Mongolia: Architecture and Archaeology

Catalog description

In this course we examine buildings, remains of buildings, sites, tombs, and the contents of all of them in Mongolia. We read primary sources about the architecture (in translation) and we read excavation reports and descriptions as means of understanding the implications of permanent construction on grasslands, steppe, and desert, and on terrain traversed by nomads and semi-nomads. In this course, Mongolia is the landmass that is today Inner and Outer Mongolia. The course has no prerequisites. However, most students will have had at least one course in the art or history of Mongolia or a region that borders it. Most students will be able to read at least one East Asian language or Russian. Students who can read languages other than English will be encouraged to do research using those languages.