Tsagaan Turbat

Tsagaan Turbat's achievements include discovering an exceptional array of rock art featuring images of horses, cattle and snakes high in the Altai mountains, supporting the idea that this remote region was “a cradle of prehistoric art”. His doctoral dissertation delved into the funeral rituals of the common Xiongnu population and was followed by research into the Bronze and Early Iron Age of Western Mongolia. He played a pivotal role in co-authoring several books published in French while leading excavations of Xiongnu funeral monuments and settlements.

 

Director of the Archaeological Research Centre at the National University of Mongolia, he authored a landmark three-volume study of Eurasian deer stones - beautifully carved standing monuments dating from 3,200 years ago – and recently helped to secure UNESCO World Heritage status for several deer stone sites in Mongolia.