Fire rangers of Mongolian steppe: climate crisis spurs revival of ancient knowledge – photo essay

Fire has always be part of life on the grasslands, but has grown worse due to rising temperatures and severe droughts. In response, people have turned to their nomadic heritage to help tackle the blazes Sodnomjamts Damchaabadgar squats in a shallow, rocky depression, working quietly with his hands. Inches above the rim of the pit, the wind whips across the grasslands. But in the marginal shelter of the dig site the air remains calm – essential for delicate operations. Damchaabadgar, a research fellow at the Institute of Archaeology at the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, has erected a ger, a traditional nomad’s tent, nearby, which serves as his sleeping quarters and a field station. Two gers stand alone against the vast openness of the steppe in Eastern Mongolia. The ger – often called a yurt outside Mongolia – is a round dwelling designed to be assembled or disassembled in a matter of hours Sodnomtsamts Damchaabadgar excavates a pair of skulls from a bronze age burial site in Aduun Chuluun, Töv province “When we examine these gravesites, we see evidence of horse domestication dating back to the middle bronze age,” he says. “We now think that the ancient peoples of Mon