. These epochs include the Late Pleistocene, which ended about eleven thousand years before the present, coinciding with the disappearance of extensive glaciation and harsh steppe vegetation; the Early and Middle Holocene, which saw a gradual amelioration of climate and the extension of forest cover over a period of approximately 5,000 years; and the onset of the Late Holocene (approximately 4,500 years before the present), coinciding with the beginning of a period of cooling and drying. During this period (which is, of course, the geologic period in which we live), forests began to retreat and vegetation gradually returned to steppe species.

Cultural periods, like geological periods, do not shift abruptly: change takes time measured in decades if not in cen-turies. Terminology and the timelines by which we graph these periods should be understood as approximate at best, with ends that blur and shift only gradually. Ancient populations of the Eurasian steppe were notoriously fluid—both in space and in ethnic reference. The variety within monument typologies that we can associate with the Bronze Age, for example, and that within rock art of the same broad period indicates that contem-poraneous populations in our study area must have been far more heterogeneous than are acknowledged by single culture names. Unquestionably, the preliminary chronologies presented in the following pages will be disputed by others and modified many times over; they are intended, however, to offer a basic frame-work for giving cultural and chronological order to the materials reviewed in this volume.

Cultural Landscapes, Cultural Change

2.1  Squarekhirigsuur,BronzeAge

Drawing: Lynn-Marie Kara

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M O N G O L I A

RU S S I A

C

HI N A

Standing Stones

63

35

41

52158

170

103

Oigor Gol

Tsagaan Gol

Dayan Nuur

Khoton-Khurgan

Nuur Khovd Gol

Sagsay Gol

Sogoo Gol

Elt Gol

Tsagaan Gol

Drainage basins of major rivers within study area

81 Number of features inventoried in each surveyed basin

M O N G O L I A

RU S S I A

C

HI N A

908

393

386

283

5

271

189

408

17

Late bronze age and early iron age burial mounds

Oigor Gol

Tsagaan Nuur

Tsagaan Gol

Elt Gol

Dayan Nuur

Khoton-Khurgan

Nuur Khovd Gol

Sagsay Gol

Sogoo Gol

121

6845

14

212

62

328

24

Oigor Gol

Tsagaan Gol

Khoton-Khurgan

Nuur Khovd Gol

Sagsay Gol

Dayan Nuur

Elt Gol

Sogoo Gol

M O N G O L I A

RU S S I A

C

HI N A

M O N G O L I A

RU S S I A

C

HI N A

88

100

47

175

51

103115

14Oigor Gol

Tsagaan Nuur

Tsagaan Gol

DayanNuur

Khoton-Khurgan

Nuur Khovd Gol

Sagsay Gol

Sogoo Gol

Elt Gol

A r t , A r c h a e o l o g y , a n d L a n d s c a p e 19

Khirigsuur Standing stones

2.2  Inventoryoffeaturecountswithineachbasin

Mounds Turkic monuments

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Geologic ContextMonument Typologies Anthropomorphic Imagery

Cultural ContextFaunal ImageryCultural Periods

Deer stones

Early Nomadicburial mounds

Dwellings, four-cornered mounds

Heavy moundsMassive standing stones

Turkic, Uigherimage structures

Khirigsuur

Riders, hunting, combat

Camel riders,horse riders

Herding, caravan scenes

Hunting, combat

Figureswith horned headdresses

Carts

“Hero” hunters

Birthing women

Hunters with clubs

Spirit figures

Reindeer

Domesticatedyak

Wild yak

ElkBear

Moose

End wild yak

End stylized deer,

End bearEnd moose, auroch

AurochsOstrichRhinocerosMammoths

Snow leopards

Bactrian camelStylized deer

2,000

2,500

3,000

3,500

4,000

4,500

5,000

6,000

7,000

8,000

9,000

10,000

11,000

12,000

1,000

1,500

ArgaliIbexHorsesAurochs

Geologic Period Temperature/Climate Vegetation Fauna

Paleoenvironmental Context

Cooling

Warming

Cold

Presenttemperatures

Glaciersin retreat

Presentdry conditions

Risinglake levels

Increasedhumidity

Dry, cold

Falling lake levels

Drying

Presentvegetation

Expandingdry steppe

Retreatingforests

Expandingforests

Increasingmesic vegetation

Xeric vegetation

Dry steppe

Snowleopards

Elk

ArgaliIbexWild horse

Aurochs

Bactriancamel

Domesticatedyak

WIld yak

Moose

Bear

Ostrich

Mammoths,rhinoceros

End ostrich

End mammoths,and rhinoceros

End mooseand aurochs

End wild yak

LATE PLEISTOCENE

(PALEOENVIRONMENTAL TRANSITION)

EARLY HOLOCENE

MID-HOLOCENE

LATE HOLOCENE

(PALEOENVIRONMENTAL TRANSITION)

(CULTURAL TRANSITION)

(CULTURAL TRANSITION)

11,000

EARLY IRON AGE

LATE BRONZE AGE

BRONZE AGE

(NEOLITHIC)

MESOLITHIC

PALEOLITHIC

TURKIC PERIOD

1,00

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Inte

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Yea

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IRON AGE

2,000

2,500

3,000

3,500

4,000

4,500

5,000

6,000

7,000

8,000

9,000

10,000

12,000

1,000

1,500

1,00

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ear

Inte

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500

Yea

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A r c h a e o l o g y a n d L a n d s c a p e i n t h e M o n g o l i a n A l t a i20

