(Really) old news is good news!

Back in October 2013, two seminal agreements were signed between the National University of Mongolia, the Institute of Archaeology at the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, and an American university: one contract with Yale, one with the University of Chicago.  Below is my less-than-perfect translation of the original press release published on the website of the School of Social Sciences at the National University of Mongolia:


"On October 21st, 2013, the School of Social Sciences at the National University of Mongolia drafted and signed joint contracts to work collaboratively with the archaeological departments from Yale University and the University of Chicago, respectively.  The aforementioned contracts stipulate that universities from each of the two nations will collaborate with the Institute of Archaeology at the Mongolian Academy of Sciences to carry out separate projects of detailed survey, excavation, and research at two sites: Delgerkhan uul (Tuvshinshiree county, Sukhbaatar province) and Baruun Mukhdagiin Am (Mogod county, Bulgan province).

"In addition to composing a regional archaeological site database in the course of the aforementioned research and conducting scientific research, the agreement stipulates the archaeological, paleoanthropological (biological anthropological), paleozoological (zooarchaeological),  genetic, and isotopic analysis of materials yielded through excavation.  Likewise, the collaborative work of these universities and research institutions will have great significance in terms of overall scholarly enrichment, as seen in increasing the benefits that result from developing the practical skills of archaeology majors and training young scholars and students in modern methods of archaeological research.


"Dr. G. Erdenebayar (director of the School of Social Sciences at the National University of Mongolia), Dr. U. Erdenebat (chair of the Department of Archaeology & Anthropology), Dr. William Honeychurch (professor at Yale University), Emma Hite (doctoral candidate at The University of Chicago), Dr. Ch. Amartuvshin (professor and department head of the Institute of Archaeology at the Academy of Sciences) participated in the signing ceremony.  Yale University and the University of Chicago are amongst the top five universities in the world in terms of humanities and social sciences, especially in studies of Asian art and archaeology."

Certain sentences in my translation are pretty shaky, so I encourage you to check out the original article.  For that and pictures from the signing event, check out the National University of Mongolia page.