Rock Art and Archaeology Field Report 2011 FINAL_webv4

Rock Art and Archaeology:Investigating Ritual Landscape in the Mongolian Altai

Field Report 2011

William W. Fitzhugh and Richard Kortum, EditorsMaegan Tracy, Producer

Published in February 2012 by:

The Arctic Studies CenterNational Museum of Natural History

Smithsonian InstitutionWashington, D.C.

National Museum of MongoliaUlaanbaatar, Mongolia

National Museum of Mongolia

Arctic Studies Center

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Fig. 1: Study area highlighted in red on Mongolia map; highlighted in black on detail map

Khoton Project Field Report 2011

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Figure CaptionStudy area highlighted in red on Mongolia map; highlighted in black on detail mapRichard Kortum, Theresa Markiw, William Fitzhugh, Daniel Cole, Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan (Bayaraa), Tserendagva (Tsedo), Jagalsaikhan Bataar (Jagaa), Ken Lymer, Dave Edwards. Students: Tyler Wertsch, Andrew Hyder, Elissa Bullion, Will Taylor, Luke Champouillon, James Mills, D. Rivers, Burentugs, Shinsaran Dshinesaran (Shine), Enkhsaikhan (Enkh), Zayabaatar (Zaya), Sandanjants (Sanda). Cooks: Bakhidkuli, Janat. Drivers: Suldbaatar (Sulda), Kassim, Canat (Conti). Photo By Dave EdwardsBase camp with Altai Mountains reflected in Khoton Nuur, view SExcavating B1-1 khirigsuur, view STheresa, Elissa, and Andrew excavating Biluut 1-1 Feature 2, view NWBiluut 1-1Mongolian students mapping B1-1 khirigsuur mound Crew at work exposing B1-1 burial, view SEDave Edwards photographing B1-1 khirigsuurDave scans burial B1-1 with metal detector, view SEDan Cole and Ken Lymer at work-centralB1-2 mound, level 2 rocks exposed, view SB1-2 Paleolithic site, view SB1-2 mound 3 iron knife from level 3 rocksElissa and Andrew at B2-4 with storms over AltaiB2-4 skull in situ, view ESum Center near Aral TolgoiN side of 3rd deer stone at Aral Tolgoi with animal figure and chevron emblem B2-3 zebra animal with hunterB2-3 child burial, view EStrange horned figure B-4Rainbow on camp site. Peat Valley Site Biluut 3-3 surface cleared, view NWBiluut 3-1 Feature 4B2-2, Pazyryk burial, view NWB2-2 Pazyryk burial, photo by Dave EdwardsTheresa Markiw painting B2-4 individualB2-3 (Pond Site) standing slab, view NExcavation of B2-2 Pazyryk burial with storm coming in. Photo by Dave EdwardsB1-3 excavation with sheep and goats looking onLocal women selling wares at Aral Tolgoi NaadamLuke wrestling at NaadamB2-2 Argali sheep gold ornament from Pazyryk burialYoung horse racersB2-5 Stone Man site, F1, view NWTsengel governors party with dig teamExcavating Pazyryk grave featureRe-excavating looters pit at B2-6, view WBiluut team at East Bay 3 deer stone, view NWEast Bay 3 view SNadaam WeddingHospitality in hosts ger at Naadam weddingWhite Falcon, the cooks daughter Packing up camp and taking down gers

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Part II


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Figure Caption2011 overview of project sites.2011 project sites.B1-1 Feature 1 hearth, view NB1-1 Feature 2 hearth, view SBiluut 1-1 khirigsuur, view SWBiluut 1-1 feature 2 map.Biluut 1-1 skeletal remains, view WBiluut 1-1 khirigsuur, deer stone with three-slash face, (after removal from mound for photograph)Biluut 1-1 distributionBiluut 1-2 mound 3, view SEBiluut 1-2 charcoal sample locationBiluut 1-2 mound 3 surface rocks cleanedBiluut 1-2 mound 3 mapProfile and map.Biluut 1-3, Pond Site, view NWB1-3 grave feature, view NWB1-3 cobble hearth (Feature 1) view NB1-3 standing stone with rocks cleaned, view NB1-3 Feature 2, charcoal sample #2, profile viewB1-3 Pond site.Biluut 1-4 hillside siteBiluut 2-1 Surface Map.Biluut 2-1 upper burial pit, view NWBiluut 2-1 stone coffin with collapsed cover slabs and sheep bones outside east wall, view EHorse skeleton from Pazyryk burial, view S, photo by Dave EdwardsRemains of log chamber beneath Pazyryk burial box floor, view S, photo by Dave EdwardsBiluut 2-2 Pazyryk SiteBiluut 2-3 Map 1Biluut 2-3 burial slabs exposed, view W. photo by Dave EdwardsBiluut 2-3 mound with surface rocks cleaned, view WBiluut 2-3 Map 2.Biluut 2-3 coffin beneath capstonesBiluut 2-3 child burial Finds.Biluut 2-4 burial in flexed position, view S (trowel points north), photo by Dave EdwardsBiluut 2-4 2nd level rocks, view NBiluut 2-4 Maps 2 and 3.Excavation of Biluut 2-5, photo by Dave EdwardsBiluut 2-5 stone man, view NWBiluut 2-5, 2nd level rocks, view SEBiluut 2-5, pre-excavation, view SWBiluut 2-5 Stone Man Site Map 1Biluut 2-5 Stone Man Site Map 2Biluut 2-5 Stone Man Site Map 3, Feature 1Biluut 2-6 Hillside site Maps 1 & 2Biluut 3-1 mound with gathering storm overhead, view NWBiluut 3-1 stone boxes and possible seats, view NBiluut 3-1 stone boxes, surface Map 1Biluut 3-2 Empty Grave SitePeat Valley Site Biluut 3-3 surface cleared, view WBiluut 3-3, Peat Valley SiteCentral Hearth East ProfileBiluut 3-3 microblade coreBiluut 3-3 hearth baseBiluut 3-3 Feature 4

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Major rock art sites at BiluutRock art team on Biluut 3, southern slopeJagaa and Champouillon trace a panelTserendagva and Kortum examine a figurePetroglyph locations on Biluut 3Mounted archer with elaborate headdress (Turkic Period)Ibex in early nomadic style (Early Iron Age)Tamga (period uncertain)Small Mongolian deer, less than 10cm (Late Bronze Age)Human figure with bovids (Archaic (pre-Bronze) possibly Paleolithic)Cargo, or caravan scene (Bronze Age)Birthing woman (Possible Neolithic)Unusual anthropomorphic figure (date uncertain)Rare side-on view of a chariot, driver, and horses (possible Early Iron age)

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Biluut 3-3 Feature 5Biluut 3-3 Test Pit 2 cultural level at old ground surface B3-3 hearth, consolidated mass in SEB3-3 findsEast Bay 1, hearth 7 completedEast Bay 3, view SEast Bay 3, hearth 1 completedEast Bay-1 Khirigsuurs, Hearth Circles MapEast Bay 3, Khirigsuurs, Deer StonesEast Bay 3 deer stone upright, view NWEast Bay 3 deer stone back in original position, view NW

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Part VILocations of 2011 and 2012 study area in Mongolia highlighted in Yellow.Recently dug and back-filled circular khirigsuur mound. 2147m elevation; 597085.85, 5389527.61; 597084.79, 5389534.34; 597075.70, 5389534.26; 597075.26, 5389526.46 (UTM coordinates: E, N).Rock art on a boulder on the slope of Broken Mountain at 2141m elevation; 600264.54, 5390947.23Four visitors who came twice to check out my work Large standing stone in a pasture over 1km north of Biluut 2 at 2115m elevation; 597605.07, 5392543.24.2011 Field mapping collection localities and archaeological dig sites. Red dots indicate GPS collection sites, yellow dots indicate Archaeological dig sites (some fall outside image area). Contour interval is at 15m. Localities in relation to aspect: North (red), East (yellow), S (cyan), W (blue). While most archaeological sites trended to S and W, the aspect of the petroglyphs were found to be more dependant on location of suitable exposed rock sheen.A significant majority of the archaeological features are found in relatively flat slope areas, whereas the petroglyphs can be found on virtually any degree of slope. Green indicates flat slope, continuous to red (very steep).Directional stonework in the valley between B1 and B2 may align with the peak on Biluut 2. (Shown in red).Alignment of the axes of a spoked khirigsuur, as well as the alignment of several burial mounds in a row may point to distant peaks. (Shown in yellow).

A house built for the Reindeer PeopleSh. Sodov, of Tuvan ethnicity, and his wife Kh. Puntsagjav, of Darkhad ethnicityTs. Sanji, of Tuvan ethnicity, and his wife Sh. Nansalma, of Darkhad Mongol ethnicityL. Jajuurs Tuvan birth certificate, 1941L. Jajuur, of Tuvan ethnicity, and his wife S. Yanjima, of Darkhad-Mongolian ethnicityRemains of fish factory house on the mouth of the Khodorgo River, photo taken in 2007

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Part VI


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Table of Contents

Map

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Part V

Part VI

Part VII

Appendix 1

Appendix II

Appendix III

Sites excavated in the 2011 Field Season

Introduction and OverviewWilliam W. Fitzhugh, Richard Kortum, and Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan

Khoton Lake Project Field Journal 2011William W. Fitzhugh, transcribed by Alyna Rasile

Field Notes and MapsPrepared by William Fitzhugh, Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan, and Maegan Tracy.

