This initial project investigates sacred landscapes in central Mongolia and different modes of digging into the earth, as well as the reactions to them from different perspectives. The team of anthropologists and archaeologists organizes workshops and conducts joint field research at selected sites. These sites include the ruins of the historic Uyghur capital Khara Balgas located in the Orkhon Valley and the ruins of Balgas in Tsagaan sum. Both sites were visited by the Austrian research-traveller Hans Leder in 1899. His descriptions of the area will be compared with the present state and local knowledge of the sites. Due to local ontologies and the traditional belief in spirits or masters of the land, people are reluctant to intrude into the soil, as this might anger the spirits. The project asks and documents how excavations at these sites and mineral extractions in the area are perceived by the local inhabitants, who mainly live as mobile herders in yurts near the sites.

Kooperationen:
Institute for History and Ethnology of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences (MAS), Department of Anthropology and Archaeology of the National University of Mongolia (NUM)

Projektmitarbeiter:
Erdenebold Lhagvasuren (MAS)
Tsetsentsolmon Baatarnaran (NUM)
Tugsbuyan Bayarbat (NUM)
Lhagvademchig Jadamba (NUM)
 

Finanzierung:
EPU 15/2024;BMFWF /Eurasia Pacific Uninet (EPU)/OeAD; ÖAW