Since 2018, students and teachers from the HTW Dresden have been involved in the Mongolian-German Expedition to Mongolia. Now, Dr Hendrik Rohland, visiting professor of archaeoinformatics, has supported the development of a virtual museum that presents the results of over 20 years of Mongolian-German archaeological research. The results of excursions by students from the HTW Dresden to Mongolia have also been incorporated into the museum.

The Mongolian Academy of Sciences, the National University of Ulaanbaatar and the German Archaeological Institute have been conducting scientific research on archaeology and history in Mongolia for more than 20 years. At the beginning of December, the ‘Virtual Museum of the Orkon Valley’, which documents the projects, was officially opened during a ceremony at the Genghis Khan Museum in the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar.

For more than 20 years, the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, the National University of Ulaanbaatar and the German Archaeological Institute have been conducting joint research on archaeology and history in Mongolia. The investigations focus on the two medieval city complexes of Karabalgasun from the 8th/9th century and the old Mongolian capital Karakorum from the 13th/14th century in the valley of the Orkhon River. Since 2018, the HTW Dresden has also been involved in the project, for example with the ‘ArchaeoCopter’ project (Prof. Block-Berlitz) and the use of georadar (Prof. Oczipka). As part of the Future.East project (2020-2023), there was an intensive exchange with the National University of Mongolia (NUM). This programme also included excursions by students from Dresden to Mongolia and from Mongolia to Dresden. The central topic was ‘archaeoinformatics’, i.e. the application of techniques and methods from computer science and geoinformation in archaeology.

In order to present the results of many years of research to the public independently of a visit to the site, a web portal was developed as the ‘Digital Museum of the Orkhon Valley’ to mark the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Federal Republic of Germany and Mongolia.

In this digital museum, a multimedia approach and a trilingual version (Mongolian/German/English) are used to create various access points to the history and archaeology of the region. In this way, the scientific findings that have been developed over many years are made publicly available in a generally understandable language and appealing design.

The conception and development was supported by the visiting professor for Archaeoinformatics (Dr Hendrik Rohland) at the HTW Dresden. Thus, the results of the work of HTW Dresden students on excursions to Mongolia were also incorporated into the development of the content.

In addition to communicating archaeological results, the virtual museum will in future provide a platform for presenting new projects and results related to the Orkhon Valley World Heritage Site, including, for example, future projects by students and researchers at the HTW Dresden.

The development was financed by the German Federal Foreign Office and the Mongolian Ministry of Culture, Sports, Tourism and Youth.