WHAT THE BRICKS TELL US FROM A TEMPLE AT BURKHAN KHALDUN MOUNTAINS: CHRONOLOGICAL INSIGHTS FROM pIRIR LUMINESCENCE

Abstract

The Burkhan Khaldun Mountains (Mongolia) and its surrounding sacred landscape are associated with Genghis Khan’s birth and burial place as described in “The Secret History of the Mongols”. It was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site on 4 July 2015 under the title «Great Burkhan Khaldun Mountain and its surrounding sacred landscape.”

This study offered a great opportunity to apply the recently developed post-IR infrared luminescence (pIRIR) approach to feldspar using coarse and polymineral fine grain techniques and determine the manufacturing date of a brick sample associated with the ruins of the Buddhist temple at the Burkhan Khaldun Mountains. Furthermore, the mineralogical composition of different blue-grey colored bricks from various temple buildings such as the Buddhist temples in Karakorum, Dugan in Erdene Zuu and Avargyn Balgas were studied. The original place and date of manufacturing of the bricks was revealed using the pIRIR180 and pIRIR240 from coarse and fine grains from a heated feldspar sample and were 1280±40 AD and 1230±50 AD, correspondingly, which falls into the time period of extensive constructions in Karakorum.