Report on the 2011 Khoton Lake Project (in Mongolian)Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan

Latest Rock Art Research at Khoton Lake, Summer 2011 Richard Kortum

Khoton Project Cartographic DiaryDan Cole

Ethnographic Research: Interethnic Relationships among Tuvans and Mongols. Darhad, Northern Mongolia (2009)Ts. Ayush

Radiocarbon Date ListWilliam Fitzhugh

GPS Data and Map

Site Reports

1-2

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35-73

74-107

108-114

115-124

125-131

132-134

135-137

139-177

cover photo by Dave Edwards


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Fig. 2: 2011 Project Participants:Richard Kortum, Theresa Markiw, William Fitzhugh, Daniel Cole, Jamsran-jav Bayarsaikhan (Bayaraa), Tserendagva (Tsedo), Jagalsaikhan Bataar (Jagaa), Ken Lymer, Dave Edwards. Students: Tyler Wertsch, Andrew Hyder, Elissa Bullion, Will Taylor, Luke Champouillon, James Mills, D. Rivers, Burentugs, Shinsaran Dshinesaran (Shine), Enkhsaikhan (Enkh), Zayabaatar (Zaya), Sandanjants (Sanda). Cooks: Bakhidkuli, Janat. Drivers: Suldbaatar (Sulda), Kassim, Canat (Conti). Photo by Dave Ed-wards.


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Fieldwork at Khoton Lake was undertaken in 2011 as the first year of the National Endowment for the Humanities Three-Year Collaborative Research Grant: Rock Art and Archaeology: Investigating Ritual Landscape in the Mongolian Altai. The overall goal of the project is to inventory the archaeological and rock art resources of the Biluut Hills petroglyph complex, including surrounding territory of Lake Khoton; to establish links between these disparate sets of data; and to explore the changing cultural landscape patterns of this region from Paleolithic times to the present, especially as revealed by ritual and ceremonialism. While previous studies have investigated the rock art of Western Mongolia and Inner Asia (e.g., Jacobson, et. al.) or the regions culture historyespecially of the Russian Altailittle research has been done to integrate or synthesize these two bodies of data into a unified cultural reconstruction. The task is not an easy one, for without organic preservation in archaeological sites, or contextual data from rock art, the archaeological and petroglyphic records do not easily mesh into one voice. Nevertheless, it is important to attempt to assimilate finds from both in order to discover where points of articulation can be found and to acknowledge where gaps cannot be bridged.

The 2011 Khoton Lake Project conducted fieldwork on the northern shores of Lake Khoton (Khoton Nuur) for six weeks from early June to mid-July. We arrived at Khoton Lake on June 6th and departed on July 12th. A team of 26 Americans and Mongolians combined efforts at documenting rock art and locating and excavating archaeological sites in the immediate vicinity of the three Biluut Hills and around the drainage of Khuiten Gol, a modest swift-flowing stream that drains one of the more fertile mountain steppe zones in the Altai Mountains less than 10 km from the Chinese border. The Biluut Hills contain an estimated 10,000 individual petroglyph images. Surrounding grazing lands and fresh-water lake shores offer excellent habitat for wild game and fish, as well as for domestic animals, while valley connections permit communication with outlying regions in all directions. The abundance of fresh water augmented by frequent summer storms makes for relatively stable pasturage, while large stands of Siberian Larch on the northern flanks of the Altai Nuruu across the lake provide a plentiful supply of timber for housing, heating, stock pens, and lighting. 2011 fieldwork concentrated on recording all of the rock art on Biluut 3, and on excavating a sample of archaeological sites of different types and suspected ages. In all, approximately 4,000 petroglyphic images were documented and more than 200 archaeological sites were mapped. Of these, 14 sites were excavated and dated.

Results include detailed GIS databanks for all of the recorded rock art images and archaeological sites. Biluut rock art spans more than 8,000 years; a small number of images may date to the late Paleolithic. It remains unclear, however, when the Altais Ice Age glaciers retreated from the Khoton Lake basin, freeing it for human and animal occupation. Given the fresh appearance of many rock surfaces and well-developed glacial outwash topography, ice retreat may have occurred as late as 10,000 years ago, thus obviating any chance of earlier human settlement (or rock art). However, by 6,000-8,000 years ago Archaic-style rock art images are clearly attested, and thereafter large

PART I

Introduction and Overview

William W. Fitzhugh, Richard Kortum, and Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan


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quantities of images can be attributed to Neolithic, Early and Late Bronze Age, Iron Age, Turkic, Medieval, and Ethnographic periods based on a combination of stylistic, subject matter, and patination features. Damage to rock art panels from modern graffiti and vandalism also represents a significant component of this record. While rock art panels frequently display palimpsests of images from different periods, sometimes showing super-positioning over earlier figures, nothing like the disastrous defacing by modern graffiti artists seems to have occurred at earlier times. A large number of special, rare, or otherwise highly significant images were discovered in summer 2011 by the projects rock art team.

Archaeological work resulted in a series of radiocarbon-dated ritual sites of which human burials represents only one form of ceremonialism. Ten of the 14 sites investigated in detail were burials; all of these produced radiocarbon dates, which ranged from 4,000 BP to 800 BP, spanning the late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age to the Genghis Khan period. Among the earliest were ritual sites with rectangular structures and large boulder pavements with central pit burials. One of these enigmatic rectangular structures (near the mouth of Peat Valley) was constructed with internal trough-like features. Late Bronze Age khirigsuurs are common, dating to ca. 3,000 BP; most have axial radials. Two that we excavated contained Eurasian-style deer stones near the northern or eastern edges of their central mounds. However, one extended human burial dating to the khirigsuur period (ca. 3,000 BP) was found under a simple stone mound without khirigsuur architecture. Pazyryk style chained burials are also common. One that we excavated had been looted in ancient times; but we nevertheless recovered several a fine pair of gold foil argali sheep horse ornaments and Pazyryk-style pottery, dated by C-14 to ca. 2,000 BP. This is rather late for Pazyryk sites; indeed, this date places this site and its cultural material squarely in the middle of the Xiongnu empire period, of which we have found no sign in the Khoton Lake region. Several Turkic ritual sites we excavated, including a carved stone man site, were found to contain no human remains and seem to have involved ritual animal sacrifice. Finally, a single flexed human burial dating to the Medieval period was found beneath a small 2m-wide pavement. Several of these sites demonstrated connections with rock art from the surrounding hills. The iconic Mongolian deer image appears frequently in the rock art as well as on deer stones, although not on those in the immediate vicinity of Khoton Lake. Mountain goat images which predominate in the rock art were also found on some archaeological features, including the Pazyryk gold foil argali heads.

Cartographic work provided a strong backbone for both the rock art studies and archaeological research. Detailed GIS-based mapping is providing the Khoton Lake project with a means of building topographic relationships within and between petroglyphic and archaeological data sets. This will allow us to identify patterns in the landscape and thus to analyze multiple strands of rock art, ritual, and settlement data.

One of the most surprising results was the consistent lack of artifacts in any of these ritual sites that span a period of ca. 3,500 years from late Neolithic/early Bronze Age to Medieval times. Another is the occurrence of multiple styles of burials during the same time period. Perhaps this results from ritual variation within a given cultural group; alternatively, it may signal fluctuating cultural boundaries or cultural margins where external intrusions occur in areas of long-standing ritual stability. Perhaps Pazyryk culture persists longer here and resists Xiongnu incursion. Our research thus far has raised many questions. We expect our research in summer 2012 will help to answer some of these, and raise even more.


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PART II

Project Field Journal 2011

William W. Fitzhugh(transcribed by Alayna Rasile)


Friday June 3rdUlaanbaatarTo museum at 10 AM. Hoped to see Dembereldorj, international relations secretary for the National Museum of Mongolia, but he was not available. We spent four days in Ulaanbaatar, arriving late Monday night [May 30] and staying at Zayas Hostel. On Tuesday we checked in at the museum and found that Bayaraa was still in the field with Jean-Luc Houle in Khanuy Valley. Richard and Tsedo arranged at the Office of Immigration to have our stays extended beyond the 30-day limit. On Wednesday we had a tour of the Choijin Lama Monastery guided by Theresa Markiws former US Embassy colleague, Otgon, who translated the monastery guides. Beautiful materials in these temples. The day before, we spent several hours searching for a generator, eventually finding one the right size, about 1,000 watts, made with Japanese parts and assembled in Singapore. Wednesday night we went to the Tumen Ekh performance in their small theater south of the square. Brilliant performance of traditional singing, music and dance. Among the performers was an amazing contortionist. I met briefly with Robin Charpentier, local director of the ACMS office in UB, and did some strategizing about getting a Mongolian program for the 2013 Folklife Festival. On Thursday we had lunch with Ambassador Jonathan Addleton and his wife Fiona at their residence, and heard his take on the political situation in Mongolia. His views were open and refreshingly realistic. He may be able to help us with the festival proposal. It turns out that Otgons brother Otgonbayar is the Minister of Culture, so we may have some help through these connections. However, he may have left his post by then since there will have been a new presidential election.

