Integrated Geophysical Investigations at the Khaya Khudag Ritual Complex in Eastern Part of Mongolia

Summary Mongolian territory is rich in history and man-made heritage. Hundreds of monuments to testify were left in the vast expanse from the Altai Mountains to steppe eastern Mongolia. In nowadays, non-destructive integrated geophysical prospecting methods have been increasingly used for the investigation of archaeological sites in Mongolian territory. This paper describes the results of integrated geophysical investigation based ground penetrating radar and magnetic surveys in the ritual complex of Khaya Khudag area in Khentii province. The correlation of these non-invasive methods acquires high resolution images of the subsurface to decrease the destruction, time and cost of archaeological excavations. The aim of this work was the recognition, location and mapping of buried ritual complex structures by integrated geophysical survey. The geophysical survey includes the utilization of magnetic and GPR. These techniques are described as fast data acquisition rate, high resolution, non-destructive and cost-effective methods. The present survey was performed through these steps, first a magnetic prospecting was carried out followed by GPR survey. When the GPR profiles were compared with the magnetic data along the same paths there were good coincidence between the positives and negatives in both cases.