The end of the Pleistocene and its cold, harsh environ-ment spelled the end of the Paleolithic Period and the disappearance of megafauna that appear in Paleolithic

rock art. The Holocene was characterized by a gradually amelio-rating climate with the consequent spread of forests dominated by larch and spruce throughout the western section of our study area. The cultures of the early and mid-Holocene would have corresponded to the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods; but we do not know how these periods should be dated or even whether such terms apply within the Mongolian Altai. By approximately forty-five hundred years before the present, however, the climate was again becoming drier and colder, forests were retreating, and lake levels falling. Given what we know of the emergence of the Bronze Age across the Eurasian steppe and within North Asia, we are safe in dating its inception to approximately two thousand b.c.e. and its duration into the early first millennium b.c.e. Critical technological developments during this long period included the adoption of wheeled vehicles (probably in the form of heavy carts, 2.9) and, somewhat later, of horse and camel riding (1.24, 1.26). These changes—and particularly the development of riding with its opportunities for large-scale herding—combined with the effects of climate change to create a need for more frequent changes of pasture. The result of these

environmental and cultural shifts was the appearance of a full horse-dependent semi-nomadism.

Dated materials from heavy mounds and from the large structures known as khirigsuur in other parts of the Altai-Sayan uplift, and in north-central Mongolia, suggest that their con-struction began sometime in the mid-Bronze Age and contin-ued through the late Bronze Age. Once again, we do not know how to name the culture or cultures responsible for these and all other Bronze Age monuments in our study area. Judging from the archaeological record in the Minusinsk Basin to the north, the North Asian tradition of erecting massive standing stones may have begun before the Bronze Age; we propose that within our study area, the largest of these stones are Bronze Age in date, though probably not as early as the huge standing stones in the Minusinsk Basin. On the other hand, the imagery on deer stones and certain image stones indicate that they should be dated no earlier than the Late Bronze Age. That period is contemporane-ous with cultures that have been named in other parts of North Asia—the Karasuk Culture, for example, but we cannot say if their contemporaries in our study area should be so named. For that reason, they will here be referred to as people of the Late Bronze Age.

2.3  Concordanceofpaleoenvironmentandculture

Chronology of Ancient Cultures

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Geologic ContextMonument Typologies Anthropomorphic Imagery

Cultural ContextFaunal ImageryCultural Periods

Deer stones

Early Nomadicburial mounds

Dwellings, four-cornered mounds

Heavy moundsMassive standing stones

Turkic, Uigherimage structures

Khirigsuur

Riders, hunting, combat

Camel riders,horse riders

Herding, caravan scenes

Hunting, combat

Figureswith horned headdresses

Carts

“Hero” hunters

Birthing women

Hunters with clubs

Spirit figures

Reindeer

Domesticatedyak

Wild yak

ElkBear

Moose

End wild yak

End stylized deer,

End bearEnd moose, auroch

AurochsOstrichRhinocerosMammoths

Snow leopards

Bactrian camelStylized deer

2,000

2,500

3,000

3,500

4,000

4,500

5,000

6,000

7,000

8,000

9,000

10,000

11,000

12,000

1,000

1,500

ArgaliIbexHorsesAurochs

Geologic Period Temperature/Climate Vegetation Fauna

Paleoenvironmental Context

Cooling

Warming

Cold

Presenttemperatures

Glaciersin retreat

Presentdry conditions

Risinglake levels

Increasedhumidity

Dry, cold

Falling lake levels

Drying

Presentvegetation

Expandingdry steppe

Retreatingforests

Expandingforests

Increasingmesic vegetation

Xeric vegetation

Dry steppe

Snowleopards

Elk

ArgaliIbexWild horse

Aurochs

Bactriancamel

Domesticatedyak

WIld yak

Moose

Bear

Ostrich

Mammoths,rhinoceros

End ostrich

End mammoths,and rhinoceros

End mooseand aurochs

End wild yak

LATE PLEISTOCENE

(PALEOENVIRONMENTAL TRANSITION)

EARLY HOLOCENE

MID-HOLOCENE

LATE HOLOCENE

(PALEOENVIRONMENTAL TRANSITION)

(CULTURAL TRANSITION)

(CULTURAL TRANSITION)

11,000

EARLY IRON AGE

LATE BRONZE AGE

BRONZE AGE

(NEOLITHIC)

MESOLITHIC

PALEOLITHIC

TURKIC PERIOD

1,00

0 Y

ear

Inte

rval

500

Yea

r In

terv

alYe

ars B

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e Pr

esen

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IRON AGE

2,000

2,500

3,000

3,500

4,000

4,500

5,000

6,000

7,000

8,000

9,000

10,000

12,000

1,000

1,500

1,00

0 Y

ear

Inte

rval

500

Yea

r In

terv

alYe

ars B

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A r t , A r c h a e o l o g y , a n d L a n d s c a p e 21

We are on more certain ground with a burial structure and imagery associated firmly with the Eurasian Scythian Cul-ture and dated to the Late Bronze and Early Iron ages—that is, between the eighth and third centuries b.c.e. During that period, there was a gradual shift from the use of bronze to that of iron and thus no clear division between the eponymous ages; nor was there a sudden emergence of the full horse dependency that came to characterize these people. For this reason, the tran-sition period encompassing the Late Bronze and Early Iron ages will also be referred to as the period of the Early Nomads. The Pazyryk phase of this culture, centered in the Russian Altai mountains and dated to the fifth through third centuries b.c.e., is securely rooted in the Iron Age. After that, however, we are faced with renewed uncertainty. The impact of the Hsiung-nu (Xiongnu) confederacy across the eastern steppe does not seem to be reflected in Bayan Ölgiy, and the nature of culture and its archaeological monuments between the Early Iron Age and the Turkic Period is uncertain. Only with Turkic monuments do we return to a solid if still general chronology: sixth through the ninth centuries, with the Uighur hegemony dated to the last century of that period. With the end of the Turkic Period, how-ever, the Altai region seems to have receded from history until the modern period.