Saturday June 4thUlaanbaatar to UlgiiLeft Zayas Hostel at 5 AM in two vans and a car with luggage just fitting 17 of us in all, and when we got to the plane it seemed like we nearly filled the EZnis turboprop. We lifted off promptly at 7 AM. Beautiful weather, which we had for the past five days in UB. Flying east from UB, we could see quite a few farmed fields, some newly plowed and many more than Id seen before. Some progress is being made on Mongolian food production! A nice lunch was served on the flight, and we arrived with all baggage accounted for. Even better, the van with Tugsoo, the new Mongolia National Museum curator, and the driver who came from UB with our heavy gear and freight, were waiting for us at the airport. They had arrived this morning after driving straight through in three days without any major problems. Their chief freight is our digging gear, Paula DePriests generator, and our new spare generator. We drove directly to Canats in four vans and were welcomed at his Blue Wolf Travel Agency with a nice lunch. I immediately realized we were in a new cultural areaKazakh and Muslim, not Mongol and Buddhistby being presented with a fine salad of tomatoes and cucumbers! This will be a big change from our past Darkhad (North Mongolian) fare. We went together to the outdoor market around noon to buy shovels, picks, screening material, nails etc., and found it packed with people. The museum in town was closed; its director had died during the past


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year and no one has yet been appointed. We had hoped to arrange some programs with them, but this is questionable now. Dave Edwards scrounged for some wood to build a privy, but found only trash wood and very expensive. We spent most of the afternoon napping and lounging around, telling stories.

Dinner was at 7 PM and was a fish (tuna?)-flavored potato salad, tasty buuz soup, and cut fruit for dessert. Canat had arranged for a couple of musicians, a father and son, to play dobros: two-stringed traditional Kazakh instruments. Both were excellent, the father a statuesque, heroic figure in his beautiful costume and hat, and his son, who was somewhat more reserved in appearance but with a very engaging voice and personality. They sang in close harmony and performed traditional songs from Kazakh, Russian, and Mongol repertoires, referencing the joined history of their region. But no Chinese songs, or for that matter, Uighur, the Mongolians neighbors to the south, who are today much swamped by Han Chinese expansion. I mentioned the 2013 SI Folklife Festival to him, thinking the pair would be excellent candidates, and I purchased their CD to show the Smithsonian Folklife staff who had hoped to come to Mongolia this summer to research possible performers for the Festival. I sent a few emailsthe last for several weeksbefore turning in. We are staying in a set of gers (traditional Mongol/Kazakh felt tents) behind Canats headquarters. These are Kazakh-style gers with thin bent roof poles, making the roof about a foot higher than the Mongol ger, and decorated with Kazakh wall hangings. Outside the lattice frames they use a lining of yarn-wrapped reeds woven together in a basket-like construction. The yarn is wrapped around the individual reeds in multicolored bands. About midnight the dogs started howling just like they did the last time Richard and I slept out in Ulgii, and continued in waves all night. One of the dogs had a particularly sonorous voice. Luke added his notes to the chorus with a small dobro he bought this afternoon at the market. Sounds like hell get pretty good after a while.

Monday June 6thUlgii to Khoton NuurBayaraa filled me in on the work being done on the Freer manuscript, which has been translated but needs editing both for Mongolian and English. This project has been Saruulbuyans and is in limbo for the time being because of his health problems. At present the Mongolia National Museum has no specific plan for an exhibition or publication. It took a while to get out of Ulgii this morning because the UB van had some engine trouble; the fuel pump purchased in the market yesterday had to be replaced. Dave Edwards also needed to buy more wood to make some dig screens. All this was accomplished by about 11:30 AM and we set out in a caravan of five Russian vans, one of which was filled with our food and two cooks. We have been told that Canat had delivered two gers to our campsite and had them erected. Weather was beautiful and we made fairly good time, arriving in Tsengel at 3 PM for Fig. 3: Base camp with Altai Mountains reflected in Khoton Nuur,

view S


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more gas and a sign-off on our archaeology permit by the local administration. We had been able to get the park permit signed yesterday (later on this turned out to be not quite sufficient!).

The run to Tsengel took about three hours, counting many stops for minor repairs on the vehicles. After Tsengel we stopped for lunch along the Hovd River and then pushed on to the bridge, where one of our vans lost a bolt from its drive shaft. All of the spare parts from the nooks and crannies of the vehicles were dumped out on the ground, but to no avail, so it had to return to Ulgii (in fact, they managed to make some repairs and reached camp that night). At that point all the vehicles got separated and a free-for-all ensued. About 7 PM we reached the overlook above the NE corner of Khoton Nuur and had a great view of the lake and mountains to the south before winding our way through glacial moraines and glacio-fluvial deposits hundreds of feet above the lake, and then down along its north shore past the three-building hamlet of Sirgal and its army base, where Richards van caught up with us momentarily before falling behind again. We stopped to help a local guy get his truck started, then forded the Khuiten Gol and rounded the north side of Biluut 2. However, darkness fell, and we got led astray by one of our vans which took us on a wild goose chase west of Biluut until we prevailed, knowing exactly where we would find camp south of Biluut 1. When we finally pulled in we found two gers erected and all the other vans arrived, having taken a direct route around the south side of the Biluut hills. We piled into one of the gers and after a bowl of soup, hit the hay, our bodies looking like 22 spokes of a wheel, feet towards the fire and heads to the wall. Through the night we heard the roar of rivers cascading down the mountains across the lake, accompanied by Dave Edwards snores to anchor us at our new camp for the next six weeks. When the storm that coincided with our arrival cleared we had a near full moon to welcome us as well.

Wednesday June 8thAs it began to get light it also started raining and sleeting, and the patter on the roof kept us cozy in bed until the weather began to improve around 7 AM. First order of business was getting our tents up. I soon found that Dave Edwards had recommended a very fine backpacker tent consisting of a ground cloth attached to a pyramidal mosquito net with a central pole, and a shell fly that comes to the ground. I have my doubts it will hold in a big storm, even with the heavy-duty pegs I supplied instead of the small pencil-sized ones that came with the tent. I think Ill be wishing I had my old North Face! (Turns out it was a fine, strong tent that withstood some harsh storms.) Dave started work on the privy, and others worked on a washing station that Dave, who had volunteered to be our camp manager, had planned. Several of us went to check in at the Army base, Camp Sirgal, where we met a young and business-like Lt. Amandes who welcomed us and stamped our park papers; so we are allowed to travel about, even on the south side of the lake. We bought some boards at a new

ranger station under construction nearby. Its nice to see some infrastructure being developed! On the way back we stopped at several sites we were considering excavating, including the large khirigsuur we dated in 2008 and three probable Pazyryk burial complexes. Later in the day we climbed Biluut 1 and checked the rock art on the lower faces, and visited a nice small but beautifully preserved khirigsuur (Biluut 1-1), in which we found an Eurasian-style deer stone with three slashes on the face and no other markings. This khirigsuur is way up on a small plateau called Biluut 1-C and looks out over Lake Khoton and the Altai Mountains along the Chinese border. Fig. 4: Excavating B1-1 khirigsuur, view

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We started work in the small khirigsuur at Biluut 1-1 with Will, Andrew, Elissa and Bayaraas Mongolian students. Beautiful sunny weather. The van could get us to the top of this plateau where the site looks out over the lake. We set a grid and keyed in the two hearth ovals, F1 (southern) and F2 (northern), which my team began excavating while the Mongolians began trenching around the outside of the fence. By noon we had cleared down to the top of the F2 hearth deposit and trenched the fence. The van broke down while taking us to lunch, so I walked down, arriving the same time as the repaired van. Lunch was horshurs (a deep-fried Mongolian specialty consisting of onions and chopped lamb in a pastry envelope) and shredded carrot saladboth excellent. After an hour of rest we went back to work and got into some charcoal and burned bone fragments in Feature 2very small amounts of bone and charcoal, unfortunately. During the afternoon we finished the western half of the khirigsuur and nearly completed the hearth.

Dinner was an excellent mutton and noodle soup. I was a bit in recovery mode from a slightly strained back and opted not to make a trip to visit the park ranger, who had insisted on seeing us. Apparently we still need some kind of permit for the National Park system, and when Tserendagva (Tsedo) drove down to town with Richard they got an earful from a seemingly committed director of the National Park. Luckily, on their way to see the park director, Richard and Tsedo ran into Jagaa, who was on his way to our camp from Ulgii. Jagaa turned his jeep around and was an enormous help in breaking the ice with the director. It seems that Jagaa knows just about everybody around here, and everybody likes and respects him. In any case, we have to call UB and straighten this out tomorrow morning. The evening was a bit warmer than last night, and very still.

Wednesday June 8th A bit overcast early, but the morning later became bright, with thunderstorms building by midday. We took a huge crew to Biluut 1-1 including Dave Edwards and James Mills, who did some video filming. It was a spectacular view from the hill above the site, with floating ice in the lake and reverse reflections of the mountains creating strange visual perspectives, with the clean geometric shapes of the mound and its cleanly-excavated borders. We finished F2, getting a bit more bone and charcoal, enough at least to date. Bayaraa thinks some of the small bone pieces are phalanges of sheep or goats as per an observation by a zooarchaeologist who observed similar material on a project with him in the Khanuy Valley last year. We opened up F1 just before lunch and nearly finished turfing the mound before coming down for a lunch of lamb and peppers. Dave and Tyler have completed work on the toilet, shower, and water purification stations, so we are now a certified green operation. The only remaining taskthe hard partis to get everyone to follow the

Fig. 5: Theresa, Elissa, and Andrew excavating Biluut 1-1 Feature 2, view NW

Deer Stone

Skin/Bark (?)

C14

Biluut 1-1 KhirigsuurN

Hearth Features

F1

F2

Mound

Cobble Fence

Fig. 6: Biluut 1-1


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rules, especially about hand-washing before meals and after using the toilet.

