CONFIRMED SPEAKERS:

Sabine Barles, Nikolaus Boroffka, Sybil Derrible, Nicola Di Cosmo, Marie Favereau, Michael Frachetti, Bryan K. Hanks, Arnulf Hausleiter, Achim Lichtenberger, Ulrich Müller, Stephanie Pincetl, Sören Stark, PIs of DFG FOR-5438

Our third field season proved to be again very busy with almost all subprojects being present in Mongolia simultaneously! Together with SP 3 and SP 8, SP 1 endeavoured to our second comparative study area in the Khanui valley, where they took new aerial imagery (RGB and multispectral), and corings for environmental archives in a lake nearby the Mongol period city of Khar Khul Khaany Balgas. This year, SP 1 and 3 joined forces again to conduct excavations in two compounds in the habitation site of Bayan Gol.

The team also dug a series of trenches within the agricultural field systems identified through remote sensing that were further investigated by SP 5 with support by Stefan Pätzold, Bonn University. SP 6 concluded their excavation of the massive burial mound in the cemetery north of the Karakorum city wall, uncovering intricate burial architecture and the remains of several adult and children’s inhumations. As in the previous campaigns, it was SP 7’s fate to be secluded in Ulaanbaatar to manage the extraordinary number of animal bones collected from the cultural layers in the middle of Karakorum during previous excavations.

Our second field season in Mongolia continued right where we left off during the first season in the previous year. Apart from being the main point of contact for the French film team who accompanied us this season, SP 1 dedicated time to ground truth sites discovered through desktop surveys of satellite imagery and aerial flight data. SP 2 focused on the excavation of the production site at Zharantai Gol, the team only discovered the year before through the meticulous pedestrian survey efforts. Prior to excavation, SP 4 joined the team for one week to conduct magnetic measurements of the site, which proved invaluable for choosing and setting out our excavation areas. SP 3 complemented their existing database of drone imagery (both RGB and multispectral) on sites from the Orkhon valley to obtain comparative datasets from different times of the year. 

In November 2023, all members of the Research Group were reunited for the first time after the official start of the project for a meeting in Bonn. The meeting kicked-off with a keynote lecture by the geographer Michael Klinge from the Georg-August University Göttingen, who talked about “Geomorphological evidence from sediments as archives of climate change and human influence on landscape evolution in the northern Khangai Mountains, Mongolia”, which led us right into the heart of our subject. 

All PIs reported on the progress of their individual projects, which provided the basis for discussing further steps and plans for the upcoming field seasons.

The Research Group embarks on its exciting first fieldwork season in Mongolia! SP 1 and 2 combined forces to carry out a pedestrian survey in the area between Doityn Balgas, Ögödei Khan’s Spring Palace, and the center of Ögii Nuur to the north. During this survey, the team identified 71 previously unknown sites, one of which – located near Doityn Balgas along the Zharantai River – stood out as particularly promising. This site was selected for further investigation in the following year. Meanwhile, SP 3 joined the team in the Orkhon Valley to conduct aerial surveys over key research areas, utilizing both conventional photography and multispectral documentation. SP 5 also participated in the Orkhon Valley fieldwork, gathering initial soil samples from building platforms at the two settlements of Baga Nariin Am and Sarlag Tolgoi.