To commemorate the ACMS Mongolia Field School 2019, we organized a photo and video competition among our participants. After evaluating many great submissions taken on site or while conducting field research related to the three courses: Archaeology, Migration, and Renewable Energy, we have selected the winners and runners-up.
Photo Contest Winner: Ninj Erdene
Photo Contest Winning Photo: Ninj Erdene/ACMS Mongolia Field School Photo Competition 2019
Location:Eg guur site, Khatgal Khuvsgul aimag
Date: August 10, 2019
Background story: The man in the picture is a local visitor who lives in the area. He saw us camping there and stopped by to see what we were doing. He was curious about our project and we informed him about the differences between what archaeology does and what mining / looting does. Amaraa is showing him some lithics we collected from the surface grid. In the background, Baikal (in a hat) and Burte are cataloging the lithics and ceramic pieces. Baikal is measuring the chert lithics with a caliper while Burte is entering the data onto the tablet.
Photo Contest Runner-Up: Ming Jin
Photo Contest Runner-up Photo: Ming Jin/ACMS Mongolia Field School Photo Competition 2019
Location: Orkhon soum, Darkhan aimag
Date: August 12, 2019
Background story: This man, Batsuur, is the host of the household where we had our first migration interview. Their family had migrated from Uvs aimag in 1999. Although he almost said nothing during the interview, a lot of what he wanted to say were expressed in his face.
Video Contest Winner: Anudey Erdenebat
Description: "Our casual day at the site. The research we did at the Eg river bay, Khuvsgul was more a life lesson than research. I'm always happy that I became friends with these people. The happiness that shines from their face, I will never forget. PS: People can hear us even with their earplugs on."
Video Contest Runner-up: Dorjpagma Batsaikhan
Background story: We started our field school with taking the traing to Darkhan, where we visited the local government and interviewed a few families. Compared to UB, Darkhan has much less flow of migration; rather, we found out that there's more seasonal migration between Darkhan city and countryside areas. Heading forward, we arrived at Eg river research camp after an 8-hour road trip and spent three wonderful days with the breathtaking view from the cliff. We also visited two families to hear their migration story. Families welcomed us with milk tea, boortsog, urum (white butter) and even invited us to try milking goats. Moving ahead, we arrived in Khatgal town, where we stayed for the rest of the field school. We worked on our projects, rested a bit, talked with each other, swam, kayaked, rode a horse, had a boat trip and sang together beside the bonfire. On the way back to UB, we stopped for 6 hours because the bus was down. And we closed our trip having great view of the sunset, having a "picnic" outside the herder family's ger.
Even shorter description: "Sound of the train; baby goats; camels; rolling hills; days on the road; nights on the cliff; evil mosquitos; bonfire; swimming; late night talks; foggy morning; hedgehog; ger visit; mini naadam; moonlight reflecting on the lake; boat trip; riding a horse; kayaking; yaks; ger parties; way back home; goodbyes and hugs and lots of stories to tell."