The afternoon work was cut short by an oncoming thunderstorm that forced us to retreat to camp but then did not materialize, giving us a couple of hours of holiday which we used to set up Paulas generator and catch up on battery charging and field notes. We did manage to clear and map F1, the second hearth circle at Biluut 1-1, and had just started finding charcoal when the storm struck. So it looks like we will get a second dated hearth. And today we also verified that B-1-1 has a cruciform structure, with four radials aligned roughly N-S-E-W. Richards petroglyph crew has been working at Biluut 2 the past couple of days, filling in some missing data from previous surveys. They have also found a few Paleolithic stone tools, one being a very nice large blade with lateral retouch. During the morning we tried reaching the official at the UB ministry of Interior by satellite phone to clear up the problem of our park permit. After many failed attempts we discovered his phonea cell phoneis turned off. I took the occasion to call Lynne and found her at home watching a Netflix at 10 PM (we have a 13-hour difference here in Bayan Ulgii). She had had a great canoe trip on a northern VT lake with 12 others. Weather has been fine and she has been riding her bicycle and tending her garden, which is flourishing. Elaine Harp had called a few days ago, upset after reading our report in the ASC Newsletterupset because it arrived by mail on the anniversary of Elmers death and on her (or his?) birthday. Too bad Lynne could come with us to Mongolia; Theresa Markiw is here with Richard and is having a great time, getting her fill of archaeology by helping us dig bits of charcoal from F2 this morning.

Thursday June 9th A beautiful clear day and quite warm but dry. After a breakfast of a kind of cream of wheat we split into our two groups, with Dave Edwards and James Mills to do photo documentation. After dinner last night I climbed about on Biluut 1E (east end) looking at the rock art, finding several half-finished Mongolian deer engravings and many interesting Bronze Age figures, including a chariot drawn by two horses with a T-shaped harness. Richard showed me one his team found this morning at Biluut 2an extremely rare, if not wholly unique, side view. At the B-1-1 khirigsuur we quickly finished the F1 hearth ring and by lunch completed cleaning the mounds. Lunch was a meat-filled dumpling soup, after which I showered using one of Richards three neat black solar bags rigged up by Dave behind a tarp barrier, so you could wash using only a few quarts of sun-warmed water. We returned to the site and spent the rest of the afternoon gridding and mapping the mound. We also got Dave up on top of the van to photograph the whole structure from high up. When hes home he will assemble them all into a mosaic of the entire khirigsuur. While the Mongolian students were mapping rocks we surveyed the hill above, finding several circular hearth features and some possible ancient tools, one looking like a Levallois core. Bayaraa had his students mapping the mound rocks well into dinnertime, but they got it all done.

Fig. 7: Mongolian students mapping B1-1 khirigsuur mound


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After supper Jagaa, Bayaraa, Will and I went to Sirgal to see about getting the permit or contract we need from the National Park Director. We arrived about 8:30 and found him supervising the construction of their new park building, which is coming along fast and has interior paneling up.

He is an interesting characterKazakh and a brother-in-law to Jagaa through his sister. He seemed pleased to hear we had got an OK from the central park director, but still needs us to sign contracts probably dealing with environmental protection. Just before reaching Sirgal our van died and the driver found water in the oil, so we left him to deal with it and got a ride back for 15K tugriks of gas from the directors driver in a very fine jeep with a radio good for 500 kilometers. The kids had bought some beer in the little store and we sat around the fire shooting the breeze for a while. The rest of the evening was warm and windless. The driver thought wed have rain tomorrow. About 11 PM the van returned, repaired, for the moment.

Friday June 10thThe predicted rain did not materialize, although you could see plenty of it was falling to the east, even in Sirgal. The reprieve and cool cloudy weather was perfect for the task at handcleaning rocks from the mound. Fortunately, we had a large crew available including some brutes like Tyler, Dave Edwards nephew, who is also a great story-teller, like his uncle. We cleared half the mound at the west side by lunch (rice noodles and lamb) and the east half in the afternoon. Dave took lots of photos of the rock-heaving and controlled shots of the mound deconstruction. The American and Mongolian crews are merging very nicely and helping each other. About 5 PM we struck bonepart of a human skulljust when we thought we might have an empty grave. That brought us to a halt, and having isolated the grave area, which seems to have no defined burial box or slab cover, we proceeded excavating slowly. After another round of photos we decided to call a halt as we would not have time to finish before darkhere we were remembering the lantern-light burial excavation Bayaraa and I had made at Tsagaan near Tsengel a few years ago.

After dinner, I walked east along the shore and was surprised to find our volleyball on the beach

Fig. 9: Crew at work exposing B1-1 burial, view SE

Fig. 8: Dave Edwards photographing B1-1 khirigsuur


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across from the cove, apparently having been blown off our camp and out to sea by the midday wind. Lots of nice potential camp and settlement areas along the shore, but I found no early archaeological signs. Many of the crew were in bed when I got back at 9:30 PM. Much heavy rock lifting! I picked up a couple more paleo artifacts on the terraces above the shore and showed them to Tserendagva. He shrugged, a doubtful maybe.

Saturday June 11thToday Dan Cole is supposed to arrive in Ulgii and drive to Khoton Lake. The day began with beautiful weather and the news that Tyler was sickwhether from the dried meat (lamb) in our supper or the lake water is being debated. Several of us have had stomach problems, including Theresa. My own situation is as in all the other years: complete intestinal shut-down. Not debilitating, but a huge nuisance. We worked on our guy in the mound all morning and found the bones in very poor condition, even the long bones. But we can tell he is about 182 cm tall and oriented about 340 degrees, slightly to the north of the western radial. Richards rock art group showed up to see how things were going and Theresa walked up about 11:30 AM for a look. Dave got some good overhead shots and I kept the bones moist so they would not crack and spall. Meanwhile, I worked on excavating the slab-lined foundation of the mounds outer border. It looks like a pit was dug about 20-30cm deep and slabs laid out around the perimeter, then a big fire was set, only around the perimeter, then the burial was put down and the mound built. Quite a bit of ash was present between the humus level and the subsoil. (Yesterday our van caught on fire about 200m from the site in a mess of smoke, a result of either an electrical fire or overheating, so we hiked up the rest of the way).

The afternoon task was to extract the bones and finish work on the slab perimeter, exposing the slabs attached to the eastern radial. Plenty of ash was present under the slabs. While taking a walk around the hillside during the afternoon, Bayaraa found a small cobble with three slashes and a circular mark above it on the surface a few hundred meters north of the site, just sitting on the ground by itself. Remarkable. Apparently, Kubarov has published a similar find from Gorni Altai. Such a casual creation (though not casual given the time required to produce it!) gives new meaning to the slashed faces on deer stones, perhaps suggesting an eternal sky god or spirit rather than being a substitution symbol for a human face, as we have thought it might mean on a

deer stone. We also have three slashes on our B-1-1 khirigsuur deer stone! Perhaps there is some relation between the two. The rest of the afternoon was dedicated to back-filling the excavation; we

Fig. 10: Dave scans burial B1-1 with metal detector, view SE

Fig. 11: Dan Cole and Ken Lymer at work-central.


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succeeded in getting all the dirt back into the mound area and tomorrow will do the rocks and sod. Dan Cole arrived at 8 PM in a van filled with produce and other goodies that delighted the cooksand us, as well, when a bottle of Pepsi appeared on the dinner table. Lots of evening talk with Dan about our work, his trip (amazingly uneventful) and news from the world (heat wave in DC already!) I think we lost one of the four swan chicks (born in the kettle pond near camp) last night, and today the goat herd was swarming around the pond. Whether they, a fox, or some other predator was the culprit is a mystery [correction: Will saw all four swan chicks doing fine the next Sunday morning]. Bayaraa and Tsedo say the 40 larch trees stacked up near the pond, with their bark trimmed off, are probably contraband from the forest across the lake; officially each purloined tree carries a fine of one million tugriks, approx. $750so 40 million tugs or approx. $30,000 for the lot, if they get caught. Sunday June 12thWeve been here one week now and have enjoyed excellent weather and great success with the archaeology. The only problem has been health. Tyler is still down and not improving, and this morning Ken Lymer turned up with gastrointestinal distress. Dave checked with the cooks to make sure they were washing in boiled water, but made little headway as they do not think that that is the problem. Dan Cole had a good night and climbed up the hill before breakfast. Black clouds over the mountains at breakfast vanished by 9 AM, and we made our last trip up to the khirigsuur to move the last of the rocks back in and re-sod inside the fence. We got started on back-filling the rocks at 8:30 and were done with the dirt by 11 AM. Great spirit among the team, as usual! The site looked very fine when it was all done. Lunch was beef and fried peppers and rice. Soon after, black clouds rolled in and it rained all afternoon until 6 PM. I caught up on documenting my photos and then napped till 6:00 when Richard, Jagaa, and I took Dan for a tour of the surroundings by jeep. We got back to camp at 7:30 PM for a dinner of noodle soup, and now the boys are running off their nap energy playing soccer on the terrace behind camp. Its turning out to be another nice evening. Tomorrow we start on one of the Pazyryk burials.

Monday June 13thA grey cool morning with a breakfast of oatmeal and raisins. Left at 8:30 AM for the Pazyryk mounds located between Biluut-1 and 2. Coordinates: Biluut 1-2 (probably Turkic) 6/13/11. GPS N48 39.330, E88 19.501, 2090m. We picked for excavation the large mound in the middle of the set of five pavement mounds and found all have been used recently for dumps and contained old shoes, glass, ashes, and other junk, including the lower leg of a cow. Cleaning the grass was slow work made interesting only by the appearance of a young Kazakh boy named Berdbai who appeared on horseback and watched from the sidelines before inching in, and in time, with Bayaraas encouragement, took up as Bayaraas assistant, excavating, carrying dirt, and offering some of the

Fig. 12: B1-2 mound, level 2 rocks exposed, view S


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intrepid students a ride on his horse. Later he galloped off and returned with a bag of fresh fish caught in the stream nearby.

