Archaeological research in the Khankh gol and Toin gol valleys of the Khuvsgul Aimag of Mongolia

In 1923, on the coast of Lake Khubsugul B.E. Petri conducted the first archaeological studies. Since 1999, the study of archaeological objects on the northern coast of the lake was continued by representatives of the Irkutsk Technical University. In 2006, they together with the archaeologists of the Ulan-Bator University began excavations of archaeological objects of the 1st millennium BC. - mid 2st ka AD in Khubsugul region. By 2024, 38 archaeological and 22 ethnographic objects were revealed in this part of Mongolia. Excavations were carried out on 9 of them. Most of them were on the coast of the lake. A significant part o f the Khanh Sum, located between the coastal part of the Khubsugul Lake and the state border of Russia 10-20 km wide, remained unexplored. In 2024, the archaeological detachment of the Irkutsk National Research Technical University conducted reconnaissance in the valleys of the Khanh gol and Toyin gol Rivers flowing from the north-eastern side into Khubsugul Lake. In the first valley 11 were identified, and in the second valley – 7 archaeological objects. They are mostly funeral complexes. New data significantly complemented the preliminary cultural and chronological scheme created for the sites of archeology of the northern part of the Khubsugul region. To date, four periods can be distinguished in it: sites of the Neolithic and the Bronze Age (end 7 - 1 ka BC); burial and memorial complexes of the Late Bronze - Early Iron centuries (end 2 - 1 ka BC); Burial of the end of the 1st thousand AD; burial grounds and ritual structures of the beginning - mid -2 thousand.

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