Turkic enclosures of the Mongolian Altai: new data on the traditions of the ritual practices of nomads in the Early Middle Ages

Tishkin, Alexey A. and Seregin, Nikolay N. (2022) Turkic enclosures of the Mongolian Altai: new data on the traditions of the ritual practices of nomads in the Early Middle Ages. In: Hadak útján. A népvándorláskor kutatóinak XXIX. konferenciája. Budapest, 2019. november 15–16. 29th. MŐK Kiadványok 4.1; Studia ad Archaeologiam Pazmaniensia 24.1 . Bölcsészettudományi Kutatóközpont Magyar Őstörténeti Kutatócsoport, Pázmány Péter Katolikus Egyetem BTK, Régészettudományi Intézet, Martin Opitz Kiadó, Budapest, pp. 39-54. ISBN 9789639987753

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Abstract

From 2007 to 2015, the Buyant Russian-Mongolian archaeological expedition conducted in the territory of the Mongolian Altai targeted the research of ritual structures of the Turkic time (6th–8th cc. AD), which in scientific literature are called enclosures because of the square or rectangular shape of the base structure in the form of installed stone slabs. During the fieldwork, several hundreds of these monuments were discovered. The largest concentration was recorded in the northern part of the mountain range. 27 Turkic enclosures have been excavated in the Mongolian Altai during the years of work of Buyant ex- pedition and their relative chronology is discussed in this paper. We outline the evolution of the tradition of the constructions of Turkic enclosures through different historical periods. We discuss their purpose on the basis of their structural design and associated material finds. Of particular importance are the stone sculptures and the Turkic inscriptions discovered alongside the enclosures. We propose the use of natural science dating methods and the decoding of the found texts for further research into these early medieval enclosures.

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