We returned to the site after lunch and while the students finishing cleaning the pavement, I took Richards 2007 field notebook and tried to match it to sites on the ground. Only problem was that his Lat/Long were in seconds while my GPS is decimal minutes. Nevertheless I was able to match most of his locations and add cultural data to the descriptions. Bayaraa meanwhile went up the B-2 north side hill and found some interesting burials we might excavate. By 6 PM the site cleaning was done and we were ready to map; but alas we had no nails or string, so well start in the morning. So far, weve found small bones in grey ashy soil overlying the upper cobblestone mound cap.

Dinner was mutton soup and fried fishgreylingsand very tasty. In addition to the small fish Berdbai had given us there were some two-three pounders that the herders brought later in the afternoon; they come up the streams from the lake to spawn. Richard and Jagaa have gone off to the hamlet at Sirgal for gas for the vans and generator. The Mongolians gathered in the cook tent and sang old Mongolian classics, beautiful to hear in the still night from my tent where Ive been trying to sew up my trusty Millet pack and drinking the Borgeo beer Dave gave me the other daya gift to him from Canat who has been his friend and business partner for years while Dave has run horse treks into the Altai Mountains with American clients. Almost a full moon tonight. The swan chicks have all gone to the lake, I imagine.

Tuesday June 14thAnother gorgeous day, allowing us nearly a full day at the Turkic site, Biluut 1-2. Dave and James came along to photograph the unveiling of the mound, making the van so crammed that we almost tipped over on the steeply-sloped road leaving camp. It didnt help having Tyler, who is six-foot-eight and must weigh 350 pounds, on the down side of the vehicle. The morning was mostly just moving rock and cleaning fill; but we kept finding small bones, including several horse canines. I wandered off for an hour to look for materials eroding from an exposure along the north side of Biluut 1. There were many signs of buried soil horizons, some fire-cracked rock and charcoal, but no artifacts. However, in one spot I began to find quite a bit of quartzite that appears to have been broken by humans. Here I found what looks very much like a Paleolithic cleaver and later showed it to Tserendagva. This time he agreed. Seems like a workshop location, and I spotted what may be a quartzite outcrop behind the big hillside boulder adjacent to Biluut 1-2. Well look into this more in the next few days. However, its difficult to see how we could have legitimate Paleolithic finds when all this land seems to have been covered by glacial ice in the late Pleistocene.

After lunch we returned to work below the rocks, where we thought wed find the beginning of a burial pit. The soil was very tough and gravelly, and varied from sterile to brown and ashy grey. No pit outline could be discerned. Bayaraa began to suspect the grave had been looted; but if so, they had gone to pains to restore all the boulders. We even found a large charcoal deposit under one of the rocks. Then we came upon a small iron knife of Iron Age style, but in a stray situation without other burial materials except scattered animal bones, mostly sheep or goat. Daves metal detector

Fig. 13: B1-2 Paleolithic site, view S


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gave us hope of more metal deeper in the ground, so well see what happens tomorrow. (It didnt pan out!) We quit the site a bit early when a rainstorm threatened, giving me time for a shower.

Some kind of lentil or pea soup for dinner, and Jagaa and a few others went to Sirgal for more gas to keep our generator going. The lake has been miraculously still all day, making a perfect mirror for the mountains. Bayaraa talked to some herders who came by the dig and found out that most of those who summer here winter 150km to the south. Our neighbor family living below Biluut 2 came past our site in a huge truck with all their effects, heading for their summer place across the plain NW of Biluut. So we may not see our young assistant digger or get more fish, at least from them. They use their Biluut place for fall and spring camps, making four moves each year. Some of their people still use camels, but most have trucks or rent them. Most families still own three or four camels. One herder reported seeing a lynx in the forest on the north side of Biluut-1 where Ken saw four deer a couple evenings ago.

Dan GIS-mapped the B1-1 khirigsuur today, finding (or so we thought) that Richards GPS location was quite a bit in error; I hope thats not the case for the B1/B2 valley we want to survey tomorrow with Dan. [Correction: after consultation between Dan and Richard, it turns out that Richards GPS was not far off the mark, after all.]

Wednesday June 15thFine weather continues and hardly a breeze stirring. After a breakfast of fried eggs, we worked at the Turkic site all morning beginning with a squirrel hunt to find the little guy who got caught out of his hole when we arrived and ran into our stone pile. The boys gradually uncovered his hideout and he grew increasingly upset, until Will offered a bit of a chocolate bar which he took with gusto.

This morning was not very productive, as the burial bottomed out with no signs of a body or any cultural deposits, all of which were in the upper gray sod zone. We now think this is a Turkic ritual site, since two of the nearby features have vertically-set slabs. Our finds include horse canines, sheep or goat teeth and small bones, a small knife blade, and some charcoal. The weather was so warm that a few went swimming before lunch. Ken got sick last night, so everyone is on alert for continuing food problems.

After lunch the crew backfilled the site while Richard, Tsedo, Bayaraa, Jagaa and I reconnoitered the graves on the north side of Biluut 2 and picked out several for excavation, hoping for different

periods. By the time we returned, the restoration was complete and we split into Mongolian and American teams. My group took the small grave we designated Biluut 2-4 West and the Mongolians the larger mound site above the giant horse figures, Biluut 2-1. We spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning and mapping ours, and found that the feature has an oval arrangement of flat slabs outlining a probable burial. The oval surrounds a circular feature, and the area inside the oval is filled with small cobbles/large pebbles, making for a nicely structured grave arrangement. All the while, we were blasted by a strong warm wind blowing from China through the Altai passes. We walked down to Bayaraas Fig. 14: B1-2 mound 3 iron knife from level 3

rocks


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site at 7 PM and found most of the juniper/cedar removed. This site has very large rocks piled into a high mound. This should be an excellent burial.

After another (good) soup supper I called Lynne and found her busy and well. Portia is having trouble with her ankles, and the doctors feel they cant do more operations on her now. Another warm quiet night.

Thursday June 16thA fine morning but with more clouds, and by noon a brisk wind came up from the SW with rainstorms over the mountains. Fortunately, none have hit us yet. The overcrowded van broke down again after leaving camp, so I went on foot and intercepted Dan who was mapping the site (B1-3) SE of the small lake. We walked on to Biluut 2-4 where we spent the morning working down through a series of slabs until we reached a layer of grey sand about 30cm below the surface. Just below that, we struck human bone which turned out to be a small skull. Here we took a break for lunch, visiting Bayaraas big chunky mound site on the way. He had finished cleaning and found a piece of Bronze Age (?) pottery. Back at camp we found a couple of hikers passing through on their trek around Lake Khoton: an Italian and a Spaniard. For some reason they were not very communicative.

We were delayed getting back to work by storms and rainfall boiling over the mountains, but they passed in an hour as now seems usuala sort of regular mid-afternoon event. We all returned to the big mound site (Bayaraa calls it Biluut 2-1) to help Dave photograph it in lieu of a torturous and time-consuming chore of mapping squares full of rocks. That done, we left Tyler and Will to help them clear the rocks while Andrew, Elissa and I continued the delicate task of uncovering the B2-4 burial in its tiny slab-lined crypt that Ken says sounds similar to Russian Andronovo burials. One problem with that idea might be the small lump of material found next to the knees of the buried body, flexed and lying on its left side, that seems to have a small piece of iron embedded in it. The excavation went slowly as the condition of the upper bones is quite poor, but is getting better with depth. Dave stayed with us and got lots of pictures of us digging. Andrew and Elissa are doing a great job with the excavation, working at very tight quarters.

Another brilliant sunset with prospects for a good day tomorrow. Luke has discovered his Swiss Army knife missingthe second article of his to go astray. More sightings of the deer on Biluut 1. As I go to bed, it sounds like another Canat supply van just arrived!

Friday June 17thThe day began well with a hot sun, but turned cloudy by mid-morning. We began removing the Biluut 2-4 skeleton feet-first and they came out pretty easily and relatively solid. We arrived at the site just as an old herder, a huge blocky man from the farm below who looked uncomfortably large on his small Mongolian horse, had left the site. He soon returned, and Jagaa had a conversation with him. By lunch we had removed all but the upper body, finding no artifacts or physical peculiarities.

Fig. 15: Elissa and Andrew at B2-4 with storms over Altai


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At B2-1 Bayaraa continued to uncover the big mound above the giant horse petroglyphs.

After lunch we returned, and by the time it started to rain we had all the bones out and marked. I found iron particles in the excavated dirt with a magnet, but they are also in the soil outside the burial, so perhaps its just natural hematite. Andrew and Elissa did a great job with the rest of the bones. Meanwhile, Bayaraa had got down to the burial area in his site with only one layer of rocks to go. By the end of the afternoon it was raining steadilymaybe this is Jagaas rainy season2 PM to evening?

Bayaraa and Jagaa tried to catch fish today, but no luck. The Canat jeep that arrived last night brought us work tables and chairs, plus new food stocks. A good party was had on the occasion, also celebrating the full moon!

