Human mummified remains from the Southern Gobi Desert. Preliminary report on the finds of ten executed individuals dating to the end of the great mongolian empire.

Abstract

In the spring of 2004 a joint team from the Mongolian Academy of Sciences and the Smithsonian Institution removed mummified human remains from a subterranean cave in the southern Mongolian Gobi Desert, just kilometers north of the Chinese border. The remains represent approximately ten individuals, adult and juvenile, and include stomach and bowel contents. Tentative analysis indicates that the individuals were killed through strangulation, garroting, and hanging. Radiometric dating on two samples suggests ages between 1300 AD and 1470 AD (2 sigma calibrated), contextualizing them into a period of volatile cultural change and crisis. Currently, the remains have been shipped to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, and a study by a multidisciplinary team of Mongolian and American medical, archaeological, and anthropological researchers is in progress.