Monumental Archaeology in the Mongolian Altai : : Intention, Memory, Myth / / Esther Jacobson-Tepfer.

• Superior document: Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 8 Uralic & Central Asian Studies ; 30
• VerfasserIn: Jacobson-Tepfer, Esther,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden ;, Boston : : Brill,, 2023.; ©2023
• Year of Publication: 2023
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 8 Uralic & Central Asian Studies ; 30.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (296 pages) :; illustrations.

The stone monuments of Mongolia’s Altai Mountains trace the web of ancient cultures across that remote land. This study breaks new ground by seeking their cultural significance from within their physical locations and viewsheds. It is the first study to join the mute stone monuments to the vivid petroglyphic rock art of that region. In that and in the examination of a monument’s individualizing details, I seek to recover the impulse of original intention, the way in which monument and location fix cultural memory, and the way in which memory finally gives way to the cultural development of myth.

Table of Contents

Preface -- List of illustrations -- Framing the discussion -- Stone mounds, simple and elaborated -- Massive standing stones -- Virtual dwellings and associated elements -- Eccentric features -- Khirgisuur -- Deer stones -- Closing the circle: altars and image stones of the Altai Türks -- Memory into myth -- Appendix: Pictorial reflections of social change -- Bibliography.