Saturday June 18thYesterday, Bayaraa said the students were getting restive, since they generally get one day a week off; so Richard and I decided to call Saturday (today) a holiday. Most people decided they wanted to go to Aral Tolgoi, a prominent hill above the northwestern end of the lake which Esther Jacobson has surveyed and recently succeeded in having declared a world heritage site. The road was quite poor and snakes along the northern shore; we passed quite a few ger camps along the way, some in situations where one might find ancient stratified living sites. We decided to come back later and check them out. We had to cross the Tsagaan (white) River, full of glacier flour, across a rickety log bridge, and then a second river draining from

the SW, a clear-water stream. The bridge over that one was precariously narrow and had many loose poles in the roadway. One of our vans nearly slipped off into the stream. Close by Aral Tolgoi on its southern extreme is a military base; at a tiny store just to the north we detoured to buy some beer and sodas. We were surprised to find that the proprietors were the same folks who used to manage the store in Sirgal, but had in the past week or so moved up here. A gathering of elders was in process outside the store, and all their horses were tied up nearby. A small wolf pup cautiously but with curiosity scurried around in the fenced yard. At the southern base of Aral Tolgoi we lunched on sandwiches and drinks. The rocks here are in pretty poor condition; this hill contains relatively few large polished panels of the kind that are so abundant at Biluut. Most of the figures are badly deteriorated, but there remain a small number of fine images. In addition to those on the major locus at the top of the southern side of the hill, on the second knob west of a small log-built guardhouse overlooking the military base I found a few new images on an outcrop.

Fig. 17: Sum Center near Aral Tolgoi

Fig. 16: B2-4 skull in situ, view E


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There are quite a few stone structures on the hill, including a khirigsuur with an unmarked deer stone in the NW side of the mound, like the Biluut 1-1 khirigsuur we excavated. Perhaps most interesting is a series of 25 or so small stone mounds that run in a string aligned NNW-SSE across the crest of the central rock art locus. Some have been disturbed, but many appear intact. Probably they are not burials, but some kind of ritual observances (one thing weve noticed is very few ovoosBuddhist stone mound shrinesin this predominantly Kazakh region, probably due to the Islamic rather that Buddhist tradition). On the plain south of Aral Tolgoi are many Turkic structures and four deer stones, one very large, one of slate that the Army may have erected from its fallen state but not understanding the iconography, installed upside down. The present north side has a necklace or belt, a large dagger, ibex, a horse, and the body (without antlers) of a Mongolian deer. A good example of a Sayan-Altai stone. I wonder what the top (now buried in the ground) looks like. A smaller deer stone with circles is near, and a third lies flat on the ground. A fourth is found to the north near the base of Aral Tolgoi hill. GPS

Coordinates: N48 39.031, E88 19.709, 2097m. This stone has many deer stone motifs, but placed and executed in atypical fashion. There are no necklace pits, circles, or face slashes. The chevron on the present north (broad) side is rendered oddly, with a broad band at the top and five chevron stripes. Above this is a house-like image with an inverted heart-shaped figure in the center. A wavy bolt-like band encircles the stone above the house, and above that is an indecipherable blob with two leg-like extensions. The south side has two ibex. No face slashes, and the chevron would normally be on the west, not north, side of the stone.

We endured a bumpy ride back to our camp, but arrived after two hours to a fine dinner of braised lamb. Earlier in the day the drivers had gone off and returned with a sheep that was tied up alongside our kitchen bleating plaintively, probably from premonition of its fate. The kitchen team must have eaten the liver and other organs, since we have not seen these delicacies. I began to experience stomach cramps in the evening and retired early.

Sunday June 19th (Fathers Day)I felt spacey and un-energized all morningthe more so because we had to backfill B1-4 and clean our next site B1-3. This was done with Will, Andrew and Elissa, and not the Mongolian students who were busy digging the deep burial pit in Bayaraas site. Ours was pretty boring work and was only half-finished by lunchtime. Bayaraas pit is now over a meter deep and has at least another 50cm to reach a slab they found in a sondage below where they are right now. Someone wanted this burial to remain undisturbed!

Soon after lunch it began to rain. It continued all afternoon, wiping out any chance of more work. I slept until 6 PM and felt mostly recovered. At dinner we learned that one of the Mongolian students, Enkh, had been suffering fever and headache since the morningpossibly from being injured

Fig. 18: N side of 3rd deer stone at Aral Tolgoi with animal figure and chevron emblem

Broad pecked groove

Ground level

GPS N48 39.631 E88 19.709, 2097m

Chevron Figure


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during the wrestling contests a couple of days ago. Bayaraa and Tsedo accompanied him in Jagaas jeep to a small clinic in the high terraces north of Biluut where some medical people serve the local herders. Since it is Fathers Day, Dan treated anyone who wanted to call home to a free sat-phone call, courtesy of the SI ADP office. This was greatly appreciated.

Monday June 20thIt rained most of the night but cleared a bit in the morning, so both teams got to work, except the rock art folks who need dry rock surfaces for photography and, especially, for making transparencies (tracings on clear

plastic sheeting). The high site Biluut 2-3 was cleared of vegetation by 11 AM and Dave came up from Bayaraas dig to photograph the rocks, which we then tossed out unceremoniously. On the way to lunch we visited Bayaraas B2-1 burial which he had uncovered to the top of a splendid slab-lined grave box with a thick slate cover slab. The latter was broken in two and the western end had fallen inside the coffin box; the eastern slab is still intact. Outside the stone coffin to the north were sheep or goat offerings, and inside a human had been laid out head to the north with more food offerings. The grave pit was easily identified by the loose gravelly sand, and many large rocks had been put into the grave over the west end of the coffin. A Mongolian guide with a German tourist couple showed up as we ended the mornings work. Thunderstorms brewed again after lunch. Happily, Enkh is better today after his massage treatment at the clinic last night.

The Bridge Abutment Site: GPS 41 N48 44.259, E88 08.756, elev. 2097m. At first we thought this was a Pazyryk site alongside the Khuiten Gol, a hundred meters upstream from the lower ford crossing, but later found out it was merely an old bridge foundation. This embarrassing revelation served as the basis of innumerable jokes (mostly on Bayaraa, and on Jagaa, who had discovered the site) for the remainder of the season!

Downstream from the pingo peat bog, south of the fenced pasture in the mouth of Peat Valley, is a square khirigsuur with three hearth circles, each with 10 stones. A heavy stone boulder fence, with corner uprights, is located south of the mouth of the bog ravine. GPS 42 N48 39.096, E88 22.057, 2124m elev.

Another khirigsuur is located alongside the peat bog stream, below the bog and above the fenced pasture, with large mound stones and small cobbles: GPS 44 48 39.289, E88 21.585, elev: 2124m.

Large khirigsuur north of the peat bog, with no fence and six hearth rings with 10 or 12 rocks each: GPS 48 N48 39.714, E88 21.366.

After lunch it rained, but let up, and the crews set out for our two sites. I went off with the rock art team to Biluut 4 (a.k.a. Spring House Bluffs) to the east of Biluut 3 and Peat Valley, where Richard

Fig. 19: B2-3 zebra animal with hunter

Fig. 20: B2-3 child burial, view E


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had found a strange human figure with horns, no arms, two legs, and a large phallus. Richard calls the figure Pogo man. Its up near the summit of the hill behind a herders place, now vacated for the season. From that nice vantage point we spied several khirigsuurs on the valley between Biluut 3 and Biluut 4. I call this Peat Valley because the small stream there has created a huge peat field underlain with ice and full of cracks and pingo-like features that should produce some deep stratigraphic sections for peat sampling for pollen and dating. One of the mounds (not a khirigsuur, because it lacks a squared or circular fence and satellite mounds) near a small fenced paddock has a rectangular structure attached to its west side and a circle feature to the east of the mound. We should dig it. Another site we noticed is a possible Pazyryk mound eroding into the stream [see above], and a third, at the north end of Peat Valley is a large mound with six circular hearths, but no apparent fence.

We all arrived back at camp at the same time, wet from rain, and warmed up in the kitchen/dining ger. During the afternoon, at Biluut 2-1, Bayaraa had come down on a second, deeper slab grave cover, this one not smashed or opened, or so we hope. My team had cleared down to some flat cover slabs that we also hope have not been moved.

After dinner, Tsedo gave an excellent lecture on Mongolian rock art. Among revelations were the absence of mask images at Biluut, which are quite common in South Gobi and Inner Mongolia. (NOTE: Anati wrote about South Gobi Neolithic masks.) After that, Richard and I talked about why rock art seems to be so conservative in terms of style, at least until about 2,000 years ago, or later, and whether this results from tools, a difficult medium, religious tradition, or constant public view. I suggested he try the metal detector around large rock art complexes to hunt for broken or lost tools. Still rainy, damp and cold tonight.

Tuesday June 21stIt was bright and sunny for about an hour this morning, then black clouds rolled in from the west. We sat in the vans for an hour until it let up and then had three hours of digging, pedestaling the big slabs in the center of our mound. By lunch we were ready to photograph and remove them. Meanwhile, Bayaraa worked around the outsides of the burial box, finding some sheep or goat bones at the NE corner. The bones recovered yesterday were scattered around the outside and are probably dog. There is a large deer image (or horse?) with vertical stripes down its body, with a warrior on horseback, armed with a lance, and accompanied by dogs on the granite conglomerate outcrop above our site, Biluut 2-3. Kassim, our driver, is a very helpful and cheerful fellow, but today he almost caused our van to flip over going up the steeply inclined part of the road from camp when he took his eyes off the road for just a second to rescue his cassette tape collection which was falling off the dashboard. He got back on track just in time to avoid ramming into a boulder that would have thrown us over.

