Research History – Orchon Valley

In Search of the Lost City

As Karakorum was briefly the center of the Mongolian Empire in the Middle Ages, it was mentioned in numerous medieval written sources, for example in Marco Polo’s travelogue. Even in the Middle Ages, the city was recorded on the maps of various cultures according to travelers’ reports. For example, the city first appeared on a European map in the Catalan Atlas of 1375. Karakorum is also mentioned on Chinese maps from the Ming and Qing dynasties. Nevertheless, the exact location of the city after its destruction was unknown except to some Mongolian scholars. Jesuit missionaries such as Matteo Ricci, Johann Adam Schall von Bell and Ferdinand Verbiest gained high positions at the court of the Ming and Manchu emperors and enjoyed the trust of the rulers. From the 17th century onwards, the Manchu Qing dynasty ruled China, Tibet, East Turkestan and Mongolia. This made it possible for missionaries to obtain information about these regions. In the 18th century, an atlas of the Qing Empire was published, which also included the Erdene Zuu Monastery and the ruins of Karabalgasun. In 1739, the Jesuit missionary and historian Antoine Gaubil published a history of the Mongol rulers from Genghis Khan to the end of the Yuan dynasty, based on his translation of Chinese sources. The exact location of the historical Karakorum has been the subject of repeated speculation. Gaubil already suspected the city to be in the region east of the Khangai Mountains.

The Ruins of Karakorum

In 1824, the French doctor, sinologist and librarian Jean-Pierre-Abel Rémusat attempted to localize Karakorum more precisely by studying Chinese written sources. He established a connection with the nearby Karabalgasun and correctly assumed that the city was already located on the Orkhon River. Just five years later, the work of the Russian monk Iakinf, whose real name was Nikita Jakovlevič Bičurin, was published. He also referred to Chinese chronicles and located Karakorum in the correct region. In a footnote, he indicated the location of the city on the eastern side of the Changaj Mountains between the Orkhon and Tamir rivers. Finally, in 1883, the Russian Mongolist Aleksej Matveevič Pozdneev identified Karakorum with the city ruins next to the Erdene zuu monastery. However, this was only a “discovery” from a European perspective. Mongolian scholars in the 19th century were aware of the connection between Erdene zuu and the Mongol rulers of the Middle Ages from their own historical works. Pozdneev took this information from the Mongolian chronicle “Erdeny-yin erike”, which was translated into Russian.

Monastery Foundations

The chronicle was written in 1841 by a high official of the Tusheet Chan Ajmag, Galdan Tuslagč. In the section on the founding of the Erdene zuu monastery, it says:

“In the year of the blue chicken, he [Abadai Khan] established a jandar at the ancient ruins called Tachai, north of the mountain Shanchat uul called Sharga azarga, where Ögedei Khan had previously resided in the year of the Fire Dog (1229) and which Togoontömör had later rebuilt, and founded the sanctuary known as Erdene zuu. He kept the relic of Shakyamuni donated by the Dalai Lama here, crowned it with a ruby and had the Gomin Nansu-goor perform the consecration. When the Dalai Lama himself announced that he was taking part in the ritual from afar, it rained barley grains as a sign. Since then, Erdene Zuu has been known as the sanctuary of Chalcha.”

Older chronicles such as the “Altan debter” also suggest a connection between Erdene Zuu and an ancestral sacrificial site in honour of the Genghisids. The Erdene Zuu monastery was therefore deliberately founded at this location in order to maintain the connection with Genghis Khan’s legacy. For a long time, Erdene Zuu was to remain the most important religious centre of outer Mongolia. Today it is the oldest surviving Buddhist monastery in Mongolia.

1889-1891 The First Archaeological Expedition

Inspired by Pozdneev’s publication, Russian researchers in particular set off for Mongolia to carry out their first scientific explorations. Nikolaj Jadrincev, Wilhelm Radloff and Dimitrij Klements initially concentrated on documenting the deserted city in maps, descriptions and photos, which were published in German and Russian in the “Atlas der Alterthümer der Mongolei” between 1891 and 1906. Fragments of the inscription from 1346, which were found in various places around the city and in the area of Erdene Zuu, are also mentioned here and were repeatedly examined by linguists in the following years. Over time, further fragments of the inscription were found and the text translated. In two languages – Mongolian and Chinese – the inscription tells of the founding of Karakorum by Genghis Khan, the construction of a temple under Möngke Khan and its later renovation. The inscription was also donated on this occasion.

The Mongolian-Soviet Expedition

The results and finds of these expeditions certainly provided the impetus for the first archaeological investigation in 1933 by Dimitrij Demjanovic Bukinic on behalf of the Scientific Research Committee, the forerunner of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences. In a total of 143 sondages, small search shafts and four larger excavation areas across the entire city site of Karakorum, the Russian archaeologist investigated the history of the city and identified two cultural layers. His early death due to the Stalinist terror in the Soviet Union prevented him from evaluating and deepening his research work, and his findings and reports have only remained a fragment.

1948/49
Where was the palace of Ögedei Khan located? Further large-scale excavations were carried out after the Second World War in 1948 and 1949 by Sergei Kiselev, who identified three areas in Karakorum for more detailed research as part of the expedition of the historical-ethnographic department of the Mongolian-Soviet expedition. The central crossroads, the area of the East Gate and the remains of a large building in the south-eastern corner of the city were examined. Bukinic had already wanted to clarify the question of the location of the palace at this point, but was more convinced that this building must have been a temple due to the numerous finds of Buddhist sculpture. Kiselev, on the other hand, identified this area as the palace area on the basis of written sources. It was to take more than fifty years before his mistake could be corrected.

1976 – 1989 Graves and Chance Finds

Since 1976, an expedition led by N. Ser-Odcav, D. Bayar, D. Tsevendorj and G. Menes has been researching further questions relating to the archaeology and history of Karakorum. The aim of this expedition was to further refine the knowledge about the exact appearance of Karakorum and also to examine burials in the wider surroundings of the city more closely. The discovery of a cemetery with at least 37 burials according to Muslim rites in the north-western corner of the city is certainly one of the most important discoveries and confirms the existing image of a cosmopolitan city with great religious diversity. Due to the increasingly intensive agricultural use of the neighbouring state farm and the expansion of the neighbouring Harhorin sum centre, various chance finds were made in the 1970s and 1980s, including, for example, a supposedly complete chain mail shirt. These chance finds also include two African ruler portraits made of stone. They were found during construction work in 1975 and are still among the most unusual finds today. Their exact origin is still unknown.

Since 1990 – New Paths and Opportunities

The democratic change in Mongolia in 1990 also opened up new opportunities for research into Karakorum. In 1995 and 1996, UNESCO and Japanese scientists supported a project to research and preserve Karakorum. The city complex was surveyed and the surface examined. The researchers found that the preservation of the ruins was endangered by various influences. The threats included agricultural use, encroaching buildings, robbery by treasure hunters and vehicle traffic. However, the greatest damage had been caused over the years by the archaeologists themselves: Many excavation cuts and soundings from the various expeditions had remained unfilled and the uncovered remains had been exposed to weathering and decay. Following these findings, the city ruins were surrounded by a fence for the first time in order to better protect and preserve them.

After these first collaborations with foreign colleagues, a cooperation agreement was signed between the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, the University of Bonn and the German Archaeological Institute in the fall of 1998. This marked the beginning of Mongolian-German cooperation in the Orkhon Valley and a new chapter in the exploration of Karakorum and its surroundings.