It did not take long for the Mongolian assistants to realise that something was terribly wrong. The jingling and rattling sounds coming from the bags on the heavily loaded camel exposed their terrifying cargo: a complete set of shaman equipment. Powerful artefacts imbued with spirits, […]
All posts tagged: mongolia
Bones, skin, and silver: Tantric ritual artefacts
Let’s not beat around the bush. If I say ‘Tantric’, I know what you’ll all think. Something about very gymnastic and prolonged sexy times. Perhaps involving the singer Sting and some incense. As if that is not interesting enough in itself, I am here to […]
The unstoppable horde: How the Mongolian recurve bow created the greatest empire ever
I am imagining it was something akin to the famous ‘Loot Train Attack’ from the latest season of Game of Thrones, where the Dothraki army annihilated the small Lannister force, protecting their wagons filled with gold… First the rumble of hooves like distant thunder. The […]
Can faces be artefacts? Werner Jacobsen’s Mongolian life masks
If you walk through the new special exhibition at Moesgaard Museum, ‘On the steppes of Genghis Khan – Mongolia’s nomads’, you will notice that the mannequins on which the beautiful shaman garbs or the women’s dresses are displayed, are not just any old mannequins. They […]
In a galaxy far, far away…: Khalkh Mongol or Queen Amidala?
I’ll be the first to admit that the Star Wars ‘prequel trilogy’ had issues (*cough* Jar Jar *cough*). But one thing, which certainly inspired me, when I saw the first one back in 1999, was the splendour, intricacy, and (perhaps uncomfortable) beauty of Queen Amidala’s […]
Getting ready for ‘On the steppes of Genghis Khan – Mongolia’s nomads’
Today is the day! Guests from near and far will, in a few hours, show up at Moesgaard Museum to attend the official opening of the new special exhibition ‘On the steppes of Genghis Khan – Mongolia’s nomads’ – tomorrow it is the turn of […]
Baby nomads: Mongolian child saddle
How do you transport your baby, when you are always on the move, and your mode of transport of a horse or a reindeer? Next week, the new big special exhibition ‘On the steppes of Genghis Khan – Mongolia’s nomads’ opens at Moesgaard Museum. The […]
Off with their heads, The Red Queen screamed!
Beheading has long been one of the most common ways of execution. In Europe in the Middle Ages, beheading was considered an honourable form of death. With the introduction of the guillotine during the French Revolution, beheading became the norm for commoners and nobility alike. […]
When museums get it wrong: Mongolian deel
Looking through the wide catalog of ethnographic museum artefacts, you find that Moesgaard Museum has a lot under the category “Kaftan”. “Kaftan” is an Arabic word for a long robe, often worn as a coat or overdress. Looking at the garment in the picture above, […]
ethnographica 