A nice rectangular stone slab box appeared in our site just under some large slabs. We were anticipating a fine undisturbed grave, but when we got into it later in the day we found it is a very shallow grave, which, except for the skull and Fig. 21: Strange horned figure B-4


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long bones, is poorly preserved. Well know more in the morning. Bayaraas dig progressed slowly. The students managed to wrestle the huge boulder out of the grave circle so it does not collapse the pit walls on the diggers below. What they found around the outside of the stone box was the bones of three sheep or goats, mostly disarticulated, suggesting a funeral feast. They still have to remove the lower stone slab to see what may lie beneath. All this material was lying uncovered in the stone coffin, just as it had been left, but without meat on the bones!

Yesterday five UNDP vehicles stopped at Bayaraas dig. Turns out they were park officials and checked Bayaraas papers. A-OK on that score. Apparently the United Nations provides Mongolia with some of its used vehicles. The purpose of their excursion was not clearperhaps just a summer junketbut its certain that plans are being made for tourist development here; and the rock art is a major attraction.

Tonight we returned to find an Italian tourist group camped on the other side of our peninsula. The crew is doing well and is mostly healthy nowonly the weather is not cooperating. Its less than a week now until Ken, Theresa and Tyler leave for home. Theresa has done some sketches in ink and watercolor of the B1-1 khirigsuur we dug, and of the toothless old gentleman from our last excavation (B2-1). Dan Cole has made considerable progress mapping the rock art and burial sites in the area, and amazingly, the vans have not been breaking down recently. They are great rain shelters at our digs.

Wednesday June 22ndMost of us had a miserable night. About 9:30 AM a black cloud bank moved in from the west, and in short time we were hunkered in out tents being pelted by lashing wind and torrential rain. Most of us felt certain our tents would carry away, but miraculously all held and only a few of the Mongol tents got wet inside. Dans tent skirts shook loose from two pegs and he had to venture out to fix them. The roar of the lashing rain on the fabric next to my head was so deafening I had to muffle it by ducking my head inside my bag. The storm lasted about two hours and was followed by a tamer one about 4 AM. Kudos to the manufacturer for a great waterproof fabric!

The morning arrived clear and cold, but dry, so we got lots of work done, finishing the excavation of a pre-adolescent from B2-3. His or her joints had not fused and baby teeth were just being replaced. The new molars show no wear at all. No artifacts present once again. Bayaraa found many more sheep bones outside the northeast corner of the stone coffin, totaling six mostly disarticulated. But some limbs and intact skulls were present us well. The Italian tour group that camped near us last night visited Bayaraas dig. They turned out to have two archaeologists and a paleontologist in the

party. Theyre touring many places in Mongolia and just came from Aral Tolgoi.

During the afternoon we back-filled Biluut 2-3 and Richard, Dan and I visited the sites that Richard and Jerry Nave (with RK in 2007) and now Dan had recorded, so we could all have our data coordinated. This turned out to be very useful as it will help us clean up the master database and map. Most of the team hung out with Bayaraa who had lifted the final cornerstone from his B2-1 grave and found a man lying on his left side, flexed

Fig. 22: Rainbow on camp site.


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loosely, facing east, but with his body aligned to north, the orientation of the coffin. No dirt had entered this space, and so all his bones were in full view. Only his hand and pelvis had been badly crushed when the covering slab had broken and fallen inside the box. Some remains of fabric were found around his spine which should give us some good analyses and a date.

It was very cold all day, and windy, so the crew took a good beating. Only in the evening did a bit of warmth creep in with the sun. Ken gave a talk on Kazakhstan rock art after dinner. The Mongolian deer there lack bird heads mostly, and the Saka period rock art shows few Scythian-style figures. Jagaa noted that many Kazakh place names are Mongolian; but that does not greatly please Kazakhs today. There also was an 18th-century Mongolian invasion by the Djungarianswestern Mongols from Inner Mongoliabut they were eventually defeated with the help of the Chinese.

Thursday June 23rdOnce again for an hour around breakfast we had a bright clear sky, but by 8 AM gray clouds descended and it poured here and showered in the mountains until 1 PM. We worked on notes in the office ger while most of the crew slept or played cards. Another sheep had shown up tied to the cooks tent this a.m. and later was dispatched, without much attention this time. It did not even interrupt the card game taking place in the cooks tent. All the organ meat got presented to the Mongolian table at dinner; next time Ill make a pitch for including the rest of us in these delicacies.

After lunch the US team went off to try our luck at the unusual structure we found alongside a mound in Peat Valley between B3 and B4. Its rectangular and about 7x8 m in dimension, has walls three stones thick, a doorway, and four internal dividers making several stall-like enclosures. No artifacts yet and a small test deeper did not show any signs; but it is an intriguing architectural structure nonetheless.

We all finally got rained out about 6 PM and returned home to a great dinner of mashed potatoes, carrots, and lamb. Watermelon for desert! Vastly different from Amras cooking in Khovsgol! We had quite a sensation today when two deer appeared at the base of Biluut in plain sight; after some minutes they climbed over the ridge near the B1-1 khirigsuur and out of view. One was a large buck but without antlers this time of year. In the morning I gave Ken some slides for my part of our joint presentation at the Lincoln England Deer Conference. Called Lynne this evening. A-OK. Rainy and cool in VT also this summer.

After dinner we strategized a bit to see how we might find more artifacts. So far were doing well on burials and human remains, but a single potsherd is the only artifact recovered. We are thinking of a survey of the south shore of the lake and a concentration there next year: it gets more rain, more snow, lies longer in shadow, and has far richer pastures! Perhaps well find a frozen tomb.

Friday June 24thA nice morning, and it remained pleasant through lunch. Bayaraa went off searching for a new site to dig, and we returned to our Peat Valley palace with Dave and Tyler as reinforcements. Will and I worked all morning Fig. 23: Peat Valley Site Biluut 3-3 surface

cleared, view NW


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at the central hearth, which turned out to be full of bone and charcoal. All the bone was calcined; it seemed to be of small mammal, perhaps marmot, and maybe some birds. Probably more than a single fire as there was a lot of bone and the deposit was quite thick. Dave and James surveyed the area with the metal detector and found two lumps of sprue a few inches below the surface, one of iron and the other may be bronze. So maybe there is some casting or metal smelting going on in the vicinity. Andrew found a small Neolithic microcore on the surface of his square and a couple of flakes showed up nearby. Bayaraas team showed up at 11 AM and checked out our site and the valley. We had a series of

mishaps getting back across the river, stalling in the current in front of a bunch of amused herders. When the motor refused to start, we got the van out by propelling it by means of the engine crank.

We continued after lunch in unusually fine weather. We found a few more flint flakes and I finished the hearth and made a profile. Meanwhile, Bayaraa started working on the riverside Pazyryk mound. He had nearly completed cleaning the surface when some local herders came by asking what he was doing. Excavating a 2500-year-old Pazyryk burial, he told them. Well good luck, they said. The army built this as a bridge foundation! In mid-afternoon I got a holler from Richard up on top of Biluut 3800 feet above mewanting me to come up and see some exciting rock art and a curious hilltop stone structure hed found. The structure turned out to be a circular ring of rocks, mostly fallen, that probably had been a hunting lookout or blind as it had a commanding view of the valley all around.

Saturday June 25thThis was a fine day for weather and digging and we finally got in two full sessions with no interruptions. Dan came along to survey, but forgot his GPS and so borrowed mine. When he arrived back at the van for the ride home he discovered he had lost the walkie-talkie Dave loaned him, so he backtracked his routetwicewhile we were at lunch, to no avail. It had somehow slipped off his belt. We finished clearing the entire rectangular structure, photographed it, and excavated one of the four internal dividers which turned out to be a trough-like feature bounded by slabs of shale slanting in from both lateral sides. Several chert flakes were found in the features fill, giving some evidence to the idea that the whole structure may be Neolithic or Early Bronze Age [this was later confirmed

with a radiocarbon date of cal. BC 2130 to 1900 (cal. BP 4080 to 3850). Well do more tomorrow.

Lots of baths and clothes washing today, thanks to the warm weather. We had a group of small white-winged songbirds about the site most of the day. Richards team came by at the end of the day and were quite impressed with our structure. Jagaa thinks our hearth bones are either marmot or rabbit. I walked up to the point north of our camp peninsula but had to turn back when I discovered the wild horse herd was there. We had much discussion about the mean stallion that defends this

Fig. 25: B2-2, Pazyryk burial, view NW

Fig. 24: Biluut 3-1 Feature 4


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herd by charging anyone who approaches. Elissa, who is an accomplished rider, nearly got run down when she got too close, barely escaping by running full-tilt into camp. I did not want to have a similar encounter far from camp.

Sunday June 26thThis was a pretty nice day all around, with sunny weather until evening. Elissa, Andrew and I returned to the Peat Valley structure and spent most of the day cleaning up the excavation and testing another trough (Feature 5), but found nothing in it. During the morning, Dan and I surveyed the west Peat Valley terrace, recording ten structures, the most interesting being two rectangular tent rings overlooking the pond to the south, each with an oval grave-like feature in its north end. The large boulder pavements we saw seem like cultural features but I cant think what they would be for. Maybe theyre natural. On the way back, on the north side of the river we stopped at a small herders cabin in a hollow, now vacated until fall, and found two large square khirigsuurs nearby, one with four huge hearth rings.

We returned to the Peat Valley site in the afternoon and decided to excavate another test pit (#2) north of Feature 2 trough. Several flakes, fire-cracked rock and a core preparation flake appeared. Meanwhile, Bayaraas group made progress removing huge numbers of stones from their Pazyryk grave (B2-2).

