Rock Art and Archaeology in the Mongolian Altai, Part 1

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Steppe by Steppe: Advances in the Archaeology of Eastern Eurasia" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Petroglyph research and archaeology provide different avenues into the past. Commonly viewed as distinct disciplines, they have looked ill-suited to integration (Jacobson 2023). This specific task, however, was a focus of a National Endowment for the Humanities-supported field project conducted by East Tennessee State University and the Smithsonian Institution in Western Mongolia’s Altai Mountains. Khoton Lake is ideally suited for this study because its glacially polished surfaces produced a suitable lithology for image-making dating from the Upper Paleolithic to the present. Carvings are often associated physically with mortuary monuments and other ritual or ceremonial features. This paper demonstrates how the combined study of rock art and dirt archaeology broadens understandings derived from each field independently. Here we discuss (1) direct links comprised of pictorial elements engraved on archaeological monuments and features; (2) dating methods that facilitate the identification of petroglyphs and petroglyph-types with archaeological periods or cultures; and (3) how our understanding of Central Asian culture history can be advanced by combining art historical and scientific approaches.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Steppe by Steppe: Advances in the Archaeology of Eastern Eurasia   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 41480.0