Figured It Out

An odd archaeological find in southern Russia mystified scientists and researchers for years, primarily because it lacks some of the usual artifacts other similar sites contain.

The building, on an island in Lake Tere-Khol, is called "Por-Bajin" and is about the size of Buckingham Palace. Other very old buildings have things like furniture, artwork or even trash that archaeologists can compare with other items to get an idea of which time frame in which the building sits. But Por-Bajin didn't have a lot of those things and the ones it did have weren't very distinctive. Its purpose as well as its date was a mystery. The Uighur people of the area did not have a historical record that could identify it.

Researchers elsewhere had found two very sharp spikes in the amount of carbon in the Earth's atmosphere, in the years 775 and 994. Trees absorb carbon, so the different rings the trees added as they aged showed when the trees in Por-Bajin's foundation had been cut down: two years after the 775 spike.

This then matched with a Uighur Khan or ruler of the time who had attempted to impose a new religion on his people -- which infuriated them enough that they revolted and killed him in 779. Archaeologists think that Por-Bajin was meant to be a temple of this religion and was abandoned when the Khan was killed.

It's a good thing Por Bajin was on the Russian side of Mongolia; the country to the south of that nation has been rather ugly to the Uighur people of late.