065: Dig Eastern Mongolia: explore the world of ancient nomadsGeneral Information
The Sanisera Archaeology Institute for International Field Schools, which has been running archaeology courses since 2008, takes part in 2027 as a partner institution in the Khairt Suurin project, a research collaboration between the National University of Mongolia, Yale University and Pennsylvania State University in eastern Mongolia. The project is directed by Dr. Jargalan Burentogtokh, associate professor of archaeology at the National University of Mongolia, who holds a PhD in Anthropology from Yale University, and his scientific team. Thanks to this partnership, Sanisera students join the project's survey and excavation teams.
Most of what we know about the pastoral nomads of the Mongolian steppe comes from their burials and ceremonial sites, the places that remain visible in the landscape. Their dwellings were built of perishable materials, and nomads cleaned their campsites before moving on, so archaeologists rarely find where they lived. Khairt, on the southern bank of the Kherlen River near the town of Khulunbuir (Dornod province), is one of the few settlement sites known from the Xiongnu period, about 2,000 years ago, when the first nomadic state took shape on the steppe.
Since 2024 the team has combined systematic pedestrian survey and geophysical survey of the site and its surroundings with the excavation of pit-houses, ceramic kilns and other features. Botanical and zooarchaeological analyses, other recently discovered campsites and the excavation of Xiongnu burials complete the picture. Students take part in every stage: survey, excavation of different kinds of features, flotation of botanical samples by the river and the daily work of the field laboratory.
