On the treeless Mongolian steppe any vertical apparition catches the eye. It could be a Bactrian camel, a horse-post, or a distant ger, the traditional felt-covered dwelling of the nomad. Or it might just be a fabled deer stone. Singly, or in small arrangements, more than 1,600 of these monoliths stand like silent sentinels watching over the empty expanses. Many others, we reckon, lie fallen and buried. Up to 4.8m tall, these massive standing stones, mostly of granite, were cut, shaped, decorated, and erected during Mongolia’s Late Bronze Age, c.1300-700 BC. They are named for the exaggerated, strikingly stylised maral (Cervus elaphus sibiricus, the Siberian red deer), typically engraved across one or more sides of the rectangular plinths. Until recently, their makers and purposes remained mysteries.
Mongolian deer stones are located mainly between the Gobi Desert in the south and the forested taiga to the north. Outliers exist in southern Russia, eastern Kazakhstan, and Xinjiang, China. A trail of these prehistoric structures extends to the Black Sea and the plains of eastern Europe. First documented in 1892 by archaeologist V V Radlov, deer stones have captivated scores of Soviet/Russian researchers ever since. Some have seen them as ancestors or warriors, others as fertility figures or deities. Still others have interpreted them as shamans or devices for celestial flight. During the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s, intrepid archaeologist Vitali Volkov criss-crossed the region, recording some 300 deer stones. His 1981 monograph Deer Stones of Mongolia became the bible for all subsequent work.
Back in 2001, curiosity about possible connections with Old Bering Sea art brought the first author of this article, William Fitzhugh, to Mongolia. Hoping to benefit from new tools such as radiocarbon-dating, laser-scanning, settlement-pattern analysis, and a less artefact-driven excavation strategy, William partnered with Mongolia’s national museum for a new round of studies. Our international teams have included archaeologists, ethnologists, geographers, botanists, biological anthropologists, rock- art specialists, conservators, model-makers, and students. For more than a decade, we retraced Volkov’s footsteps across Mongolia. Happily, our discoveries helped rejuvenate deer-stone research. Among other things, we established the Bronze Age’s formative Deer Stone-Khirigsuur (DSK) Complex as the foundation for later horse-based empires and artistic traditions, such as those found in the renowned Pazyryk and Scythian cultures.