At dinner Luke made a surprising appearance in his skimpy wrestling outfit as a goodbye stunt for tomorrows departing crew. This was a big hit. Rain in the evening, when Dan gave a talk on his GIS work at the SI and a short summary of the Biluut GIS data from previous years. Monday June 27thRain showers early, but they cleared off before returning again in the evening. We now (8:30 PM) have a beautiful full arcing double rainbow. The departees Theresa, Tyler, and Kenwere packed and ready and left soon after breakfast. Theresa had given us a stunning gallery show of the watercolors she painted over the last three weeks. They were gorgeous and included many landscapes, a scene of our camp, old Harry the toothless skull from Biluut 2-1, a horse skull, and our B1-1 khirigsuur. I made a photo record of most of them; some should be useful for our publications.

When I woke up I found a note of thanks from Tyler under my tent flap. It was a very appreciative note and very appreciated by me. Hes going back to do some teaching. All three made excellent contributions to the project. Ken for his knowledge of Central Asian archaeology and rock art; and Tyler for his entertaining stories and knowledge of just about everything. I called Canat this evening and found all arrived in Ulgii safely.

After the departure, Will and I returned to finish the PV TP2, backfill the site, and sample the peat bog. We found the bog has subsided more than three feet in recent years due to loss of Fig. 27: Theresa Markiw painting B2-4

individual

Fig. 26: B2-2 Pazyryk burial, photo by Dave Edwards


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underlying ice, leaving large caverns in the slumping peat where lenses of ice could be seen. We took five samples in one exposure, hoping for some useful result from its analysis, perhaps by an ETSU student. Richard was recording petroglyphs on the slopes of B3 above.

After a mutton soup (hated by Andrew) we returned to the Pazyryk site, finding a rectangular boulder-filled pit beneath its mound. This morning they found a whetstone in the upper part of the pit, which is an indication the site was looted. Andrew, Elissa, and I started clearing a small mound (Biluut 3-20; GPS N48 39.137 E88 21.642; elev. 2118m.) across the stream near the large rectangular structure Richard had us look at a couple years ago.

Now the evening crew is busy at cards. The rain stopped and the sun emerged long enough for a rainbow. It promises to be a quiet night. I finished my Peat Valley notes and Dan caught up with his survey notes. Richard found a birthing woman image on the northern end of the eastern escarpment of B3: a female with arms and legs spread, breasts to each side, and a baby(?) emerging from her vagina. It reminded me of the Kodiak Island birthing charm excavated by Dick Jordan and my son Ben years ago. According to Esther Jacboson-Tepfer, such figures as Richard found date from the Neolithic period. Richard and Tsedo consider this a major find.

Tuesday June 28thFair weather again this morning until 12:30 when a mass of dark clouds and rain drove us back to camp. We finished B3-20 mapping and threw out the center mound rocks. Will made a nice map while the rest of us took a walk up toward the canyon. Lots of small-scale irrigation ditching has been going on here in what looks like the best pasture around Biluut because of the way the stream can be spread out in the basin. Many old ger campsites are around this area. Afterwards I had a talk with Jagaa about camels. Each family may own one or two, and related or close families pool their camels into a herd and take turns using the herd for transport. Today this is needed less because of access to trucks, so camels are kept mostly for the value of their hair, meat, and hides (its a bit ignominious, but one of their most important uses of the hide is for the thin strips used as fastenings to attach ger lattice slats together!). Nevertheless, the camel population is dropping and many herders no longer own any.

The sun came out after lunch and we returned to our site. After removing the pavement rocks and clearing the loose rubble we found two small rectangular slab boxes side-by-side in the middle of the ring. Both had their long axes oriented N-S and were about 50cm long and 30cm wide, the eastern box having a single cover and the western, a series of small cover slabs. Both boxes were empty and had lots of mouse bedding inside; recently these have been veritable mouse houses. Nothing else was in them except plant fiber and a few seeds or nut shells. The boxes are too small for human infants, whose bones would have been preserved, so some other ritual or organic material may have been provided originally. Another mystery! Well dig deeper and see whether anything else shows up. At the Pazyryk site (B2-2) Bayaraa meanwhile had come down on logs from a burial chamber that seems to have been disturbed. Tomorrow, they should find grave remains. The Fig. 28: B2-3 (Pond Site) standing slab, view

N


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afternoon remained cool. Richards crew keeps finding more interesting rock art on B3 above the peat bog.

Wednesday June 29thOur spell of good weather continues. Last night Canat (Conti), one of our drivers, returned from Ulgii with suppliesmuch appreciated as the portions of mutton in our soup and noodles/peppers/potatoes, are getting smaller. We returned to B3-20 to clean up the excavation and excavate around and under the stone boxes, finding nothing. Dan and I surveyed the western lower slopes of B3 to the Khuiten Gol (Canyon River) recording about 30 sites, some of the most interesting in a pocket terrace SE of the gorge. There is a fall/spring herder place there under the shadow of Broken Rock Mountain, deserted for the summer like most of those log dwellings. While investigating that terrace a couple of young herder kids left their horses on the other side of the river, waded across, and came up to see what we were up to. The gorge is quite spectacular, cut deeply into rock on the west side and moraine on the east, with its sides filled with ancient larch trees and its broad bottom a vast field of water-tumbled boulders from small in size to huge. We returned to back-fill B3-20 and then were off to lunch.

In the afternoon we visited Bayaraas Pazyryk dig, and found them excavating a horses head that had been left undisturbed by looters who seemed to have displaced the tomb chamber logs. They had found an iron horse bit and small remains of a decayed, decorative wood carving from the harness. Elissa, Andrew, Dan and I then surveyed up the west bank of the river, recording about 20 sites/features including several good excavation prospects. On one of the high terraces we found a partially built modern stone barn structure with three of its four sides complete. It is being constructed almost entirely of stones taken from Turkic and khirigsuur features from this locale. In addition to several large standing stones in box enclosures, there were mounds and other features, all heavily damaged by modern cannibalization.

Since tomorrow has been declared a (project) holiday, the evening turned into a night of revelry with much singing and antics by the younger members while the rest of us tried to sleep. Earlier in the evening the shore was lined with our teams fishermen; but only Bayaraa caught any fishtwo small ones. He claimed that a big one got away with his only hook! If not already recorded here, weve been wondering about reforestation since there Fig. 30: B1-3 excavation with sheep and goats look-

ing on

Fig. 29: Excavation of B2-2 Pazyryk burial with storm com-ing in. Photo by Dave Edwards


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are no young trees along the shore or river banksonly in the gorge and high north hillsides. Are sheep eating the young sprouts? Soon there will be no trees in these lowland areas, as many of the present ones are over 100 years old. Perhaps this is a process that has been going on for hundreds, or thousands, of years, leading to the formation of this part of the steppe. The problem is not a lack of seeds, because these trees are producing huge numbers of cones. But we never see any seedlings under them.

Thursday June 30thA gorgeous morning, and a very slow camp awakening from the partying last night. Most of the team wanted to spend their day off taking showers, washing clothes, and sleeping or fishing. Dan and I made a six-hour hike west along the shore to check for sites, especially shore-side settlements. We made good progress, encountered a few herders who always were friendly and curious, and recorded some sites. We checked around the inlet and the outcrops of pure white clay near the east end but found no shore-side camps. All the dark soil showing was from eroding peat deposits. The local herders we met there were off on horseback with their fishing rods fitted with modern spinning gear. We found only six sites the whole day: a circular khirigsuur, a Pazyryk mound, and a few other features. The lack of a broad pasture along the shore probably kept the population down. There are a number of small ponds and bogs. We had to walk halfway back to camp before we were picked up by one of the vans; by that time my legs were pretty nearly shot, after having walked about 12-15 miles, a record for me for many years. But at least no damage was done to my arthritic right hip and Im fine today. Just as we were picked up, a series of thunderstorms set in. They kept up well into the night with amazing acoustics. The claps echoed back and forth from the southern mountain face and the Biluut hills. I tried calling Lynne but could not keep a connection, but I did manage to leave a birthday greeting for son Joshua on his message board in London.

Friday July 1stThis morning we were at the edge of storms to the west and clear weather to the east. The weather improved after we arrived at the Turkic site (B1-2) by the pond at the eastern base of B1. We decided to work here because the complex has a rectangular slab and cobble border, a large standing stone, and a looted burial. It should make for an interesting dig, especially if we can find some datable material and can link these features in a single complex. Bayaraa continued to excavate his horse skeleton and has uncovered a set of logs running lengthwise that might be the undisturbed top of a burial crypt.

Luke makes progress on his dobro and has been composing a ballad he calls Bayaraa. We barely got back to work when it started raining again, but still got three hours in and nearly completed excavating the walls of our rectangular structure. No artifacts, bones, or charcoal, but good architectural detail from the slab settings. Because we are located above the pond, we got serenaded by the swans and sheldrakes that drop in periodically.

Fig. 31: Local women selling wares at Aral Tolgoi Naadam


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Bayaraa gave a talk this evening on the Xiongnu excavations hes done with Byran Miller. I left a message for Lynne and spoke with Lauren, who says all is fine in the office. The weather in DC is cool. One of the cooks and her driver-husband have a daughter here in camp; her name is (in English translation) White Falcon. Shes six years old and quite delightful. The food continues to be spectacular. We even had fresh peaches today!

Saturday July 2ndOvercast all day with small showers off and on. We worked at the Overcast all day with small showers off and on. We worked at the T

Documents

Rock Art and Archaeology Field Report 2011 FINAL_webv4