2.4  Bearhunt,BronzeAgeThis composition is a window into an ancient hunt when men worked in bands and on foot, with long bows and spears. In this composition, several men surround the animal. Another figure—done more recently?—rushes in from the left, where a piece of the boulder has been knocked off.

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M O N G O L I A

R US S

I A

C

H I N A

KhurganKhoton

Nuur Nuur

Dayan Nuur

TolboNuur

Sagsay Gol

Sogoo Gol Khovd Gol Ölgiy

CH I N A

RU S S I AKAZAKHSTAN

MONGOL I A

A r c h a e o l o g y a n d L a n d s c a p e i n t h e M o n g o l i a n A l t a i22

Rock art is the general term for imagery pecked or painted on natural rock surfaces. In mountainous Bayan Ölgiy aimag, rock art occurs in the open air rather than within

caves; and if there were ever any painted images, they have long since disappeared. The rock art that has survived to the present was pecked-out with heavy stones or sharp metal instruments, using direct or indirect blows. For the first several hundred years after they were executed, the images were white; but over the millennia, most have darkened down from their original appear-ance. Depending on the time of year and the sun’s angle, the images may stand out clearly or disappear from before our eyes.

Within our focus region are located several of the largest and finest concentrations of rock art in North Asia, includ-ing one in the upper Oigor drainage and another within the valley of the upper Tsagaan Gol. A smaller but important site extends over three hills on the north shore of Khoton Nuur and a fourth—unknown until 2005—is located under the east flanks of Tsengel Khairkhan Uul. Aral Tolgoi at the far northwestern end of Khoton Nuur is the smallest of these complexes but the most ancient. In addition to these complexes, many small con-centrations of rock art exist throughout the region. Taken alto-gether, the complexes and sites attest to the desire of ancient Altai inhabitants to represent their world in visual imagery and to do so with an impressively realistic expression.

The rock art of mountainous Bayan Ölgiy includes individ-ual images as well as simple and complex compositions involving up to more than one hundred elements. In some valleys, one finds this material randomly pecked on the surfaces of granitic boul-ders left from the last major glacial advance. This is true within

the upper valley of Khatuugiin Gol, on the massive moraine along Khöltsöötiin Gol, and across the rocky moraine known as Khar Böörög, at the east end of Khurgan Nuur. Rocky outcroppings at the top of high ridges offer the possibility of ancient imagery. Elegant examples exist on the high ridges between the Turegtiin

2.7  Predationscene,LateBronzeAgeThis fine representation of wolves attacking a deer,

from Baga Oigor, appears to have been pecked over another, earlier scene with wild goats.

2.5  Hunter,animals,andbirthingwomen,EarlyBronzeAgeTsagaan Salaa IV. The frontal

hunter with a large weapon and static animals indicate an early date. Two frontal birthing

women, arms raised, are visible in the right-center and may be earlier in date.

2.6  Rockartconcentrations

Rock Art

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A r t , A r c h a e o l o g y , a n d L a n d s c a p e 23

rivers—here so isolated that one asks why gifted artists of the Bronze Age should have chosen to leave their creations there.

Winter dwellings nestled against rocky cliffs may offer clues to the presence of rock art concentrations. The appearance of these modest structures almost always indicates the millennia-old locations of winter habitation sites in protected places; thus the cliffs behind the snug wood and stone huts of today are often marked by rock-pecked images dating back to the Bronze and Early Iron ages. Excellent examples of such sites and their rock art occur in the valleys of Khar Yamaa and Khargantyn Gol.

Ancient artists seem to have preferred the hard, smoothed surfaces of metamorphosed sandstone found along a few high river valleys. This stone has typically been scraped and polished by ancient glaciers and darkened to a deep rose or mahogany hue. The time-hardened surfaces can take fine, dense pecking as well as elegant engraved lines. As a result, the sandstone outcrop-pings in the high Altai valleys contain an extraordinary pictorial record of cultures extending over thousands of years. Among all surface monuments, rock art has a unique character: while it is possible to identify period styles and general cultural markers, we are also regularly struck by the individualizing nature of rep-resentation. In this respect, rock art brings us much closer to a sense of real, if anonymous, individuals from a deep past.

The varied subjects of Altai rock art offer a window into the life and values of the people who lived here over many millen-nia. Large animals in profile dominate rock art from the pre–Bronze Age. They are almost always represented individually, motionless, and lacking any psychological interaction with other images (6.19, 6.22). Early Bronze Age scenes of hunters hold-

ing cudgels and long bows may reflect the emergence of mythic traditions revolving around the heroic hunter (2.5). In rock art datable by style and subject to the middle and late Bronze Age we find many hunting scenes (2.4), but we also find herding scenes, scenes of men driving carts (2.9), and of families cara-vanning from one habitation site to another, their children and household goods packed onto massive yak (3.36). These com-positions reveal developing patterns of transhumance as herd-ing increasingly shaped peoples’ lives. Images of animals racing over the rock surfaces are also typical of the Bronze Age; they are often rendered with a keen sense of grace, delight, and even whimsy. It is striking that elements clearly indicative of a spirit world are remarkably few, and these belong to the Bronze Age or earlier (3.32).

Representations of scenes of combat and early representa-tions of horse and camel riding (1.24, 1.26) can be dated to the Bronze and Early Iron ages. Animal imagery slowly began to reveal a new conventionalization, so that by the middle of the first millennium b.c.e., rock art had lost much of its former vitality. During the Turkic Period, the tradition enjoyed a brief renaissance marked by images of warriors, riders (2.8), and hunt-ing scenes. Thereafter, and for reasons we do not yet understand, rock art was forgotten as a form of collective expression. The work of individual artists also lost its vitality, as if visual represen-tation had been supplanted by some other means of individual creativity. Taken together, however, the materials from the large complexes and small petroglyphic sites of mountainous Bayan Ölgiy constitute, in effect, an extraordinary documentation of time long past.

