Customs, rites, and sacrifices relating to a mortuary complex in Late Bronze Age Mongolia (Tsatsyn Ereg, Arkhangai)

Abstract

Customs, rites, and sacrifices relating to a mortuary complex in Late Bronze AgeMongolia (Tsatsyn Ereg, Arkhangai) art. 54 (15) -

Season of death of domestic horses deposited in a ritual complex from Bronze Age Mongolia: Insights from oxygen isotope time-series in tooth enamel

“…To the west, the complex is flanked by four stone circles, aligned over a length of 14 metres (ST 68 to 71). Their diameter varies from 1.6 to 2 m. Although stone circles generally yield burnt bones and teeth of caprines (Broderick et al, 2014(Broderick et al, , 2016Lepetz et al, 2019), these four were empty. To the east, and aligned over a length of 30 m, are seven mounds (ST 61 to 67) of 1.7 to 2 m in diameter, each delimiting a central space of about 1.3 to 1.5 m and each yielding horse remains.…”

“…In contrast, ST 66 yielded a single skull, with no mandible and no other bones. This can be interpreted as the deposition of dry skeletal parts, indicating that the slaughter and deposition were not necessarily synchronous (Lepetz et al, 2019). At the large khirgisuur (B10) of Tsatsiin Ereg (central Mongolia) the presence of isolated skeletal elements under the mounds, including skulls without mandibles, and the association of skulls and mandibles belonging to different individuals, indicate that in some cases the remains must have come from horses killed several months before deposition (Lepetz et al, 2019).…”

“…The KDS complexes are abundant in central Mongolia but can also be found as far away from there as the foothills of the Altai. They are characterised by stone monuments (tombs or deer stones) and are usually surrounded by circular or rectangular enclosures, which are, in turn, surrounded by stone circles and stone mounds (Allard and Erdenebaatar, 2005;Fitzhugh, 2009;Lepetz et al, 2019;Wright, 2007). The stone circles often contain charred bones of domestic animals, most often caprines.…”

“…This importance is perceptible through the height and diameter of the central mound, the quality and number of the deer stones, the size of the enclosure, and, above all, the number of mounds and circles, and thus the quantity of animals involved in the ceremonies. While the gestures leading to these accumulations have been interpreted as marks of homage to ancestors, whether real or mythical, as well as to deities (Fitzhugh, 2009;Lepetz et al, 2019), the arrangement of the heads around the grave and the direction toward which they are oriented evoke the image of horses pulling the khirgisuur, and thus echo the Altai rock art representations of a cart used to transport the deceased (Jacobson-Tepfer, 2012; Lepetz et al, 2019).…”

“…At the scale of the deposit, the remains of horses do not appear to come from animals that were all killed on site and immediately covered with stones. Indeed, while some of the horse parts were deposited fresh, shortly after slaughter, other parts were probably deposited at least several months later (Lepetz et al, 2019). This possible disconnection between the date of slaughter and the date of deposition also raises the question of the season of site frequentation and the ritual calendar, which remains totally unknown today.…”