Rare 800-year-old vases found in Mongolia

One of the vases frozen in glacial about 700-800 years ago (Montsame)

Ulaanbaatar: Three vases full of clotted cream and one vase with yellow butter that were frozen in glacial about 700-800 years ago have been found in Mongolia.

The rare finding was made by the ‘Umard Mongol’ joint research team of the National Museum of Mongolia, the University of Pittsburgh and the American Center for Mongolian Studies, Mongolia’s news agency Montsame reported.

The summer’s excavation discovery related to nobles of the Mongolian Empire is possibly a breakthrough for the international archeology scene.

During the team’s work on the protection of looted tombs from the Mongolian Empire and gathering of artifacts that they found in 2018 and 2019 at the site named Khorig in Ulaan-Uul soum of Khuvsgul aimag, they came across a large amount of artifacts that are highly significant and which included the vases with frozen clotted cream and yellow butter.

Highly significant artifacts relating to the history of the Mongolian Empire such as items made of gold, silver, iron, silk, bones, hide and cork as well as human and livestock bones have also been found.

Specifically, gold relics with depictions of a golden sun, silver moon and deity, earrings and a golden accessory of a belt were unveiled with the several hundred artifacts that included various items such as a leather sack filled with trinkets in silk wrappings, dragons and other mythical creatures with golden thread, a part of a leather boot, bow and arrowhead, arrow case, porcelain and clay vases, bone brush and equestrian equipment, the agency said.

The research team is led by the Head of the Research Center at the National Museum, Dr. J.Bayarsaikhan and Dr. Julia Clark. The cultural findings are expected to serve as proof of the triumphant history of the Mongolian Empire and have an important role in developing among the future generations of Mongolia patriotic views and respect for national heritage.