2.8  Rideronfasthorse,TurkicPeriodThe whitish patina of this image from the Upper Tsagaan Gol Complex indicates that it is not as old as the other images on this page. The rider’s bow, headdress, and style of riding are clear indications of the Turkic Period.

2.9  Cartwithdriver,BronzeAgeThis image from Tsagaan Salaa typifies the mixed perspective with which carts were represented in Bronze Age North Asia. In this case, the wheels are spoked and the reins from the driver’s hands are barely visible as thin lines.

2.10  Hunter,LateBronzeAgeIn this scene from Tsagaan Salaa, the artist has clearly rendered the recurved bow and gorytus (quiver) typical of weaponry developed in the early period of horse riding. Varied patinas indicate images done in successive periods.

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M O N G O L I A

R US S

I A

C

H I N A

KhurganKhoton

Nuur Nuur

Dayan Nuur

TolboNuur

Sagsay Gol

Sogoo Gol Khovd Gol Ölgiy

CH I N A

RU S S I AKAZAKHSTAN

MONGOL I A

A r c h a e o l o g y a n d L a n d s c a p e i n t h e M o n g o l i a n A l t a i24

Seen from a distance, the valleys of the Mongolian Altai seem empty of signs of human culture. One might spy, far off, a cluster of yurts, a single rider, or animals accompa-

nied by a herder meandering up trails to high slopes and ridges. An occasional wooden hut nestled into a hollow against a cliff suggests the potential presence of people, but except in winter such dwellings are empty. In all directions, the view that stretches before us suggests that ancient human cultures must have over-looked this land, discouraged, perhaps, by the harsh wind and cold and by a pitiless summer sun.

With closer examination, the empty landscape begins to reflect life and movement. Marking passes, bordering lakes, and punctuating river terraces are countless stone monuments indicating the paths of ancient peoples. These silent monuments offer a window into a deep past; they enable us to repopulate the ancient Altai.

Of all the monuments, khirigsuur are the largest structures and in many ways the most puzzling. Within the Mongolian Altai, these elaborate, even elegant, constructions are typically found on open plains or on terraces overlooking rivers, singly or in pairs, or even in groups. They range in size from as small as 10 m to greater than 50 m in diameter. Originally their cen-tral mounds were much higher, but with time they have settled, although some retain impressive height (2.11). One kind of khirigsuur is marked by a round or squared surrounding frame (2.17) of low boulders. Radii aligned with the cardinal direc-tions may connect the mound and surrounding wall. A second type, called platform, looks like a flying saucer or a solid pave-ment: its central mound is surrounded by a rounded or squared stone skirt (2.13). These khirigsuur do not, of course, have rays. A third type of khirigsuur can be called a boulder khirigsuur, since the central mound is either replaced by or forms a skirt around a massive, naturally occurring boulder (11.43). Small circular altars constructed with low boulders are usually found on the khirigsuur’s northern, western, and southern perimeters while the eastern edge of the frame may be marked by a kind of entrance, standing stone, or mound.

There is a great variety in the basic structure type: some khi-rigsuur are massive affairs, others low and thin in appearance. Some are made with elegant white or rosy-hued boulders, others with black boulders, and some reflect an interest in a variety of colors. The mounds themselves are often marked by one or more depressions, as if the stones had been purposely cleared, perhaps to allow fire ceremonies.

It is said that the word khirigsuur refers to the Mongolian name for a Kirghiz burial (Khirgis-khuur), but why that term should be applied to this structure type is not clear. The monu-ment type probably came into use sometime around the middle Bronze Age (mid-second millennium b.c.e.) and continued to be built and used into the Early Iron Age (c. 600 b.c.e.). In some regions of Mongolia and the pre-Baykal, khirigsuur were used as

2.11  Massivekhirigsuur,BronzeAgeThe deeply depressed mound of this khirigsuur,

or collared mound, originally rose approximately 3.5 m in height. Small circular altars appear on the

north, west, and east sides, but there is no external frame. The structure is located at the top of a pass

commanding a view of the wide Khovd valley.

2.13  Moundorkhirigsuur,BronzeAgeThe extended skirt of this mound suggests it is a platform khirigsuur. It is the only substantial

structure in the immediate area on a road leading up from Buyant and over to Khargantyn Gol. Its isolated location at a pass suggests an ancient ovoo, a structurededicated to the spirit of the

mountain rather than to a human burial.

MemorialStructures:Bronze Age

2.12  BronzeAgestructures

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simple burials, with the body laid directly under the mound and with few funerary objects. In Tuva, just north of our study region and where a number of spectacular khirigsuur have been exca-vated, there is no evidence they were used for burials. We do not know if the khirigsuur in the Mongolian Altai served as burials or as altars. To date, none here or in the Russian Altai have been excavated. It is easier to guess the function of the small circular altars around the khirigsuur. Excavations have revealed that for thousands of years they were used for burned offerings.

