Temeen Chuluu. Deer stone monuments and square graves. Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape.
THE REGIONS OF MONGOLIA
UVURKHANGAI AIMAG
Deer stone monuments and square graves of Temeen Chuluu.
Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape.
The Temeen Chuluu monument, which dates back to the Bronze Age, features over 40 ancient square tombs and five deer stone statues.
An intriguing detail on the stone of one square tomb is the depiction of 13 people standing hand in hand.
DEER STONES
Bugan Chuluu or Deer Stones are ancient stones carved with symbols found mostly in Mongolia and some Central Asian countries.
The term “Deer Stone” is derived from highly artistic illustrations of deer on stone. The deer stones are created from a long block of granite with four
flat sides, on which deer and other images are engraved. Deer stones have three ornamented anthropomorphic sections: a “face”, “main body”, and “lower body”
section. The face part contains human faces, symbol of sun and moon and earrings while stylized deer, elk – occasionally horses and Ibex – are engraved in the
main body. In the lower body part there are images of weapons, belt and horse riders. The main decoration, deer images are classically depicted in
superimposed extraordinary abstract style. However, in many cases deer images or other animals such as Horses, Ibex and Pig images are occasionally depicted in
rough appearance. The size of deer stones ranges between 1 – 4 meters in height and 20 – 40 cm in thickness and 30 – 80 cm in width. A combination of different
art making techniques is applied on the deer stone statues.
Researchers believe that these sophisticated statues, which require enormous effort and skill, we’re dedicated to leaders and great warriors of a tribe.
Therefore on the bodies of the deer stones there are engravings of various types of weapons such as daggers, grindstones, mattocks, bows with cases, spears,
shields and mirrors as well as belts with decorative patterns.
The deer stone statues have their origin during the middle of the Bronze Age in the Central Mongolia and then the early Iron Age they were spread throughout
Mongolia extending to some countries of Asia and Europe. The first research on the deer stone was conducted over 100 years ago. Thus far, about 1200 deer
stones have been discovered.
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