Locat­ed on the slopes of the Khangai Ridge in cen­tral Mon­go­lia, these deer stones were used for cer­e­mo­ni­al and funer­ary prac­tices. Dat­ing from about 1200 to 600 BCE, they stand up to four metres tall and are set direct­ly in the ground as sin­gle stand­ing stones or in groups, and are almost always locat­ed in com­plex­es that include large bur­ial mounds called khir­gisüürs and sac­ri­fi­cial altars. Cov­ered with high­ly styl­ized or rep­re­sen­ta­tion­al engrav­ings of stags, deer stones are the most impor­tant sur­viv­ing struc­tures belong­ing to the cul­ture of Eurasian Bronze Age nomads that evolved and then slow­ly dis­ap­peared between the 2nd and 1st mil­len­nia BCE.