The khirigsuur is not the only structure type that can be associated with the Bronze Age. Throughout our study region, we find a distinctive kind of stone mound composed of piles of sharp talus or heavy boulders (2.16). These structures are found individually on high points of land, along terraces, or spread in large numbers across elevated slopes. Curiously, most studies of Altai monuments have ignored these mounds, yet their num-bers, the massiveness of their construction, and their locations suggest they were connected to ceremonies relating to death. Perhaps because of the immovability of their settled stones, the mounds rarely have central depressions. If they were used as burials, the individual was probably laid directly on the surface of the ground and covered with boulders—much as one finds in the case of isolated herders’ burials today. It is also possible that these mounds were the sites of sky burials or were used to commemorate sky burials on the cliffs above. If that were the case, then these mounds would more appropriately be consid-ered funerary altars or cenotaphs. Whatever their function, we are certain they are much earlier than the Early Iron Age because their form does not match any known for post–Bronze Age cul-tures in this part of Asia.

Scattered throughout the Mongolian Altai are small groups of structures squared in form with unusual boulders of contrast-ing coloration marking their four corners and centers (2.14). Known as four-cornered mounds, these structures are usually aligned to the cardinal directions. Few have been excavated, but there is sufficient evidence to indicate they were Bronze Age burials; and for all the beauty of the stones with which the sur-face structures were constructed, it seems that the dead were laid in simple, shallow pits with minimal grave goods.

Another poorly understood structure, here called dwelling, takes the form of a rectangular or rounded pattern laid out on

the surface of the earth in white, grey, and black stones (2.15). Such patterns sometimes occur in great numbers, consistently oriented east to west and marked by entrances at both ends. Standing boulders outside the east entrance indicate the par-ticular significance of that direction. Double walls and interior hearths call to mind present-day winter dwellings with chinked log and plank walls (1.19). There is no evidence these structures were ever used for underground burials; they may rather have been intended to represent dwellings for the dead in the next world. What happened to the bodies of the deceased is a mys-tery; one must again consider the possibility that the dead were given sky burials, perhaps in the cliffs that so often loom behind or above the fields of dwellings. By reference to images of dwell-ings in rock art of the Bronze Age, we can hypothesize that these patterns belong to the same period. Also to this period must date the curious long lines that so frequently stretch for many meters from the dwellings down to the river below, or up to a mountain ridge, or in the direction of a sacred mountain. We can surmise that these lines somehow anchored the dwellings to a significant zone of transition: that they functioned in some way to assist the dead to travel to the realm of the spirits.

2.14  Four-corneredmound,BronzeAgeThis mound is one of several on the high north side of the Sogoo valley. Still visible are fine white stones in the center and large corner stones of contrasting color.

2.15  Dwellingsandlines,BronzeAgeThe dwellings in this group within the middle Tsagaan Gol valley are made from white and black stones. To the west they face out to the sacred mountain, Shiveet Khairkhan, visible in the center background. On the left can be seen some of the stone lines that also extend in that direction.

2.16  Oldmound,BronzeAgeThis mound above Khöltsöötiin Gol is typical of so many in the Mongolian Altai: rough, earthed-over, and located high above the river with a view shed to the east and west. At some point in the millennia since it was built, the huge boulder poised on the mound rolled down from the cliff to the north.

2.17  Squarekhirigsuur,BronzeAgeThis fine platform khirigsuur, approximately 14 m on each side, stands on a terrace over Khöltsöötiin Gol, its east side oriented to Sagsay Gol below, its west side to the sacred mountain, Tsengel Khairkhan Uul.

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MemorialStructures:Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages

Some Bronze Age structure types may have continued to be built well into the Early Iron Age. An example is a kind of thin khirigsuur frequently found in the vicinity of

Early Iron Age burial mounds and occasionally involving a complex group of altars unlike anything easily related to Bronze Age monuments.

There are other structure types of which the functions, like their date, also remain unclear. These include a curious circular monument surrounded by a wall of standing flat slabs slanting in toward the center (2.19). They may also include small paved structures sometimes associated with certain khirigsuur (2.23). Several structures are reminiscent of burial types reported in adja-cent Altai-Sayan regions, but their identification in the Mongolian Altai is uncertain.

We are on more secure ground with the burial mounds of the Early Iron Age (sixth through third centuries b.c.e.). These are usually arranged in irregular rows of two to eight or more mounds extending roughly from north to south (2.22). Rows of standing stones (balbal) may extend from the mounds to the east for a distance of up to 30 meters (2.20) and small altars of grey boulders and black standing slabs often occur on the west side of the mounds (2.21). Excavations of mounds through-out the Altai-Sayan region have revealed wooden chambers in which the dead were placed either in larch coffins or directly on the south side of the chamber floor, their heads to the east and their faces to the north. They were laid out with their household goods, their finest clothing and even horses—as if prepared for life in the next world and for the journey there. In the high Altai, the stone mounds of some burials have created a subsoil lens of permafrost that has effectively preserved the organic mate-rials in deeply buried, wooden chambers. Despite a few well- publicized excavations of frozen burials, however, the vast major-

ity of these chambers were plundered in antiquity. Others are curiously empty: built but never used, marked on the surface of the ground by their stone mounds. These burials are associ-ated with what is sometimes referred to as the Scythian Period culture of early nomads, or the Pazyryk Culture—the culture of the Scythian Period specific to the Altai region. However one names the culture responsible for these burials, they all belong to a relatively limited era.

2.18  LateBronzeandEarlyIronAgestructures

2.19  Collaredmound,LateBronzeAge(?)This structure, one of two above the left bank of Nutsgenii Gol, is unusual within our region and has no clear, published analogies in neighboring regions. It has a diameter of approximately 10 m.

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2.20  Burialmounds,EarlyNomadicPeriodOne long row of balbal stretches to the east from sunken burial mounds on the left bank of Sagsay Gol.

2.21  Altar,EarlyNomadicPeriodWithin this altar from Tsagaan Asgat, the round, light-colored boulders on the west are river stones; the standing black slabs on the east are mountain stones. This color pattern regularly recurs in altars accompanying burials of the Early Iron Age. It suggests a concern for a symbolic integration, perhaps of mountains and rivers, deemed essential at death.

