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The ritual monuments of northeast Asia are a physical manifestation and reflection of some

often the only physical evidence of ancient activity on the surface, so being able to formulate hypothetical relationships between ritual and domestic spaces may help future researchers to select field sites and build predictive models that more accurately address their research questions.

In many cases, the monuments are built in areas that are unsuitable for habitation because of their slope or exposure to the elements, and so these two types of use-areas do not overlap.

While prominent as potential territory markers on the landscape, it would be difficult to live in these areas and so the monuments might act to signal to passing individuals and groups the territorial claims of the groups who chose to live for logistical reasons in the more hidden, sheltered locals of the basin.

In other cases, however, they may occupy the same area on the landscape, thus representing a palimpsest of occupation and ritual space. This may at times be contemporary, sometimes inducing remembrance and reverence via the monuments of ancestors or previous inhabitants of the region, and probably sometimes accidental or without clear association to the wider significance of the ritual landscape.

Thin artifact scatters were located in the vicinity of monument clusters. These deposits were so thin that further research will need to be done to determine their nature, that is, whether they can be attributed to domestic activity, ritual activity, or some other process. In other regions of Mongolia, domestic sites have been found near smaller ritual sites such as small Khirigsuurs and slope burials. However, artifacts other than bone offerings and occasionally a human burial are rarely found within these monuments. Khirigsuurs and Deer Stones are typically devoid of ceramics or metal goods suggesting that the domestic and ritual spaces are clearly separated spatially.

Monuments remain a visible part of the landscape, while activity areas of other types are more obscured soon after they are abandoned. Though it is true that there may have been social memory regarding where ancestors and former inhabitants lived, the impact of this kind of activity on the landscape is more subtle. Therefore, in the following maps (Figure 49, Figure 50, Figure 51, and Figure 52), the monumental landscape develops and remains visible while the artifact scatters appear and disappear with each period to explore the relationships of occupation areas and monuments in a historical way.

Figure 49: EBA/MBA Sherds and Monuments

monument was located just south of the western side of the systematic project area (Figure 49). It is possible that other monuments from this period exist among the remaining ‘unknown period’

monuments. All Early and Middle Bronze Age ceramics are restricted to a single draw on the western side of the systematic project area, as well as in and near the EBA burial (though these latter contexts were not part of the systematic survey). More on this distribution will be presented below (Section 6.4). It is possible that activity areas and monuments are spatially related, though more examples would have to be identified to strengthen this claim.

Figure 50: LBA Sherds and Monuments from the EBA through LBA

Late Bronze Age sherds and monuments are spread throughout the systematic project area (Figure 50). Clusters of both exist, and sometimes are situated in the same general area, although this is not always the case. The densest monument clusters do not occur near the densest ceramic clusters. Conversely, some LBA sherd scatters are not located near any monuments whatsoever. The location of monuments at this scale does not appear to be influencing, or to be influenced by, occupation or other types of activity areas. The draw with EBA/MBA activity does contain an LBA monument cluster at its mouth and clusters of LBA sherds, perhaps indicating its continued importance.

Figure 51: Xiongnu Sherds and Monuments from the EBA through Xiongnu Period

The only confirmed Xiongnu monuments lie along the far western edge of the systematic project area (Figure 51). Xiongnu sherds, however, are not similarly constricted. They are found throughout the project area. Monuments of the Xiongnu period do not appear to be heavily influencing the spatial location of other types of activities, including habitation. The location of these monuments is, once again, on the western edge of the systematic project area perhaps indicating its continued importance.

Figure 52: Turkic and Later Period Sherds and Monuments from the EBA through Medieval Period

Turkic monuments are densely clustered in the south-central portion of the systematic project area along the northern shore of Targan Nuur (Figure 52). Turkic and later period sherds

are not located near this cluster with a single exception. Thus, it appears that in this period there is a clear delineation between ritual/monumental space and domestic/other types of activity areas.

The two examples of obvious Medieval period monuments are cliff burials located near tree lines along the western edge of the project area (Figure 52). Unfortunately, Medieval period ceramics were not collected (common practice in Mongolia) and so they cannot be correlated to other activities. However, they were located in areas unsuitable for occupation high on steep slopes at the bases of cliffs. They are once again along the western edge of the systematic project area, perhaps reinforcing the importance of this ridge or corridor diachronically.

It is important to note that the observed correlations (or lack of depending on the period) would surely be different when placed into a larger context beyond the scale of the systematic project area. The project area was selected in a region with a relative abundance of LBA monuments when compared with the surrounding region (Section 4.1). However, it’s possible that at a larger scale, monuments are impacting settlement location (or vice versa). Future research in regions with relatively few monuments will have to be conducted to determine the validity of this hypothesis.