Khirigsuurs, ritual and mobility in the Bronze Age of Mongolia

The khirigsuurs are large and complex ritual sites that are major features in the landscape of Branze Age Mongolia and represent considerable investment. The authors present recently investigated examples of this important class of monument, describe their attributes and offer preliminary deductions of the kind of society they imply--and whether it was truly nomadic. Keywords: Bronze Age, Mongolia, nomadism, ritual monuments
Introduction Spanning thousands of years, the broad emergence of mobile pastoralism across the vast Eurasian steppes encompassed the domestication, harnessing and consumption of the horse, the adoption of wheeled vehicles, [...]