2.22  Burialsmounds,EarlyNomadicPeriodA row of five deeply sunken burial mounds on the left bank of Chigirtein Gol is seen here from the north, looking south to Dzhalangash Uul. On the right (west side) one of the typical altars associated with Early Iron Age burials in the Altai is visible.

2.23  Circularstructure,LateBronzeAge(?)The fine circular structure, with a diameter of 11 m, is made of carefully placed light and dark stones. It is one of several altar-like forms surrounding a thin khirigsuur at Tsagaan Asgat. Its date is uncertain.

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Standing Stones Moving from broad valleys into side draws or travel-ing over high ridges, the traveler frequently thinks he sees another person standing quietly in the distance.

Only on closer inspection is that figure revealed as a large stand-ing stone. These monoliths vary in size but may be of massive proportions, and the material from which they are carved is often of unusual quality and color. Over the millennia, many have fallen, but originally they were oriented with their sides to the four quarters. Deer stones are a particular kind of standing stone, named for the images of deer and other animals often pecked on their surfaces. A deer stone is typically carved with round earrings on the sides of its head, a necklace of beads, and a belt and hanging weapons (2.27). More rarely a human face explicitly conveys the stone’s anthropomorphic reference (2.28). Deer stones usually occur singly, but in one instance just above Tsengel there are two tall stones, one with a muted human face (5.11). At the famous site of Tsagaan Asgat, there are more than eighty standing stones or fallen fragments (7.5).

Whatever the size of the standing stones, they all con-jure human figures; in the case of deer stones, that reference was clearly intended and expressed. Scholars have traditionally divided North Asian deer stones into three broad stylistic types roughly associated with north, central Mongolia, Tuva, and the Russian Altai. Within the Mongolian Altai, however, these stone types are often found in unusual combinations, suggesting the constant mix of populations within this large region.

The dating of standing stones will always be approximate and dependent on size, number, location, the stones’ proximity to other datable monuments, and the elements carved on the stones’ surfaces. With those criteria in mind, we may propose the following schema. Massive standing stones, always set within frames and often accompanied on their east sides by small cir-cular altars, must have been erected in the Bronze Age. On the basis of the carvings on their sides and by comparison with deer

stones from other regions, those of the Mongolian Altai can con-fidently be dated to the Late Bronze and Early Iron ages. The latest standing stone type can be easily dated to the Early Iron Age. Smaller than the massive Bronze Age stones but larger than later Turkic balbal, these stones—also called balbal—appear in rows that stretch to the east from Early Iron Age burial mounds (2.20). Within the Mongolian Altai, these stones are frequently shaped with the high, narrow face to the east. Their coloration and richly textured mineralization recall stylized deer in flight. They are certainly the last of the deer stone tradition.

2.24  Standingstones

2.25  Standingstones,BronzeAgeWithin this group on the right bank of the Khar

Yamaa, there were originally four or more standing stones, but over the centuries at least one has

toppled and broken. The rectangular enclosing frame has also been disrupted, perhaps as a result

of the trampling of animals rubbing their backs against the stones. These impressive monoliths,

seen here from the southwest, are set within a wide valley, easily visible from a great distance.

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2.26  Leaningstones,BronzeAgeSet within a still clear frame, this finely quarried pair of stones, each approximately 1.10 m tall, is essentially hidden from view in a small draw on the north side of Chigirtein Nuur. Originally the stones stood erect, but over the millennia one has slumped back against the other. The stones are seen here from the northeast.

2.27  Deerstone,LateBronzeorEarlyIronAgeThis small deer stone in the Upper Tsagaan Gol Complex is of the Altai type: it lacks animal imagery but is carved with a beaded necklace, round earrings, and three parallel slashes to indicate a human face. The dark grey stone is unusual in being covered on its east side with drilled concavities, often referred to as cup marks. The stone faces east within a large ritual site on the left bank of Tsagaan Salaa.

2.28  Imagestone,LateBronzeAgeThe high side of this stone is carved with a now-muted human face, but other than its shape there are no elements that allow it to be identified as a deer stone. Alone, facing to the east, and with a height of 1.3 m, the stone is located within a high, closed draw sloping down to Sogoo Gol, for all appearances the master of its hidden valley.

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Turkic Monuments The most visible monuments associated with the Türks

include burial mounds, rectilinear altars called enclo-sures, and a variety of standing stones, including small

balbal, false image stones, and true image stones. Turkic burials take the form of mounds (2.29) usually greater in height and less earthed-over than the much older mounds of the Early Iron Age. Not infrequently one can find a wooden stake, or what looks like the base of a tree, protruding from the west or north side of the mound. This is all that remains of what may have been a pole carrying the flayed body of a horse—a virtual steed for the person buried beneath the mound. Within mountainous Bayan Ölgiy, the most curious aspect of Turkic burial mounds is that they are so infrequently encountered. This circumstance suggests that here the dead were disposed of in some other manner than burial, their lives and deaths rather than their bodies memorial-ized through the ubiquitous enclosures.

Turkic enclosures (2.33) are box-like structures defined by long slabs laid on their sides and abutting at the enclosure’s cor-ners. The space within the enclosure is piled with light-colored boulders and dark slabs. The enclosures may occur individually or in groups of between two and seven. In many cases, their dif-ferent sizes suggest memorial structures for a family or a group of related individuals. Their sides are always roughly aligned with the cardinal directions; often there will be a row of small balbal extending to the east (11.116). Less common are enclosures sur-rounded by a low trench and an outer dike. These forms are certainly the remains of more elaborate memorial structures.

