Draft––Note on whether Mongolians (and others) were aware of and collecting fossils in Mongolia before the Central Asiatic Expeditions beginning there in 1922:

In one of his papers, Johan G. Andersson associates F. A. Larson with two Mongolian fossil-collectors, as follows: "Haldjinko, was consequently engaged for the purpose, through the mediation of Mr. Larson, and this Mongol soon became a very good fossil hunter.... On my arrival in the Hallong-Osso region (115 km NNW of Kalgan), in July 1919, Haldjinko took me to a number of localities, where bones had been found by him... After a period of small progress, another Mongol collector named Jensen..." The name ‘Haldjinko’ has not been encountered elsewhere as such. But in Granger’s field diary on May 28, 1930, he begins by making reference to a fossil hunting guide named Hal-chin-h[k?]u who lived near Joel Eriksson’s mission at Hatt-in-Sumu. Conquest later has it as Halchin Hu in the index and, at page 424 of same, he’s identified as one of J.G. Andersson’s former assistants. That would be Haldjinko. The man Andersson called ‘Jensen’ was a wealthy Mongolian aristocrat, lama and a good friend of Larson. There are photos of him in Larson’s "Duke of Mongolia" where his name is spelled Lob-tsen Yen-tsen. Larson writes about him in the 2nd chapter about the aristocracy (Axel Odelberg to VLM, 4/3/05, as to ‘Jensen’).” While to many it would seem that the Mongolian worldview in 1919 didn't include fossil collecting, it does appear that is too much of a generalization. Clearly there was some interest in fossils perhaps because there was a lot of interest in archaeology. Fossils may have just happened to be included because they were out there. And it doesn't necessarily mean they were being studied scientifically or even collected coherently. But jaws, ribs, skulls and limbs were often discernible and apparently of greater interest than simple curiosity. Furthermore, any westerner (or Russian) in the area -- missionary, businessman, commercial geologist, amateur paleontologist, western- or foreign-educated Mongolian and the like, -- would have had a pretty good idea what fossils signified. There were a number of such people who traveled about Mongolia. Kalgan at the threshold of Inner Mongolia and Urga in Outer Mongolia were fairly sophisticated cities by 1919. Plus, J.G. Andersson had put out the word throughout China and Inner Mongolia in 1915? that fossils were of scientific interest. He put it out via written notice. Larson, Haldjinko and Jensen, at least, apparently were aware by 1919. Ironic it is that a CAE guide in 1930 was already collecting fossils well before their arrival in 1922. ––VLM