A scene of Mongolia, where ETSU associate professor Richard Kortum has spent the past few summers researching ancient petroglyphs.
(Contributed)
Unraveling history’s mysteries: ETSU associate professor studying petroglyphs in Mongolia
By Rex BarberPress Staff Writer
rbarber@johnsoncitypress.com
Way back among the ancient forests, clear lakes and frosty mountain peaks of the Mongolian wilderness, where few people have ever been, is where Richard Kortum spends summers working.
He is recording human history dating back at least 12,000 years in some cases as he and his team sketch petroglyphs carved into rocks polished eons ago by the slow passage of glaciers.
“This is remote,” Kortum said of the location. “This is what you call the back of beyond. The nearest village is five hours away.”
These rocks are in the western Bayan Olgii province of Mongolia, specifically at the Biluut petroglyph complex. Kortum, an associate professor of philosophy and humanities at East Tennessee State University, said petroglyphs are carved in rocks and usually represent some special meaning. He has found thousands in Biluut and was recently awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities in excess of $200,000 to investigate, map and document his finds.
And there have been many finds in the years Kortum has been traveling to Mongolia.
The petroglyphs are from a long period of human history, from the retreat of the glaciers at the end of the last ice age to relatively more recent times.
Some of the images Kortum is studying are estimated to be between 8,000 and 12,000 years old. Most of the images are from the Bronze Age, which would place them between 4,000 and 2,000 years old. Half of the images are Iron Age, which dates to around 1,000 B.C. to 300 B.C.
Turkic images at the site date to around 700 or 800 A.D.
“So, yeah, it’s very remote and it’s very inaccessible and it’s very little known, but it’s rich, just rich in treasures,” Kortum said. “I mean, there are tens of thousands of burial mounds, standing stones and so on in this place.”
No written records existed during this time range, so the only information researchers get comes from artifacts found in burial mounds and petroglyphs. The images meticulously carved into the rock depict hunters, shamans, eagle hunters, horses and even two-wheeled vehicles.
That makes the site extremely valuable in terms of understanding early human behavior and history in this part of the world.
Kortum found the complex by simply searching the area while visiting his wife, who was assigned to Mongolia as a diplomat for the state department, in 2002.
While Kortum visited her, he saw the countryside, too. He purposely went hunting for petroglyphs near the extreme northwest section of the country. One day, a guide took him to a large boulder covered in the ancient etchings. No one had ever formally documented the site, so Kortum began to do so.
He is one of only a few foreigners to enter the area. In fact, very few Mongolians enter the area where Kortum is conducting research, though they will herd there a few weeks in the summer when the area thaws.
But there are some places in the area only accessible by foot, and very carefully.
“No current people go back there,” Kortum said of one area he accessed on foot. “There’s no purpose. They can’t take their animals back there. They can’t herd. There’s nobody back there, and it’s pristine.
“It’s like standing in a place the day after creation. It’s very powerful. It’s amazing. It feels like you’re the first human eyes to see it and it’s extraordinary, beautiful, powerful.”
Besides the petroglyphs, Kortum also discovered what are called deer stones — very tall standing stones carved with highly stylized flying deer images. Previously, only one deer stone was known to be in the area where Kortum was exploring. He found 17.
But who built those stones and carved those petroglyphs? That is the purpose of Kortum’s research grant, which will send him and a team of researchers back to Mongolia for several months during summers for the next few years.
“So we’re trying to sort out who these people were, what kind of numbers, the chronologies and something about their societies — political, economic, social organization,” Kortum said.