2.29  Burial,TurkicPeriodWithin the Mongolian Altai, Turkic burial mounds are

relatively infrequent. They may appear individually or in clustered groups. This mound in the Elt basin

has the remains of a wooden post protruding from its west side. Small mounds of boulders lost in

deep grass around the large mound suggest the remains of followers of the individual buried here.

2.30  Turkicmemorials

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Excavations of enclosures in the Russian Altai and Tuva have revealed the presence of central pits within which may be found the remains of a lower tree trunk. The placement of a larch pole within the pit has suggested that the Turkic memorial rituals also involved erecting a virtual tree that may have represented the axis between this world and the next or perhaps the path along which the dead person’s soul was conducted from this world to the land of the spirits. Bones of sheep and horses and occasional finds of silver cups also indicate that funerary rites involved burned offer-ings and drinking ceremonies.

In addition to the lines of small balbal, a larger standing stone or a stone partially or fully carved to represent a man often stands outside the east frame of the enclosure or within the enclosure but facing east (2.32). Uncarved standing stones or stones carved in the most rudimentary way are substitutes for true image stones (2.33), but the fully carved image stones are among the most interesting of all Altai antiquities. They range from crude to detailed and refined. Hundreds of such figures are known from Tuva, Russian Altai, and Mongolia. Within mountainous Bayan Ölgiy, scholars have recorded more than 115, most still in their original positions. The images are typi-cally carved with mustaches and small beards, ears and fine ear-

2.31  Stoneimage,UighurPeriodThis fine image, discussed in the chapter on Sagsay Gol, typifies the Uighur image type. Its head is massive, its expression solemn; its heavy body, dressed in a long robe, faces out to the east. With both hands the image holds a vessel in front of its chest. The figure looks out over a rocky plain as if affirming his ancient authority.

2.32  Imagestone,TurkicPeriodThis figure is one of four standing together in a large ritual site. The bird guano covering its head does not hide the fine carving, particularly of the man’s arms and hands. With a height of 0.90 m, he faces east. Upper Tsagaan Gol.

2.33  Enclosuresandfalseimagestone,TurkicPeriodThese two enclosures from Khargantyn Gol typify the structure type, with heavy slab walls and interiors filled by boulders and broken slabs. In this case the southernmost enclosure is fronted on its east side by a roughly shaped standing stone—a false image stone. The view here is to the northwest.

rings, large collared and belted jackets, and small purses on their right hips. With his right hand, each figure holds a goblet in front of his chest while his left hand clasps a sword hanging from his belt. At their most impressive, the images are solemn and compelling, gazing steadfastly to the east. The figures associated with the late Turkic, or Uighur, Period are similar to those of the Türks but with decisive differences: they are not associated with enclosures and their figure type is more massive than that of the Türks (2.31). Typically, they wear long Central Asian robes, and with both hands they hold large vessels before their chests.

There is general agreement that the Turkic images must rep-resent honored dead, but the meaning of the balbal that extend to the east before them is less certain. Some argue, on the basis of old Turkic texts, that balbal refer to specific enemies slain by the deceased warrior; others argue that they refer to a generic enemy and indicate an abstract honoring of the dead.

In the case of the Turkic and Uighur materials, as with those of much earlier periods, within each specific typology we find sig-nificant variations in both style and quality. Clearly the cultural norm was constantly subjected to individual creative impulses that we can perceive even if we cannot identify the individual or lineage responsible for that innovation.

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Monuments in the Landscape

2.34  Standingstones,BronzeAgeWhen closely approached, these stones—a little over

1.0 m in height—can be seen to frame the snowy mountain, Shiveet Khairkhan, rising at the west

end of Tsagaan Gol valley. Seen from a greater distance, as here, the side valley within which the

stones are located and the round altars on their east are clearly visible.

Just as archaeological monuments reveal significant space through their directional orientations, so their locations suggest ancient understandings of important landmarks in

their physical world. This spatial imperative conveys an expres-sive depth that cannot be understood by simple drawings of the monuments themselves, nor is it revealed to the viewer by look-ing only at the monuments. It is rather essential that we look away from the monument, out at the surrounding landscape, and particularly in the direction indicated by the monument’s orientation. In doing so, we begin to sense that monuments were deliberately placed in relationship to specific rivers and their flows, to snow-crested ridges and mountains. The monument seems to borrow the power of the physical feature or to set up a reverberation of reference between the eternal, natural element and the time-bound, human-erected stones. This recurring rela-tionship between monument and physical feature becomes obvi-ous to the observer in the field; it can be recreated in a virtual form by photography and through the delineation of the monu-ment’s view shed.

Regular principles of placement and view shed are partic-ularly apparent in the case of massive standing stones. This is exemplified by a pair of standing stones in a hidden draw along the Tsagaan Gol (2.34). The stones are fronted on the east by three circular altars; to the west they frame the sacred moun-tain Shiveet Khairkhan. Further to the west, a stone erected high above the valley floor and invisible from below directs one’s attention east and downriver (2.37). An impressive example of

2.35  Viewshedfromstandingstonesin2.34(viewlookingwest)

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an extended view shed is offered by two stones, one now fallen, above the left bank of Mogoityn Gol (2.38). The stone pair was raised in a high, closed draw, off any track or trail. But the stones look out over the large plain of Ketnes, with its huge khirigsuur quite visible in the distance, and beyond to the glaciated ridge at the border of China, on the south.

In the case of khirigsuur, the view shed often becomes circu-lar and the shape of the monument echoes that of the mountain-encircled plain in which it is found. This effect is clearly visible in the case of the large khirigsuur scattered over Ketnes (9.15). A somewhat different kind of view shed is offered by a fine khirig-suur at the confluence of Khovd and Godon gol (2.36). This round structure marks that confluence as significant; tipped to the south on its slope, it directs our attention to the high peaks on the south side of Khurgan Nuur, thus joining confluence to distant mountains.

By contrast to Bronze Age monuments, Turkic memorial enclosures are bound, above all, to the easterly direction and not to large features in the landscape. Occasionally, however, east coincides with an unusually impressive physical feature and the memorial structure seems to take advantage of that spot to bor-row added meaning.

2.36  Roundkhirigsuur,LateBronzeAgeThis khirigsuur at the confluence of Godon and Khovd gol shifts our attention to the south and to Öndör Khairkhan Uul, one of the highest peaks on the Chinese border.

2.37  Standingstone,BronzeAgeLocated on a high and protected terrace above Tsagaan Salaa, this stone is virtually invisible unless approached from above. However, the stone seems to have been placed with careful intention, for it looks directly east down to Shiveet Khairkhan and the glacial stream that feeds Tsagaan Gol.

2.38  Standingstones,BronzeAgeOne of these two massive stones has now fallen and the frame is broken, but the view from the site is spectacular. In the far mid-ground are visible several large khirigsuur on Ketnes. The high mountains at the Chinese border rise in the distance. The standing stone measures 1.38 m, the fallen stone measures 1.65 m.

2.39  Viewshedfromstandingstonesin2.38,lookingsouth

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Monuments Within Space

2.40  Oldcircle,BronzeAge(?)This muted circle, set on a high terrace on the east face of the

sacred mountain, Shiveet Khairkhan, may have been constructed in the Bronze Age. It seems

intended to carry our attention out to the east and the flow of the milky Tsagaan Gol.

2.41  Squarekhirigsuur,BronzeAgeSet within the large plain known as Ketnes and

surrounded by mountains, the round mound of the khirigsuur is contrasted by its squared frame.

At each of the four corners, small altars reaffirm the cardinal directions.

2.42  Standingstones,BronzeAge These four massive stones, each of varying

coloration, are set within a rectangular frame oriented from north to south. Not only do the

stones insist on the four directions, they also point down slope to a number of large khirigsuur and

beyond to the marshy valley of the middle Khovd.

The surface structures and standing stones reviewed in these pages encode ancient understandings of meaning-ful space. Even if we cannot say for certain what those

understandings were, analogies with other elaborate spatial dia-grams allow us to infer that they were intended and loaded with cultural significance.

A round khirigsuur obviously has no specific spatial orien-tation: with or without rays, it suggests a concern for the pos-sibility of infinite extension from the center (2.46). With the addition of rays to the four quarters, circularity is integrated with the indication of earthly directionality. When the khirigsuur is squared (2.41), the same integration occurs through the cen-tral mound and external frame. As a whole, the khirigsuur thus becomes a supreme sacred diagram; by analogy to later Chinese or Tibetan formulations, it suggests a deliberate figurative join-ing of Heaven and Earth, of eternal and delimited time. When an entrance, standing stone, or altar is added on the east side of the frame (11.25), one senses that the cosmic integration of cir-cle and square has been qualified, and that the direction east car-ried some overriding importance with reference to the afterlife.

Variations on these themes may be expressed in the heavy mounds with collars and adjoining altars (4.12, 11.26) as well as in the four-cornered mounds of the Bronze Age. Massive standing stones set within rectangular frames offer a somewhat different spatial configuration (2.42). Stones and frames affirm the four cardinal directions, but when there are multiple stones together, they add an insistence on a north-south axis as well as on the vertical axis implicating infinite extension above and below. Deer stones reflect a similarly encoded space, but they insist on east as the dominant direction (7.5). With the rows of

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burial mounds from the Early Iron Age (2.43), we find an even greater complication of familiar patterns. The rounded mounds recall the circularity affirmed by the khirigsuur, but their spatial distribution indicates an ancient preoccupation with the polarity of north and south. That axial order is balanced by the altars on the west side of the mounds and the balbal extending to the east. The regularly recurring layout of mounds and their adjacent ele-ments indicates that each direction must have had its own mean-ing within the cosmology of the Early Nomads, and that east was probably related to renewal, and west and north to death.

2.43  Burialmounds,EarlyNomadicPeriodThere are seventeen burials within this long line of mounds extending from north to south on the sloping terrace of Khara Zharyg. On the west side of the mounds are visible several altars of black and white stones. A single line of black balbal extends to the east from one of the more northern mounds, right background.

2.44  Image,enclosure,andbalbal,TurkicPeriodThis memorial grouping is located in the valley of Sogoo Gol. The simple image looks out to the east and toward the sacred mountain, Khuren Khairkhan Uul.

2.45  Thinkhirigsuurandaltars,BronzeAgeThe mound and paved disk of the khirigsuur are so low that they are difficult to distinguish. Outside the disk one can see some of the altars indicated in the diagram on the right, as well as modern Kazakh burials and a large khirigsuur mound in the background.

When we come to the memorial enclosures, images, and balbal of the Turkic Period, it is certain that the cosmos was con-ceived in terms of the orderly extension of the four quarters and that east—the direction toward which the images face and the balbal extend (2.44)—must have been associated with a prin-ciple of renewal. The diagram encoded in the Turkic memorial structures suggests an understanding of the cosmos in terms that were bound to principles of order and delimitation and within which the infinite cosmic extension expressed in the khirigsuur was eschewed.

2.46  Diagramofkhirigsuur,BronzeAgeThe disposition of a variety of altars around a thin khirigsuur (2.45) demonstrates the extreme sense of spatial organization embedded in many of the ancient monuments.

Drawing: Lynn-Marie Kara